I was little skeptical to choose the novel to read, thanks to the Davinci propoganda - and my prima facia dislike to the idea. Then a friend took the decision for me and I permit him to do so. ’Angels & Demons’ is in my hand.
The introduction of the novel was super excellent and the curiosity build up was excellent. The elements discussed were current and novel. I thought what the hell, hell to heavens. Did I hold my reservations for such a good author? As story progressed, expectations took away some of the charm, but not my mistake, but they gave illuminati writings which is hard to avoid for my eyes. Half way I felt the novel is very good, fall short of excellence. The second half was just dragging. The only relief was the philosophical dialogue by Camerlengo which was just superb and will stand against what the book made to be stand for in the final chapters. The climax arrived with lot of ambiguity and I genuinely felt the novel should have stopped there with a positive ending but no, Dan Brown had other ideas. He had to tell all the haste he carried but without knowing that in the process it will take away the charm he created so far. If I read the first two quarters of the book within two days, the 3rd quarter took about 4 days, and the final quarter, nearly two weeks but no, not continuous reading, but the interest was gone and I completed the book for the sake of it which is a bad sign, I assume.
I review the book from two view points. First, it as a mystery detective novel. As told, it was excellent in the first quarter, very good in second quarter and good in third quarter. In the fourth quarter, where is the mystery and where is the detective? The final quarter just destroyed the build up for a logical conclusion. If you are a person who is looking for a logical reasoning for events etc., quit reading the book immediately after the danger is been averted. My rating 2.5 stars. (For the final quarter, it is all symbolic mockery and have no place for logic whatsoever and not connected to the detective side of the novel)
If I review the book in the other view point, i.e. anti church or say anti church believes, the author managed to dig some dirt here and there. Of course it is all present but being a partisan the message the institution holding and carrying forward was not touched for the readers to assess if there is an alternative church is needed or a renovation of the present one. Like criticising a beautiful lady for some ink in her dress, the novel spills some dirt which is openly available for anybody who read church history. Even at that, the author didn’t make factual supports nor made any bold statements. What he did was just mocking at some believes and resort to utilise it to generate controversy which ultimately will generate revenue at cash counters. Minus 2.5 on that count.
The book misguided many a scientists whose forgeries the author is not willing to see opening his eyes and through them it is continuing to misguiding the world. The complete episode of antimatter is a baseless building, in the format described in the book. I do not wonder the so called scientific community followed the illogical theories to test mode, spending too much time and misguiding the world with wrong information. When truth is not searched, lies served in abundance. Angels and Demons are one such venture, nothing more, nothing less.