With Robert Langdon’s first adventure, Dan Brown delves deeper in the secrets of the brotherhood – Illuminati. On the tracks of Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons drags you into an adventure as perilous as it is exciting. Once things get going, you don’t mind the gory details or serial murders. Your mind tends to concentrate on unraveling the mystery. The narration is smooth, racy and doesn’t mince words. The plot reveals itself further with every page.
The predictable things like hero and heroine falling in love, hero surviving a fall from the skies and complete annihilation of the Vatican City being prevented by the expert minds can make the story-line stereotypical at times. But the depth of details and the scientific precision with which things fall in place is true Dan Brown style. This book endeavours to prove the point that religion and science can co-exist. But at the end of it, the thin line demarcating the two is re-instated. Science may indeed unravel the secret of genesis but miracles still remain elusive.
Like the Da Vinci Code, this book needs to be treated as serious fiction. Don’t look for facts stated here in real life and you will enjoy every bit of it. It has all the ingredients of a good thriller – murders, mystery, conspiracy, intelligence and yes, thrills too.
When Robert Langdon gets an unwelcome call, the ball gets rolling. He gets entwined in inexplicable series of events and his scholarly studies are called to aide to untangle a plot by the defunct Illuminati group. The age-old war of religion and science is brought to the fore-front when Illuminati’s involvement is confirmed and lessons from its secret history are revealed by Langdon. He is ably assisted in this task by the female lead Vittoria, a physicist of ace caliber.
Given the liberties of fiction, there are certain points that hover unanswered – how could Langdon and Vittoria remember and interpret ancient secret codes in a matter of minutes, was the camerlengo mentally sick to kill the Pope for a small misunderstanding or was he noble enough to take up the cause of Christianity on his shoulders? The part played by the camerlengo who resurrects the Illuminati to kill cardinals and threatens the Vatican City with an anti-matter blast is a bit too much to digest. His part as Janus, who masterminds the entire plot leaves no doubt that he is a genius. The antithesis here seems intentional.
This book makes a good read but is certainly not a classic like the Da Vinci Code. Although science and religion formed the basis of its plot, to me it was the past catching up with the present that made for more excitement.