TheChilly
12-20-2010, 02:39 PM
To be honest, I'm not too fond on Dan Brown. And no, I don't see myself picking up "The Da Vinci Code" any time soon, but I decided to borrow the prequel novel "Angels & Demons" from a friend who was raving about the craziness of its plot. It took me about a week to read, and was able to finish the novel last night... here are my thoughts:
First off, the book is a lightning-fast read. It's possible for the average reader to finish within three days. There is also an engaging plot to be found here, and I also liked how the Illuminati is interpreted as a shadowy organization, which I thought worked as an effective plot device. Going back to what I said about the book being a lightning-fast read, it reads like a movie: The reader feels like he is immersed into the world that Dan Brown creates in Vatican City, along with several interesting scenes, most notably the sequences with Gunther Glick, the BBC reporter character.
What I hated about the novel was the fact that the prose that Brown uses came off as completely overwritten, especially this passage: "Langdon still had the body of a swimmer, a toned six-foot physique that he vigilantly maintained with fifty laps a day in the university pool." Another thing that pissed me off about the piece (pardon my French) was that the character development was minimal and it seemed, in several places, like the author didn't spend enough time fleshing out the characters fully. There were many portions that took away from the immersion, most notably the scene where Langdon is falling out of the sky near the end.
Overall, I see no literary merit in "Angels & Demons". I only see it as a mere beach read at best. Now, I don't expect too much out of prose and story, but I felt that there were many areas in this piece which rather killed my immersion into "Angels & Demons" for me. Not worth buying. Only worth renting from your local bookstore.
First off, the book is a lightning-fast read. It's possible for the average reader to finish within three days. There is also an engaging plot to be found here, and I also liked how the Illuminati is interpreted as a shadowy organization, which I thought worked as an effective plot device. Going back to what I said about the book being a lightning-fast read, it reads like a movie: The reader feels like he is immersed into the world that Dan Brown creates in Vatican City, along with several interesting scenes, most notably the sequences with Gunther Glick, the BBC reporter character.
What I hated about the novel was the fact that the prose that Brown uses came off as completely overwritten, especially this passage: "Langdon still had the body of a swimmer, a toned six-foot physique that he vigilantly maintained with fifty laps a day in the university pool." Another thing that pissed me off about the piece (pardon my French) was that the character development was minimal and it seemed, in several places, like the author didn't spend enough time fleshing out the characters fully. There were many portions that took away from the immersion, most notably the scene where Langdon is falling out of the sky near the end.
Overall, I see no literary merit in "Angels & Demons". I only see it as a mere beach read at best. Now, I don't expect too much out of prose and story, but I felt that there were many areas in this piece which rather killed my immersion into "Angels & Demons" for me. Not worth buying. Only worth renting from your local bookstore.