“It got me hooked,” said every reader, turning the last page of this book! This one has effortlessly made it to ‘my most favorites’ list in a long while. I am surely motivated to read the complete Dan Brown series till ‘Origin’ which was released earlier this year.
Angels and Demons are the first of Dan brown series. It was published in 2000 and to date is entitled to be a well-plotted, fast-paced mystery-thriller, packed with mentally stimulating highs and lows and hi-tech Drama. It is Dan brown’s bestseller of all time. With Dan Brown books, it doesn’t matter which part of the series you read first because they are strategically not connected to each other in anyways, except for a few historical ideas in this book which are connected to Da Vinci code, allowing you to pick and read any of Dan Brown books and get the taste of it. However, given the hype and appeal of the cover page especially the ambigramatic way of writing “Angels and Demons” on the hardcover book jacket and inside of the paperback version, which I apparently missed a lot on the e-book cover, and the first question this book had, I was intrigued to read this beauty first.
Being a doctor-to-be and a whole-hearted supporter of science and research myself this novel was surely my cup of tea. Right after opening the book and turning a few pages what grabbed my attention was the fact about Anti-matter and the question Dan Brown left for the reader to ponder upon. The question was “Will this highly volatile substance save the world, or will it be used to create most deadly weapon ever made?” referring to the Antimatter technology. This question makes one wonder has scientific progress in its literal sense, really, saved the world or had we unknowingly put it on a trajectory to its doom.
“Wheel” the first and greatest invention in human history no doubt is a primitive of our current scientific and technological success but had we not destroyed the environment, our natural habitats, the food chain and bring a tremendous increase in number of diseases which were previously non-significant by creating factories, industries, vehicles, fuels and fumes and nuclear energy so its basically an open ended question that has long been in the debate.
Furthermore, Not only this book gives you a thriller, power packed story but it also gives you another question, another debate on Science vs. Religion and can they both ever come at peace with each other?
Plot
The book opens with a murder of a Physicts Leonardo Vetra, working in European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN, who was both a patron of science and a religious man and believed science and religion are not separate. They are deeply connected, both teaching us same ideas of creation, having divergent paths converging to the same being. He tried to connect both of these paths with anti-matter technology as an intersection between the two and used it to prove the existence of God.
Astonishingly, after the murder Leonardo’s chest was branded with Illuminati ambigram (referring to a century old secret society) and his right eye was missing from the socket. The story then picks pace from here with director of CERN Maximillan Kohler figuring out about the murder and theft of canister filled with a substance called anti-matter with highly destructive powers, keeping it highly top-secret and inviting Robert Langdon, a protagonist in the story, to give him a task of finding out who the mysterious murderer could be? What were his motives? And why did he brand his chest? And does vetra have anything to do with the brand?
The constant protagonist in all Dan Brown books, Robert Langdon is a Harvard University Art Professor and a specialist of symbolism. A man with an optimistic approach to the situation, a problem solving mind and over the top knowledge of history, earlier patrons of Art like Micalangelo, Bernini etc. Accompanied by Leonardo’s Daughter, Ms. Victoria Vetra, a biophysict at CERN, brainy, strong and independent women, together, venture on a journey to find the truth.
What was electrifying was their journey in the Vatican City and how they unfold the mystery of theft of anti-matter canister, cardinals disappearing, Illuminati and their path of Illumination, the Assassin and the Catholic Church. They both have only 6 hours until the canister blows the entire Vatican City to ashes.
Positive Points
Reading this book felt like watching a movie. Dan Brown is a modern writer. His writing style is intriguing. His subtle wit and strong words capture you and you are spellbound in every scene. Each scene connects with other smoothly and flawlessly, leaving no space for you to get dragged. His words made me feel real emotions, the anger, the sadness, the curiosity, the anxiety, I went through all of it, one after the other. When Robert and victoria entered the chapel wondering if the murderer is still inside, I felt that. The adrenaline gush was real! And The suspense and thrill in the story kept me hooked till the very end which i believe is a quality of a good writer and only few writers are able to pull it off so well. Throughout the novel, I constantly kept questioning myself ‘what will happen next’?
Moreover, I honestly love the fact that by virtue of popularity of this book the historic art of ambigram has brought into public attention for more than a decade now. This means reviving, acknowledging and cherishing part of a history.
The roman art and architecture and the historically significant artist and scientist are also well celebrated in this book and I never knew each one of it had so much significance.
Negative Points
What I did not like was the fact that some ideas about both science and religion were wrongly portrayed; some historical facts were loose and missing too. When Dan Brown mentioned that Anti-matter can be produced in significant quantities and can be used as a limitless source of power the actual CERN research organization took action on this and published an entire FAQ on Angel and Demons where they mentioned that producing this much amount of anti-matter is impossible and it cannot be used as an energy source. This is only writer’s imagination. And the threat depicted in novel is false and misleading.
Secondly, the Devil’s advocate at time of conclave mentioned in the book was abolished 17 years before this novel was written by pope john paul himself in 1983 which is again misleading. Moreover, the history of Hassasins is also incorrectly portrayed. Hassasins are said to be hired murderers in this novel but according to multiple, authentic historical accounts they were not hired-murderers. Their ideology was far from being murderers. This word is a misnomer and a product of historic misunderstanding of some foreign travellers to Alamaut who derived the word Hashish for Nizari Ismailis which later became Hashishin or Assasin.
According to Farhad Daftary (A renowned an avid Historian) – An introduction to the Assassin Legends
‘The name, or more appropriately misnomer, Assassin, which was originally derived under obscure circumstances from variants of the word hashish, the Arabic name for a narcotic product, and which later became the common occidental term for designating the Nizari lsmailis, soon acquired a new meaning in European languages; it was adopted as a common noun meaning murderer. However, the doubly pejorative appellation of Assassins continued to be utilised as the name of the Nizari Ismailis in western languages; and this habit was reinforced by Silvestre de Sacy and other prominent orientalists of the nineteenth century who had begun to produce the first scientific studies about the Ismailis.’
According to Edward Burman, another historian
‘Many scholars have argued, and demonstrated convincingly, that the attribution of the epithet “hashish eaters” or “hashish takers” is a misnomer derived from enemies of the Isma’ilis and was never used by Muslim chroniclers or sources. It was therefore used in a pejorative sense of “enemies” or “disreputable people”. This sense of the term survived into modern times with the common Egyptian usage of the term Hashasheen in the 1930s to mean simply “noisy or riotous”. It is unlikely that the austere Hassan-i Sabbah indulged personally in drug taking … there is no mention of that drug hashish in connection with the Persian Assassins – especially in the library of Alamut (“the secret archives”).’
So the idea is again pretty misleading. This historic and scientific misinterpretation in the Dan Brown’s novel is a bit of disappointment and urges the reader to get their own scientific and historic research done prior to reading this and to not accept everything as it is written in the novel. Twisting the facts to create thrill is not what I had expected from Dan Brown’s novels.
Nevertheless, if you still haven’t read the book, I’d say you are missing a lot on the thrill and fun. So, grab the book, a chair and a cup of coffee too, may be? And Indulge!
Also, this is my first ever book review so if there is anything I have missed out on and anything you particularly don’t agree with or did not like, or there is any problem with the format please let me know in the comments section below! 🙂
Cheers!
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