Ambigrams to the rescue!
Last review for today - as promised, it's Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. Brown has made a huge splash over the last year with his phenomenally successful The Da Vinci Code, and while that one is still awaiting my attention, if it's up to the level of this one it's sure to be a good read. My mother reviewed Angels and Demons for The Mystery Reader when it was just going to press, and ever since she's been badgering me to read it. I would have gotten to it sooner but she kept lending it out to other people! She's not a big fan of this type of book but she loved it - knowing that I love this sort of thing, she's been pushing me to read it.
While the plot is much too dense to fully recount here, here's a brief synopsis: A scientist at CERN, a Swiss research facility, is murdered and one of his inventions is stolen. That invention? Antimatter, which has the destructive capability to level a large city. The head of CERN calls in Robert Langdon, an American symbology professor, to investigate the murder. Why? The inventor's body is branded with the ancient symbol for the Illuminati, an order dedicated to the destruction of the Catholic Church. Landgon joins forces with the murdered scientist's daughter and travels to Rome to retrieve the antimatter and save the Church from ruin. Oh, and did I mention that all the cardinals have convened for the conclave to elect the new Pope?
The book obviously requires a significant suspension of disbelief, but it's a testament to Brown's talent that he's able to keep you engaged even at the plot grows more and more outlandish. It's true escapist fodder - the literary equivalent of a smartly done summer movie. I don't care that it can't happen; I just care that I'm entertained. I devoured the book in about a day and found it to be the perfect summer brain candy. Not every book needs to be highbrow fare - who among us hasn't struggled through a "modern classic" for a college course and wondered how anyone ever managed to finish it, much less decide that it's deeply worthwhile? Give me a swashbuckling, wild-and-crazy thriller any day - at least I'm having fun.
While the plot is much too dense to fully recount here, here's a brief synopsis: A scientist at CERN, a Swiss research facility, is murdered and one of his inventions is stolen. That invention? Antimatter, which has the destructive capability to level a large city. The head of CERN calls in Robert Langdon, an American symbology professor, to investigate the murder. Why? The inventor's body is branded with the ancient symbol for the Illuminati, an order dedicated to the destruction of the Catholic Church. Landgon joins forces with the murdered scientist's daughter and travels to Rome to retrieve the antimatter and save the Church from ruin. Oh, and did I mention that all the cardinals have convened for the conclave to elect the new Pope?
The book obviously requires a significant suspension of disbelief, but it's a testament to Brown's talent that he's able to keep you engaged even at the plot grows more and more outlandish. It's true escapist fodder - the literary equivalent of a smartly done summer movie. I don't care that it can't happen; I just care that I'm entertained. I devoured the book in about a day and found it to be the perfect summer brain candy. Not every book needs to be highbrow fare - who among us hasn't struggled through a "modern classic" for a college course and wondered how anyone ever managed to finish it, much less decide that it's deeply worthwhile? Give me a swashbuckling, wild-and-crazy thriller any day - at least I'm having fun.
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