Product Description

When a scientist is found brutally murdered, Harvard professor Robert Langdon is asked to identify the mysterious symbol seared onto the dead man's chest. Realising it must be the work of the Illuminati - an ancient secret brotherhood sworn against Catholicism - the race is on to prevent a tragedy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #434 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
It takes guts to write a novel that combines an ancient secret brotherhood, the Swiss Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, a papal conclave, mysterious ambigrams, a plot against the Vatican, a mad scientist in a wheelchair, particles of anti-matter, jets that can travel 15,000 miles per hour, crafty assassins, a beautiful Italian physicist and a Harvard professor of religious iconology. It takes talent to make that novel anything but ridiculous. Kudos to Dan Brown (Digital Fortress) for achieving the nearly impossible. Angels and Demons is a no-holds-barred, pull-out-all-the-stops, breathless tangle of a thriller--think Katherine Neville's The Eight (but cleverer) or Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (but more accessible).

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is shocked to find proof that the legendary secret society, the Illuminati--dedicated since the time of Galileo to promoting the interests of science and condemning the blind faith of Catholicism--is alive, well, and murderously active. Brilliant physicist Leonardo Vetra has been murdered, his eyes plucked out and the society's ancient symbol branded upon his chest. His final discovery, anti-matter, the most powerful and dangerous energy source known to man, has disappeared--only to be hidden somewhere beneath Vatican City on the eve of the election of a new pope. Langdon and Vittoria, Vetra's daughter and colleague, embark on a frantic hunt through the streets, churches and catacombs of Rome, following a 400-year-old trail to the lair of the Illuminati, to prevent the incineration of civilisation.

Brown seems as much juggler as author--there are lots and lots of balls in the air in this novel, yet Brown manages to hurl the reader headlong into an almost surreal suspension of disbelief. While the reader might wish for a little more sardonic humour from Langdon and a little less bombastic philosophising on the eternal conflict between religion and science, these are less fatal flaws than niggling annoyances--readers should have no trouble skimming past them and immersing themselves in a heck of a good read. "Brain candy" it may be, but it's tasty. --Kelly Flynn, Amazon.com

San Francisco Chronicle
‘A breathless, real-time adventure...Exciting, fast-paced, with an unusually high IQ’

Bookbrowse.com
'Part thriller, part mystery, and all action. A highly entertaining, page turning thriller'

Customer Reviews

Great Thriller
I decided to re-read A&D before going to see it at the cinema (I still think it is stronger than The Da Vinci Codewith more intrigue and suspense) I look forward to reading The Lost Symbol. Will be interesting to see how the 'parachute scene' is incorporated into the movie, which I am really looking forward to seeing. All in all this is an exciting thriller, mixing the mysteries of the Vatican and the world of Physics. Always interesting to read about the holes in the research but best just to switch off and enjoy as a good piece of fiction.From a Brit's perspective, If only Hollywood would have a go at Full Story Insideas well!

Dubious Demons
Since having grabbing my attention with the Da Vinci Code, I have become something of a fan of Mr Brown's books. However, reading Angels & Demons took away some of the 'magic' that had captivated me after reading the Da Vinci Code (DVC).

This book starts out alot slower than the DVC but once it gets going you're hooked as Robert Langdon races round Rome trying to find an (H)assassin before it's too late, the details and ambigrams in this book really did surprise me and I was once again sucked into the fantastic world of Dan Brown, his writing is truly refreshing (although his plots sometimes leave alot to be desired). While you could cast the niggling doubts you had about the plot in the DVC aside - due to the fact that it might just be possible - Angels & Demons pushes the reader too far in terms of what they can regard as plausible.

I'll try not to give too much away but falling 3 Miles into foaming water (no matter how much Dan wants you to believe that it's three times softer than standing water) especially when this water isn't an ocean (relatively shallow) you just really wonder whether Mr Brown wrote himself into a corner that he can only get out of by coming up with something incredibly dubious and highly unbelievable which totally spoils the book - unless you can read this part and then pretend it never happened :)

Despite my dislike at how the book arrives at its otherwise excellent conclusion (including a truly unexpected twist) I enjoyed Angels & Demons. Dan Brown really does research his books well and even if you don't subscribe to his views you still have to admire the detail he goes into in his book, the ambigrams alone are worth picking this book up for as i'd never seen one until i read Angels & Demons!

Recommended although it's a long way off the DVC.

Robert Langdon's first adventure as a symbologist-detective
I read "Angels & Demons" after reading Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," and I have to say that I do not think it matters what order you read the two books although there are clear indications this book was written first (Brown does several examples of blatant foreshadowing, including early on the idea that one square yard of drag will slow a falling body's rate of descent by twenty percent). The two books are similar in that Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon deciphers clues to try and solve one murder while trying to prevent others in a mystery that involves the secrets of the Catholic Church. In this book a physicist is murdered at CERN, the Swiss research facility, and branded will a symbol representing the Illuminati, the centuries old underground organization of scientists who have a vendetta against the Catholic Church. The ancient secret brotherhood has acquired a devastating new weapon of mass destruction and intends to bring down the Vatican (literally).

Which book is better? My initial reaction would be that I liked "The Da Vinci Code" a bit more because so many of the clues were written out. When Langdon has to look over paintings, statues and other visual clues I find myself wishing Brown had supplied photographs in his book so that I could play along looking for clues (he does provide most of the requisite images at his website, but I did not know this until after the fact and I suspect most readers will not want to stop and go online to call up the photographs). Not that I had much success in my endeavors, but I did know that Leonardo Da Vinci wrote in his journals backwards so that I was ahead of Langdon for a half a page at one point. "Angles & Demons" is played out on a larger and more public stage than "The Da Vinci Code," and when you get to the conclusion of this novel you might find it a bit much, but that is one of the reasons they call it fiction.

The biggest question in the debate over these books seems to be whether Brown is attacking the Catholic Church in his novels, which strikes me a bit odd after reading "Angels & Demons" since the Vatican is the target this time around. This novel is more about the long struggle between science and religion than anything else, and the position Brown takes seems to be that the two are ultimately compatible. I did my dissertation on the Scopes "Monkey" Trial of 1925 and in the spectacle of Clarence Darrow cross-examining William Jennings Bryan that is codified by the fictional "Inherit the Wind," history has forgotten that the original position of the Scopes defense was that there Genesis and evolution were compatible. Consequently, I have a lot of sympathy for Brown's position and I think a careful reading of the text offers as strong a critique of science as it does of religion. Certainly that ideal is represented by the man who is murdered to start off the story and whatever faults in the history and theology of the Catholic Church might be discussed, there are just too many men of devout faith in the narrative to support the idea Brown is out to get the Church.

Nor do I have any real concerns with the extent to which Brown is playing with historical "facts." The whole idea here is to create a sense that the pieces of the puzzle fit together. I do not think for a second that these novels are true; all I need is to believe that they are plausible, so telling me that some statue's finger is pointed in the wrong direction if you go to Rome and see it for yourself is not going to matter to me because I understand how far the rules of the game apply to the real world. Even so, I think that Brown's factual foundation is more substantial than we will usually find under such circumstances, which would end up being a plus rather than a minus. Besides, I like all of the flashbacks to Langdon's discussions with his students (more classroom scenes in the future, please).

Solving the puzzles is the key enjoyment of these novels and that part of the creative process makes up for Brown's tendency to overplay his red herrings and to hide his true villains in plain sight. Ultimately the game matters more than the characters or the plot. As soon as you know that there will be four more murders you realize that at least three of them have to happen because the game has to be played out to the end, so it is not until the frantic end game that your attention really perks up and it is at that point that Brown starts unloading a whole lot of really big surprises on his characters and his readers. In the final analysis the point here is neither history nor theology, but to tell an exciting adventure yarn where the hero gets by mainly on his intelligence rather than good looks and/or weaponry. This is a hero I can actually identify with for once and that is fine with me too.