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: #918 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

like the clock that struck 13 ...
An entertaining read, though the last quarter gets tiresomely silly.

I would have admired Mr Brown's much-vaunted 'extensive research', and the ingenuity with which he constructs his plot around the topography of Rome (of which I am ignorant), except that in the one area in which I do know a little, he makes such astonishing errors that I cannot take seriously anything else he holds out as fact. Two examples:

1. Yoga, he says, is 'a Buddhist art'. No, it isn't. Its Hindu roots go back hundreds of years before the Buddha lived.

2. More astonishingly, our revered professor of symbology is of the opinion that Chritianity 'borrowed' the concept of the Eucharist (partaking of the body and blood of God) from the Aztecs. Now you can possibly argue that the origins of the eucharist lie in ancient Egypt, or maybe even the Roman cult of Mithras, but the Aztecs? Not only did Aztec culture flourish two continents and a fairly large ocean away from Jerusalem - it only arose about 1100 years after Christianity, by which time the Church had been celebrating the Eucharist, with full transubstatiational theology, for at least 800 years.

If Mr Brown can include errors so basic that 10 minutes on Wikipedia would correct them, what other howlers underlie his book? Of course it's fiction, but not as anchored in the real world as the author would have us believe.

upon this rock i will build my church
Religion vs Science...Illuminati with a deadly killer out to destroy Vatican City. Robert Langdon in this first thriller with Vittoria race against time to find the 'bomb' - antimatter and to find the signs/path leading to finding the 4 missing cardinals.

The plot to this thriller focus the deeper meaning of creating scientific 'miracles' against the believer of religious gift from God. Who is to say there is a link between God and science. [Spolier] The camerlengo challenge this and review further secrets to his plot to destruct what was so dearly to him and God intentions.

I read this way after i saw the movie Da Vinci Code - I have to say i thought of Tom Hanks as the image of Robert Langdon in this part of the thriller. I also prefer this thriller more so that Da Vinci Code. Good read abit drag at the end, but still manage for a 4 Star.

lived up to my expectations
after reading The Da vinci code my mum said that i might enjoy this. she was very right. it is a great read the keeps you guessing until the very end. it makes all the the characters come alive. Dan Brown wrote in a way that i think help the book and the plot. he wrote in one part swapping between people, so you read about Robert for a while then he swaps and writes a small amount about the Hassain and Victoria. this leaves you wondering if Robert will get there in time, until finnaly he merges the two toghter as they meet.
this book makes many questions alot clearer and the speech made by the camerlengo was very riviting and uplifting and one of my favioute bits in the whole story.
this book is a must read.

p.s. sorry for any spelling mistakes.