Hey there! I’ve come back with another book review for you to eat wholly and digest slowly 🙂
Thrilling and entrancing, Angels & Demons has it all, from suspense, plot twists to well-rounded characters. The story will captivate you from the first chapters. Reading it became sort of like a drug. I had to keep going to find out what was going to happen next.
I loved how the author has drawn his inspiration from real life Rome. It’s clear to me he had been there as a tourist prior to writing the book. There were vivid sensory details describing various places in Rome.
I also loved the mixture of science and religion, a never-ending clash of ideology and scientific progress. This clash spurred heated arguments. It was like two worlds on a collision course. Add in a lot of mystery and you get the making of a bestseller apparently.
I really liked the main character, Robert Langdon, portrayed in the movie by Tom Hanks. I admit I saw the movie before reading the book, which I’m glad I did. I’m saying that because, in this case, as in many others, the book was way better than the movie. There were things in the book that didn’t appear in the movie. What appauled me was the fact that they didn’t feature Max Kohler in the movie, the Hassassin died in a different way in the book, there was more romance between Robert and Vittoria in the book, Olliveti from the Swiss Guard died differently and in another place than in the movie, the media crew wasn’t featured in the movie, and so on.
Moreover, the name of the book, “Angels & Demons” has a lot of figurative means. It covered the way some people are like angels, while others are demons incarnate. And you can see this depicted in Robert Langdon versus the Hassassin, for example. Although, some could argue that religion and science are like angels and demons, depending on what side are you on.
All in all, I’d give this book an 8/10 on my scale. I wished it had more depth in writing in some parts, like more sensory details or character flashbacks. But this is just my opinion.
The best things about the book, without taking into account the specificities of the mystery & thriller genre, were the world building around the Illuminati, Rome’s great architecture, the clash between science and religion, and the inner workings of the Papacy.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the mystery & thriller genre, and to authors on how to document a book well.
Since you’ve reached the end of the book review, maybe I can entice you to check out another one. Have a look here if you will.
All the best,
Cristian