Angels & Demons - Movie Tie-In: A Novel
by Dan Brown
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Book Reviews of Angels & Demons - Movie Tie-In: A Novel
Book Review: Fact and Fiction
Summary: 5 Stars
If you like your action to be fast paced and intellectual, like a more cerebral version of 24, then this book could be for you. If you also like to learn from your fiction, then this book is definitely for you. I know The Da Vinci Code was extremely popular, but this book is Dan Browns best work to date.
The suspense is plenty and it comes at you quick. When you think you've got a handle on what's going on, the author stumps you again. The kind of book that keeps you reading because you can't wait to find out what happens next. Learn about the Renaissance, the Catholic Church, the Enlightenment and the relationship between all three as well as a little about the latest in science.
Almost as educating as it is entertaining. By weaving in familiar names and places with an incredible story, Angels and Demons is a pleasure that you will gladly lose sleep for.
Book Review: Poorly researched and poorly written
Summary: 2 Stars
I never understood what all of the excitement was about "The Da Vinci Code" and this is just slightly better written, in my opinion. Da Vinci was essentially a really bad detective story with historical speculation cribbed directly from other sources inserted throughout.
"Angels & Demons" works slightly better as a thriller, but the dialogue is cheesy and I find it hard to believe that the female lead would fall in love with Robert Langdon so quickly and especially so quickly after the murder of her father.
Also, how poor does your research have to be if you don't know that cell phones done have dial-tone? This is mentioned at least a dozen times. Dan Brown didn't own a cell phone in 2000? I find that hard to believe. Just lazy writing. Could have been changed to checking for a signal and wouldn't have seemed like just poor and lazy research.
Book Review: Quick Review
Summary: 4 Stars
Stop if you've heard this before. An ancient secret organization is out to destroy the Vatican and bring down modern Christianity. It is up to Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, with help from a beautiful scientist, to put together pieces of the puzzle that will stop the bad guys. If it sounds familiar, it's because it is the same exact plot of "The DaVinci Code", also written by Dan Brown. This story is the prequel to "DaVinci" and introduced the world to Robert Langdon.
I've read this before and wanted to re-read it before the movie is released later this summer. Personally, I enjoyed this book more than DaVinci, primarily because I enjoyed the setting more. It's a quick and easy read that is perfect for reading during a flight or commuting on the bus or train.
Book Review: Watch the movie
Summary: 1 Stars
Wow hated the book. Loved the movie! To Dan Brown: have screen writers redo your next novel before it's released. They will improve what is incredible and implausible to credible and plausible.
A couple examples of the screenwriters improving your story line: In Angels & Demons the book, our do-everything hero, Robert Langdon, bails out of a high-flying helicopter without a chute and incredibly survives with a few scratches. The movie has the camerlengo going up alone.
And, incredibly in what is clearly a mega disaster unfolding, the book had only the Swiss Guards involved. The movie had swat teams, commandos and other authorities involved in clearly an emergency situation.
Finally, in the movie, Langdon was truly an academic, not Indiana Jones.
Book Review: Not my favorite thriller
Summary: 2 Stars
I don't mind authors applying artistic license to the facts--it is, after all, fiction. But I do mind sloppy storytelling. I think that's what this is. It seems that character development and great writing were ignored in favor of action/pace. It's obvious that Dan Brown is a decent storyteller, just not a fabulous one. He knows the elements of good thrillers: setting high stakes, pitting good-vs-evil (even when there is a graying or blurring of them), making the solution time-critical (the ticking time-bomb), a sympathetic protagonist. He just doesn't pull all of it off that well. And there's some ridiculous action toward the end that made me want to throw the book across the room. Is it trash? No, bit there are a lot better suspense/thriller novels out there.