Book Review | Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

It isn't often that one can read a series out of order, but that's what I did with Dan Brown's Robert Langdon books. Back in high school, my friend lent me her copy of The Da Vinci Code. I read it, and mostly liked it, but was never compelled to pick up Angels and Demons. Flash forward a few years, and my college roommate reads The Lost Symbol during its release. She loves it, I buy it and read it. I loved it, too, but still no Angels and Demons. It wasn't until I spotted a copy of the book at my beloved Strand Bookstore for a mere $0.48 that I got my own copy.

Now that I've explained my history with the Robert Langdon series, I may as well tell you the premise if for some reason you're unaware of it. Langdon is a symbolist and a professor at Harvard. In Angels and Demons, the first book in the series, he is called in to help investigate the murder of a scientist/priest found branded with the symbol of the Illuminati. It turns out the murderer stole a highly explosive material called antimatter that the scientist and his daughter Vittoria created, and intends to blow up Vatican City to eliminate the Catholic Church. What results is a thrilling adventure, in which Langdon and Vittoria rush through Rome to help save the Vatican before all is lost.

The summary I give to you is a simple one, but this book is anything but. It's over 600 pages, and is an intricately-woven adventure. Despite seeing the film adaptation when it was first released, I remembered very little of the story, and thus highly enjoyed discovering all of the mysteries that lie within the pages. I raced through this book quite quickly given its size, and gave it a full five star rating on Goodreads. Dan Brown has received criticism for his work, but I think he's an amazing writer. Angles and Demons is very well done, and I recommend it to anyone who loves thriller novels. This is my favorite in the Robert Langdon series thus far, and I look forward to reading the fourth book in the series, Inferno, in the future.

Purchase Angels and Demons on Amazon HERE and support my blog!

I use Amazon Affiliate links so you can find the books I mention easily. All opinions are my own. See my Disclosure Policy for more information.