Holding the book Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

In Review: Angels & Demons

I adore the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown. Ever since I read The Da Vinci Code, I’ve been making my way through the series. Although, I’ve been reading it in the most out-of-order you could ever imagine. And that’s the beauty of this series. It doesn’t matter where you begin. With the last, Origin, in the middle, The Lost Symbol, or with the very first, Angels and Demons.

Title: Angels and Demons Author: Dan Brown Series: Robert Langdon #1 Publication year: 2000 Length: 18 hours 28 minutes Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspence Pace: Fast Story focus: Plot

Robert Langdon, a world-renowned symbology professor, is called to travel to Switzerland to help with the murder of a physicist. A strange symbol had been burned into the skin of the victim. A symbol Robert identifies as being part of a secret organisation: the Illuminati. The discovery takes Robert to Rome and the Vatican to help stop the plan to destroy the Catholic Church and take innocent lives.

If Dan Brown is a good writer or not. If his books are good or not. One thing is for sure. Wherever Robert travels, the reader travels with him. Brown’s descriptions of places, buildings, and history make the reader travel. And Rome and the Vatican are two places I’m somewhat familiar with because of my architecture degree. I’ve studied some of the places the story refers to. I’ve studied those Renaissance artists so prevalent in the streets and buildings of Rome. And so, I felt I was right there next to Robert, racing against time.

Holding the book open with the pages showing a map to Rome and the Vatican.

Speaking of time, that is probably my biggest criticism of the story. Like all Robert Langdon books, this is a big book. Close to 500 pages. And the story spans 24 hours. It’s a constant race against the clock. Although how much information is being given, it slows the story down. And so, there’s a mix of fast-paced plot breaking at times for context, consequently taking away the trilling memento. The passing of time between chapters also isn’t constant. In some, no time passes at all. And in others, there’s a gap. At times, that made the story feel a bit weird, and it broke off the urgency to keep moving.

Other than that, there isn’t much else I didn’t enjoy about his story. Brown has a gift for mixing fiction with reality in a way you can’t distinguish both. Unless it’s a topic you are very knowledgeable about, there’s no way to separate what are theories and myths from facts. And it’s this mixture that makes the story real and incredibly engaging. It’s about the journey of exploring these secret organisations and creating an engaging narrative that sucks you in. Making you wish everything to be true because it would be a great story. It’s taking conspiracy theories and writing and adventure to uncover them. And what if 90% is fiction? There’s also no map behind the Declaration of Independence, and it’s a lot of fun to follow that story. Even if some details aren’t correct, feeding enough facts makes you believe in everything.

Also, Dan Brown follows a formula. Going from The Da Vinci Code to Origin, it’s very on the nose. And so, I was curious to see if the same formula was used in Angels and Demons. And in a way, it was. The Robert Langdon books have all the same premise: someone was murdered, there’s a strange symbol, Robert is called, he’s clueless about the crime and sometimes the victim, and the symbol takes him on a journey across a city to uncover something. This is a constant. Although in The Da Vinci Code and Origin, I also saw a formula for the final revelation, the real killer. And luckily, that was a little different. I could predict the one at fault in Origin, and when I read Angels and Demons, I expected to uncover the culprit the same way. But it didn’t work. And I’m glad it didn’t. It would be a bummer after reading only one book of the Robert Langdon series predicting the killer in all the other books after 100 pages. Still, he has a formula that works and continues to use it. And I’m fine with that.

Top down view of the book laying on a table.

Since Angels and Demons was the third book I read in the series, I was already aware of some background information about Robert. Although, since this is the first one published, Robert’s past is fully explained. His claustrophobia is one of his personality traits. That detail appears in every book (that I’ve read so far). Although in later books, it’s never fully explained where it comes from. And it makes sense since it was explained in the very first book of the series. I’ve always liked Robert, and I adore how he always knows everything, and reading Angels and Demons, allowed me to know him at a deeper level. It’s even somewhat explained why there aren’t any romantic relationships in the books despite Robert always having a beautiful woman sidekick.

I read this book on the first lockdown when COVID-19 was rapidly spreading in Italy. There was a constant income of news about the situation while, at the same time, I was reading about Italy. And… It was an experience. Reading really is an escape from the real world. And hearing about Italy in the news only made me want to be inside the book even more. To be back in this fictional Italy that was also in danger, but I knew everything would be fine. And so, this became my favourite book of the series. I don’t know how much of my enjoyment was influenced by the context, but I loved it. And I don’t care if the book has a repeated formula. If a lot of what is presented to be real is actually fictional. I read the Robert Langdon series because I always have a great time. I always know the type of story I’m getting into. And reading is all about having fun for me, even in darker times.