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I was disappointed in Dan Brown's latest work, the fourth installment in the series featuring Harvard academic Robert Langdon, a symbologist with a penchant for Mickey Mouse watches and late-night treasure hunts in ancient cities.
Langdon awakes in a hospital in Florence, Italy, with no recollection of how he got there and a row of stitches on the back of his head. Within minutes, a gun-wielding woman forces her way into his hospital room, which he escapes with a pretty, ponytailed doctor named Sienna Brooks. Thus begins Langdon's fourth quest to save mankind from evil villains, this time with an emphasis on Dante's "Divine Comedy."
While "Inferno" was pretty fast-paced, it wasn't as much of a thriller for me as the other Robert Langdon books. In fact, I found this book to be a bit bogged down with long-winded descriptions of various works of art, museums and Italian architectural sites, and I eventually started skimming over them. And I think it might be time for Brown to alter up his very predictable plot formula, which invariably involves a late-night phone call, a foreign city, a female sidekick and a very short time period in which to solve the mystery.
Though I found this to be the least-enthralling of all of Brown's books, it was actually the most thought-provoking. It deals with the issue of overpopulation, and the controversial opinions of brilliant minds on how to control it. You might be surprised at your reaction to the climax.
If you're a fan of Dan Brown, this book is worth a read. You'll learn something and it'll get you thinking. But if you're new to the author, I'd recommend starting with one of his better works -- "Digital Fortress," "Deception Point," or the ubiquitous "Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons."
I was disappointed in Dan Brown's latest work, the fourth installment in the series featuring Harvard academic Robert Langdon, a symbologist with a penchant for Mickey Mouse watches and late-night treasure hunts in ancient cities.
Langdon awakes in a hospital in Florence, Italy, with no recollection of how he got there and a row of stitches on the back of his head. Within minutes, a gun-wielding woman forces her way into his hospital room, which he escapes with a pretty, ponytailed doctor named Sienna Brooks. Thus begins Langdon's fourth quest to save mankind from evil villains, this time with an emphasis on Dante's "Divine Comedy."
While "Inferno" was pretty fast-paced, it wasn't as much of a thriller for me as the other Robert Langdon books. In fact, I found this book to be a bit bogged down with long-winded descriptions of various works of art, museums and Italian architectural sites, and I eventually started skimming over them. And I think it might be time for Brown to alter up his very predictable plot formula, which invariably involves a late-night phone call, a foreign city, a female sidekick and a very short time period in which to solve the mystery.
Though I found this to be the least-enthralling of all of Brown's books, it was actually the most thought-provoking. It deals with the issue of overpopulation, and the controversial opinions of brilliant minds on how to control it. You might be surprised at your reaction to the climax.
If you're a fan of Dan Brown, this book is worth a read. You'll learn something and it'll get you thinking. But if you're new to the author, I'd recommend starting with one of his better works -- "Digital Fortress," "Deception Point," or the ubiquitous "Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons."
