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mollysea's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
mllejoyeuxnoel's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyed immensely - but then, I'm a major fan of Dante's [b:Inferno|15645|Inferno (The Divine Comedy #1)|Dante Alighieri|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333579470s/15645.jpg|2377563]. *shrug
chrystalo's review against another edition
3.0
Inferno was an interesting concept from the get-go, but the book itself was lacking a certain ...oh, I don't know, oomph that we come to expect from a Robert Langdon thriller. I'm not sure if Dan Brown is going through a mid-life crisis and decided to portray that through the pervading hopelessness that seems to crowd the pages of this novel, but there was a lack of the excitement and true positivity that we come to expect from him. Nevertheless, this was an entertaining read, and the concepts were very relevant to modern times. It definitely gives the reader something to think about, and determine what we as observers should be doing on our own to prevent the situation that arises. I guess it just wasn't completely believable that Robert Langdon, of all people, would've been called in to deal with this situation, especially when the rest of the major players are only vaguely related to his area of expertise. I did like the references to Dante's Inferno, and it compels me to take a look at that in the future. If you have loved the previous Langdon installments, it's worth a read purely for completion's sake, but this should not be your introduction into Dan Brown's writing.
magikspells's review against another edition
3.0
Lets be honest. I wanted to like this book. I wanted to love it. I just came off [b:The Lost Symbol|6411961|The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3)|Dan Brown|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358274396s/6411961.jpg|6600281] which I adored. But I'm not sure I totally bought this story. My main problem was that I think Dan Brown tried to do something very different with this story. This is a risky move on the 4th book of a series, throwing us a curveball is very confusing.
This book starts off with our lovely Robert Langdon waking up from a coma with no memories after being shot. Essentially, the story takes place in reverse, with Robert being forced to retrace steps that he'd already taken the previous day in trying to solve a mystery relating to Dante's Divine Comedy. This backward retracing works with some stories, I'm not sure it works here. At times it felt very repetitive, even if I didn't see Robert go to the museum the first time or solve the puzzle the first time, it feels redundant knowing that he's essentially doing all this work twice.
All the while there is this group, the Consortium, who are a shady group who has been financing a scientist who is adamantly supportive of Malthusian population catastrophe, appears to be trying to hunt down Langdon. Still with me?
So far, we have The Divine Comedy, Malthusian Population catastrophe, privately contracted corporations with hitmen, the World Health Organization, and an anesthetized Robert. This book is not for the faint of heart, obviously.
But to complicate matters, then we start throwing in the fact that this scientist could have created a super virus to wipe out part of the population. I'm out of breath trying to remember everything.
Dan Brown tried to tackle too much in this book. There were too many things going on. And I really just disliked Sienna. This book was well written, it just wasn't what I wanted with Robert Langdon.
This book starts off with our lovely Robert Langdon waking up from a coma with no memories after being shot. Essentially, the story takes place in reverse, with Robert being forced to retrace steps that he'd already taken the previous day in trying to solve a mystery relating to Dante's Divine Comedy. This backward retracing works with some stories, I'm not sure it works here. At times it felt very repetitive, even if I didn't see Robert go to the museum the first time or solve the puzzle the first time, it feels redundant knowing that he's essentially doing all this work twice.
All the while there is this group, the Consortium, who are a shady group who has been financing a scientist who is adamantly supportive of Malthusian population catastrophe, appears to be trying to hunt down Langdon. Still with me?
So far, we have The Divine Comedy, Malthusian Population catastrophe, privately contracted corporations with hitmen, the World Health Organization, and an anesthetized Robert. This book is not for the faint of heart, obviously.
But to complicate matters, then we start throwing in the fact that this scientist could have created a super virus to wipe out part of the population. I'm out of breath trying to remember everything.
Dan Brown tried to tackle too much in this book. There were too many things going on. And I really just disliked Sienna. This book was well written, it just wasn't what I wanted with Robert Langdon.
laurenpat's review against another edition
4.75
I love Florence, so this was perfect! The movie was very disappointing and changed the ENTIRE ending! The book made so much more sense. You won’t be disappointed. Love an ambiguous villain.
protoman21's review against another edition
4.0
Langdon isn't at his best, but Brown still impresses.
julie_s's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
agentnk_'s review against another edition
4.0
This story started of very very slow for me. The build up felt overly lengthy, which is not something I normally say about Dan Brown novels but I enjoyed being back in Robert Langdon's world one more time.