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Wish I could give it six stars! My favourite Dan Brown's, easily!
A grudging 2.5 stars. It's been a very long time since I've read Brown, and I now realize that my adult self loathes Robert Langdon; he is stuffy, and pompous, and a total bore. (And I like eggheads.) By the end of this [overlong] novel, I was hoping the plague would get him. No more Dan Brown for me.
Overall I found this a better book than any previous Dan Brown book I've encountered. Mainly because I have the feeling that all of the historical and literary facts are indeed true. Even with my limited knowledge I was able to follow the clues and guess some of the results, which is what makes these kind of stories interesting for me.
The suspense of the story instead hangs on traditional techniques of misdirection hidden motives of the characters. And the ending was indeed satisfying and left nothing unexplained. If this was a first or second novel I would say "Bravo!"
A personal suggestion: Never, ever, allow yourself to read Digital Fortress which exhibits all the worse traits Brown has. The facts in that book were so distorted that one of his consulting experts felt compelled to publish a retraction explaining what he really said. And the plot twists are so hideous. SPOILER ALERT: One example of such a twist was when a linguistics expert and ancient language scholar was unable to recognize a common Latin saying written in, get this, Latin.
The suspense of the story instead hangs on traditional techniques of misdirection hidden motives of the characters. And the ending was indeed satisfying and left nothing unexplained. If this was a first or second novel I would say "Bravo!"
A personal suggestion: Never, ever, allow yourself to read Digital Fortress which exhibits all the worse traits Brown has. The facts in that book were so distorted that one of his consulting experts felt compelled to publish a retraction explaining what he really said. And the plot twists are so hideous. SPOILER ALERT: One example of such a twist was when a linguistics expert and ancient language scholar was unable to recognize a common Latin saying written in, get this, Latin.
Dan Brown is brilliant! Due to circumstances, I saw the movie first before reading the book accounting for my slow pace knowing what was going to happen eventually. BUT! Dan Brown skillfully wrote the book that there were still a lot of surprises in. So far it's been with Dan Brown's works that changes in book to movie doesn't bother me at all because it balances the thrill in watching the movie and reading the book without taking much away from the other. I enjoyed both equally.
A pet peeve of mine includes the whole Caduceus vs Rod of Asclepius thing. I'm glad it was touched on in this book. (Read it to know what I'm talking about hehe)
As always, Dan Brown's work is an intelligent read where one gets to appreciate history and art. Being on the field of health care, I highly appreciate the infusion of medicine and health into this book. It was a good and highly entertaining read.
A pet peeve of mine includes the whole Caduceus vs Rod of Asclepius thing. I'm glad it was touched on in this book. (Read it to know what I'm talking about hehe)
As always, Dan Brown's work is an intelligent read where one gets to appreciate history and art. Being on the field of health care, I highly appreciate the infusion of medicine and health into this book. It was a good and highly entertaining read.
I admit it, I really enjoy Dan Brown's books. Some people may get bored with his fairly detailed descriptions of buildings, artwork, etc. but I love them. This story moved fast and I appreciate the blend of history and action. That being said, it loses a star for a tendency toward redundancy and a bit of playing fast-and-lose with some facts. But overall a good read.
Solid Dan Brown art puzzle thriller. I liked all of the population density discussion and the science-y bent to this one. I'm excited to see the movie.
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
First Dan Brown book I've read. Perfectly enjoyable, escapist, intellectual thriller with a good moral. It reminded me of my sophomore European History class and the movie National Treasure except in Europe. Also I've never read a book that uses the adjective 'macabre' as frequently as this one. Recommend.