Take a photo of a barcode or cover
I loved DaVinci Code, and it was very similar to that. I love the action-packed beginning till end. I like how I learned Florence or European arts along the way --- again, just like DaVinci Code! But again, its just like DaVinci Code, so...
Must be my favorite book of dan brown, i loved every single page
Fun read. I enjoy his books, and this one was better than Lost Symbol, perhaps because it followed his formula much like the first two books. The focus of the mystery in this one is Dante, a guy who's history revolves around Florence, instead of Rome. It was especially interesting since I just got back from Italy and totally knew the references he was citing. I feel this book provide infotainment. They do not provide a through history of their subjects, in this case Dante, but enough to be intrigued, and to bring up as an anecdote at a boring dinner party. Langdon is a symbologist, who somehow always needs to save the world from a horrible event. This time a horrible terror that is supposed to affect the entire world based on Dante's descent into Hell. Would recommend over Lost Symbol, but Angels and Demons still remains my favorite.
So I initially started reading this book back in August 2013. I read about 150 pages and then decided to suspend reading it for 1984 by George Orwell. Actually I got a bit too overwhelmed while reading it the first time round as I was actively trying to translate all the italian dialogues and also trace the footsteps of Langdon through Florence on GoogleMaps. It finally took the COVID-19 lockdown in May 2020 for me to pick it up back again and start reading from page 1. Still, inspite of the interesting story, it was a slow read for me, so I rate it 3.5 stars out of 5.
The following is not a proper review but just some random thoughts I fed into Goodreads updates as I completed each chapter:
- August 24, 2013 – page 13 - 2.81% "So Langdon finds himself hurt and with no memory of the past few days...Jason Bourne anyone? But hey, he remembers his name, profession and what he was doing on Saturday. Also he is not in Massachusetts...is he back in Italy?"
- August 24, 2013 – page 18 - 3.89% "A woman assassin dressed in black leather forcefully enters Langdon's hospital room and kills Dr. Marconi. Apparently she was also responsible for his bullet injury to the head, that is the cause of his retrograde amnesia. So is Dr. Sienna Brooks, the other doctor attending Langdon is going to be his female companion on this adventure? Or is the assassin going to kill her too?"
- August 25, 2013 – page 21 - 4.54% "The "provost" is the kingpin who lives aboard the luxury-boat-turned-military-grade-electronic-command-centre known as the Mendacium. He was the one who sent the assassin, Vayentha, to presumably kill Langdon...never know with Brown, may turn out that she was actually trying to kidnap him and save his life...he doesn't explicitly says she wants to kill him. The provost's client is the man who died in the prologue..."
- August 25, 2013 – page 24 - 5.18% "Langdon is indeed in Italy, Florence to be accurate...and the woman doctor does not die. Acting quickly, she manages to outrun the assassin and run away with Langdon in a taxi."
- August 25, 2013 – page 27 - 5.83% "As per the wishes of his dead client, the Provost's staff is to upload a video to the world media. The video shows an unidentified location with a plaque at the bottom illuminated water, carrying the inscription, \n "IN THIS PLACE, ON THIS DATE, THIS WORLD WAS CHANGED FOREVER." \n The name is that of the dead client, which we are still not told and the date is of tomorrow...the date when the video is to be released..."
- August 28, 2013 – page 37 - 7.99% "Sienna rescues Langdon and takes him to her apartment. While she goes over to her neighbor to borrow some clothes for Langdon, he snoops around. He discovers that Sienna was a child prodigy with an off-the-chart-IQ, virtuouso violin player, theatre star and also talented in science. Also Landgdon continues to have hallucinations about a silver-haired woman calling out to him for aid as bodies drown in front of him"
- August 28, 2013 – page 38 - 8.21% "And yeah...a link to the past books...Langdon's childhood Mickey Mouse wristwatch is missing."
- August 28, 2013 – page 40 - 8.64% "The 32-year blonde doctor, Sienna, is bald for some reason and wears a wig to hide her condition from her friends."
- August 28, 2013 – page 43 - 9.29% "On the provost's ship, the man responsible for uplaoding the video, ponders on its message. a beaked shadow, calling himself "Shade", leaves a dreary message to humanity, "...I am your salvation. I am the Shade.""
- August 28, 2013 – page 47 - 10.15% "Sienna tells Langdon that there is a secret pocket in his Harris Tweed jacket, but Langdon doesn't remember asking for one."
- August 28, 2013 – page 48 - 10.37% "The man aboard the provost's ship continues to watch the video...the beaked shadow further says:\n "To reach paradise, man must pass through Inferno.""
- August 28, 2013 – page 52 - 11.23% "Raiding the his secret coat pocket, they discover a six-inch long biotube with a "biohazard" warning symbol on it. They wonder if its a deadly virus. Moreover, the biotube is programmed to open only for Langdon's prints. He calls up the American Consulate for help and is relieved to find out that they know he is in Italy and waiting to hear from him."
- August 28, 2013 – page 55 - 11.88% "Langdon gives the address of the hotel opposite Sienna's apartment to the Counsel General's Chief Administrator. They are shocked that moments later, the same assassin who killed Dr. Sienna's colleague and mentor, turns up at the hotel. Sienns thinks his embassy is trying to kill Langdon."
- August 28, 2013 – page 63 - 13.61% "Langdon opens the biotube and finds a strange stamp with a Faraday pointer...a laser light powered by shaking it for a few seconds. When he projects it to a wall, he discovers that it is the image of Sandro Botticelli's "La Mappa dell'Inferno"...but with some modifications."
- August 28, 2013 – page 66 - 14.25% "They discover that on all ten ditches of the Malebolge (the tenth circle of hell with sinners buried upside down) a letter has been added...one of the legs has the same "R" on the legs that Langdon is seeing in his hallucinations. He spells out a word, "CARTOVACER"."
- August 28, 2013 – page 68 - 14.69% "There's also a plague mask added to the centre of the painting. A black van arrives outside the apartment building and men with military efficiency start to climb out. Sienna warns Langdon that they have been discovered. Meanwhile, Vayentha, who is waiting for Langdon outside calls home after seeing the new team and is cut-off after being told that she has been disavowed. Will she join Robert after this burn notice?"
- August 28, 2013 – page 72 - 15.55% "Once again Sienna saves Langdon by acting like a angry old woman in front of the tech team and taking him away on her bike. Langdon thinks the silver-haired woman from his hallucinations was sitting in the black van the killer army arrived in."
- September 1, 2013 – page 78 - 16.85% "The provost thinks back to how he met his client."
- September 1, 2013 – page 85 - 18.36% "Like in all Langdon mysteries, we get a Dante-101 through a flashback of Langdon's lecture."
- September 1, 2013 – page 88 - 19.01% "Agent Bruder, the man leading the provost's new team to hunt Langdon, finds out that Sienna is helping Langdon...apparently they know her. Vayentha fears for her life now that she has been disavowed."
- September 1, 2013 – page 93 - 20.09% "Langdon solves the CATROVACER code and knows they must now had to the old city of Florence to solve this mystery. But Agent Bruder has roped in the military police to set up roadblocks and apprehend Langdon."
- September 1, 2013 – page 97 - 20.95% "The two sneak into the Art Institute with some art students and with their help find a shortcut to the Boboli Gardens."
- September 1, 2013 – page 105 - 22.68% "The silver-haired woman is Elizabeth Sinskey, the Director of WHO. She recalls how years ago, when she was delivering a lecture in Manhattan, she had a meeting with a mysterious man from the mythical Council of Foreign Relations. He told her that the current world population is 7 billion, but the ideal population would be 4 billion...which can become possible through a massive epidemic."
- September 1, 2013 – page 110 - 23.76% "Robert deciphers that CATROVACER actually means Cerca trova (seek and ye shall find). The words are famously painted on Giorgio Vasari's mural, Battaglia di Marciano in the Hall of Five Hundred. That is where they are heading next. A drone camera is spying on them as Langdon realizes that when he came to the hospital, he was mumbling the artist's name, Vasari, and not "very sorry" as Sienna originally thought."
- September 1, 2013 – page 112 - 24.19% "Vayentha realizes that if she catches Langdon before Agent Bruder, she can retain her job."
- September 1, 2013 – page 117 - 25.27% "Langdon, realizing that he is innocent, is thinking about turning himself in. But Sienna tells him that when he first came to the hospital, he said, "I hold the key to finding it...if i fail, then all is death." Is she telling the truth??\n As they hurry to reach the old city, Agent Bruder sees the images from the drone camera. He knows they are inside the Boboli Gardens and orders it to be shut down."
- October 6, 2013 – page 117 - 25.27% "I think I left this somewhere near 160 pages...it was not that bad, I'll finish it after I have read 1984."
- April 29, 2020 – page 20 - 4.32% "Reading from the start after so many years, let's see if I can finally finish it this time round."
- May 7, 2020 – page 89 - 19.22% "The assassin after Langdon got her Burn Notice by the Consortium and is disavowed... mission impossible much? Normally I love such easter eggs..."
- May 15, 2020 – page 180 - 38.88% "Cool to read Robert geeking out
Spoiler
I thought Langdon's next book is a prequel, so I thought he was going to die in this one. But of course, it makes no sense to kill him.The following is not a proper review but just some random thoughts I fed into Goodreads updates as I completed each chapter:
- August 24, 2013 – page 13 - 2.81% "So Langdon finds himself hurt and with no memory of the past few days...Jason Bourne anyone? But hey, he remembers his name, profession and what he was doing on Saturday. Also he is not in Massachusetts...is he back in Italy?"
- August 24, 2013 – page 18 - 3.89% "A woman assassin dressed in black leather forcefully enters Langdon's hospital room and kills Dr. Marconi. Apparently she was also responsible for his bullet injury to the head, that is the cause of his retrograde amnesia. So is Dr. Sienna Brooks, the other doctor attending Langdon is going to be his female companion on this adventure? Or is the assassin going to kill her too?"
- August 25, 2013 – page 21 - 4.54% "The "provost" is the kingpin who lives aboard the luxury-boat-turned-military-grade-electronic-command-centre known as the Mendacium. He was the one who sent the assassin, Vayentha, to presumably kill Langdon...never know with Brown, may turn out that she was actually trying to kidnap him and save his life...he doesn't explicitly says she wants to kill him. The provost's client is the man who died in the prologue..."
- August 25, 2013 – page 24 - 5.18% "Langdon is indeed in Italy, Florence to be accurate...and the woman doctor does not die. Acting quickly, she manages to outrun the assassin and run away with Langdon in a taxi."
- August 25, 2013 – page 27 - 5.83% "As per the wishes of his dead client, the Provost's staff is to upload a video to the world media. The video shows an unidentified location with a plaque at the bottom illuminated water, carrying the inscription, \n "IN THIS PLACE, ON THIS DATE, THIS WORLD WAS CHANGED FOREVER." \n The name is that of the dead client, which we are still not told and the date is of tomorrow...the date when the video is to be released..."
- August 28, 2013 – page 37 - 7.99% "Sienna rescues Langdon and takes him to her apartment. While she goes over to her neighbor to borrow some clothes for Langdon, he snoops around. He discovers that Sienna was a child prodigy with an off-the-chart-IQ, virtuouso violin player, theatre star and also talented in science. Also Landgdon continues to have hallucinations about a silver-haired woman calling out to him for aid as bodies drown in front of him"
- August 28, 2013 – page 38 - 8.21% "And yeah...a link to the past books...Langdon's childhood Mickey Mouse wristwatch is missing."
- August 28, 2013 – page 40 - 8.64% "The 32-year blonde doctor, Sienna, is bald for some reason and wears a wig to hide her condition from her friends."
- August 28, 2013 – page 43 - 9.29% "On the provost's ship, the man responsible for uplaoding the video, ponders on its message. a beaked shadow, calling himself "Shade", leaves a dreary message to humanity, "...I am your salvation. I am the Shade.""
- August 28, 2013 – page 47 - 10.15% "Sienna tells Langdon that there is a secret pocket in his Harris Tweed jacket, but Langdon doesn't remember asking for one."
- August 28, 2013 – page 48 - 10.37% "The man aboard the provost's ship continues to watch the video...the beaked shadow further says:\n "To reach paradise, man must pass through Inferno.""
- August 28, 2013 – page 52 - 11.23% "Raiding the his secret coat pocket, they discover a six-inch long biotube with a "biohazard" warning symbol on it. They wonder if its a deadly virus. Moreover, the biotube is programmed to open only for Langdon's prints. He calls up the American Consulate for help and is relieved to find out that they know he is in Italy and waiting to hear from him."
- August 28, 2013 – page 55 - 11.88% "Langdon gives the address of the hotel opposite Sienna's apartment to the Counsel General's Chief Administrator. They are shocked that moments later, the same assassin who killed Dr. Sienna's colleague and mentor, turns up at the hotel. Sienns thinks his embassy is trying to kill Langdon."
- August 28, 2013 – page 63 - 13.61% "Langdon opens the biotube and finds a strange stamp with a Faraday pointer...a laser light powered by shaking it for a few seconds. When he projects it to a wall, he discovers that it is the image of Sandro Botticelli's "La Mappa dell'Inferno"...but with some modifications."
- August 28, 2013 – page 66 - 14.25% "They discover that on all ten ditches of the Malebolge (the tenth circle of hell with sinners buried upside down) a letter has been added...one of the legs has the same "R" on the legs that Langdon is seeing in his hallucinations. He spells out a word, "CARTOVACER"."
- August 28, 2013 – page 68 - 14.69% "There's also a plague mask added to the centre of the painting. A black van arrives outside the apartment building and men with military efficiency start to climb out. Sienna warns Langdon that they have been discovered. Meanwhile, Vayentha, who is waiting for Langdon outside calls home after seeing the new team and is cut-off after being told that she has been disavowed. Will she join Robert after this burn notice?"
- August 28, 2013 – page 72 - 15.55% "Once again Sienna saves Langdon by acting like a angry old woman in front of the tech team and taking him away on her bike. Langdon thinks the silver-haired woman from his hallucinations was sitting in the black van the killer army arrived in."
- September 1, 2013 – page 78 - 16.85% "The provost thinks back to how he met his client."
- September 1, 2013 – page 85 - 18.36% "Like in all Langdon mysteries, we get a Dante-101 through a flashback of Langdon's lecture."
- September 1, 2013 – page 88 - 19.01% "Agent Bruder, the man leading the provost's new team to hunt Langdon, finds out that Sienna is helping Langdon...apparently they know her. Vayentha fears for her life now that she has been disavowed."
- September 1, 2013 – page 93 - 20.09% "Langdon solves the CATROVACER code and knows they must now had to the old city of Florence to solve this mystery. But Agent Bruder has roped in the military police to set up roadblocks and apprehend Langdon."
- September 1, 2013 – page 97 - 20.95% "The two sneak into the Art Institute with some art students and with their help find a shortcut to the Boboli Gardens."
- September 1, 2013 – page 105 - 22.68% "The silver-haired woman is Elizabeth Sinskey, the Director of WHO. She recalls how years ago, when she was delivering a lecture in Manhattan, she had a meeting with a mysterious man from the mythical Council of Foreign Relations. He told her that the current world population is 7 billion, but the ideal population would be 4 billion...which can become possible through a massive epidemic."
- September 1, 2013 – page 110 - 23.76% "Robert deciphers that CATROVACER actually means Cerca trova (seek and ye shall find). The words are famously painted on Giorgio Vasari's mural, Battaglia di Marciano in the Hall of Five Hundred. That is where they are heading next. A drone camera is spying on them as Langdon realizes that when he came to the hospital, he was mumbling the artist's name, Vasari, and not "very sorry" as Sienna originally thought."
- September 1, 2013 – page 112 - 24.19% "Vayentha realizes that if she catches Langdon before Agent Bruder, she can retain her job."
- September 1, 2013 – page 117 - 25.27% "Langdon, realizing that he is innocent, is thinking about turning himself in. But Sienna tells him that when he first came to the hospital, he said, "I hold the key to finding it...if i fail, then all is death." Is she telling the truth??\n As they hurry to reach the old city, Agent Bruder sees the images from the drone camera. He knows they are inside the Boboli Gardens and orders it to be shut down."
- October 6, 2013 – page 117 - 25.27% "I think I left this somewhere near 160 pages...it was not that bad, I'll finish it after I have read 1984."
- April 29, 2020 – page 20 - 4.32% "Reading from the start after so many years, let's see if I can finally finish it this time round."
- May 7, 2020 – page 89 - 19.22% "The assassin after Langdon got her Burn Notice by the Consortium and is disavowed... mission impossible much? Normally I love such easter eggs..."
- May 15, 2020 – page 180 - 38.88% "Cool to read Robert geeking out
It’s been several years since we’ve been on an adventure with Robert Langdon and I was interested to see how Brown’s newest novel compared to his previous ones. I wasn’t disappointed. While Inferno doesn’t quite compare with Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code, I was excited that the story was set in Europe once again (something I missed with The Lost Symbol.)
As with his previous books, the writing here is not great and reads more like a movie script than a novel. However what he lacks in character development and eloquent description, he more than makes up for in his plots. Despite its nearly 500 page length, with its short chapters often ending in cliff hangers, this book was hard to put down. Fans of Brown’s work will not be disappointed with the rich history, moral questions, and fast-paced plotline full of surprises. This is certainly a fun summer read.
As with his previous books, the writing here is not great and reads more like a movie script than a novel. However what he lacks in character development and eloquent description, he more than makes up for in his plots. Despite its nearly 500 page length, with its short chapters often ending in cliff hangers, this book was hard to put down. Fans of Brown’s work will not be disappointed with the rich history, moral questions, and fast-paced plotline full of surprises. This is certainly a fun summer read.
Hah! Ridiculous and really poorly written, but enjoyable all the same :-)
I was skeptical about this one because I really didn't like Lost Symbol, but because I loved Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code, I decided to give it a try. Really glad I did. Like the first two, this book was unputdownable! Highly recommend.
I was pretty disappointed with this book. Thought it would be good, since I enjoyed the last two he released, but it let me down.
First off, it felt like the plot was just hammered together after researching a bunch of places with names he could slip into poems. And why were there even really the poem-clues in the first place? Why would Zorbist want to lay out a path to discover ground zero? Didn't make sense. It was obvious the virus would be released before they got there. He wouldn't have left the clues to let them there beforehand.
Secondly, sometimes Langdon was way too slow to catch things. And it started early on and continued the whole book. He was saying Vasari, not Ve...Sorry? Really? An art historian doesn't realize he was saying an artists name? He clearly wasn't saying "Very." And the bit with the blind bones and the horses? Oh yeah, she's the patron saint of the blind, who'e bones are buried in that temple, but I think that may be a coincidence. Oh yeah, the famous horse sculptures are also in that building, but most likely a coincidence. Eureeka! That's the building I'm actually looking for. (Or at least enough to point him in the right direction of the man who's tomb he was looking for). How did everyone miss the dates on the playbill at the end? How did he not immediately realize Sienna was a bit of an actress and was putting one on him too? It was pretty clear that she was the code-name the provost was talking with, too. They focused on her virginity, and then told Zobrist she'd never known any man before. This was supposed to make you think it was the male doctor, but it seemed obvious.
The story was very predictable. A genetic wizard created something to affect the human genome? No kidding. The pretty, young, misunderstood woman was somehow involved? Big surprise. I wasn't even surprised by the sterility aspect because Sinskey talked about her own sterility. It took every twist and turn of his other books, but just seemed like it was filling the mold. Like Dan Brown thought 'okay, I need a twist here... okay, that works. Moving on.' Who didn't see it coming that he stole the mask himself?
There were aspects that were just inaccurate. Langdon outruns Bruder in the cistern. A college professor- okay, he's in shape - left a military trained rapid assault/tactics soldier winded? Then he couldn't catch Sienna when she was only a few yards ahead of him? It just added to the transparency of the story...
First off, it felt like the plot was just hammered together after researching a bunch of places with names he could slip into poems. And why were there even really the poem-clues in the first place? Why would Zorbist want to lay out a path to discover ground zero? Didn't make sense. It was obvious the virus would be released before they got there. He wouldn't have left the clues to let them there beforehand.
Secondly, sometimes Langdon was way too slow to catch things. And it started early on and continued the whole book. He was saying Vasari, not Ve...Sorry? Really? An art historian doesn't realize he was saying an artists name? He clearly wasn't saying "Very." And the bit with the blind bones and the horses? Oh yeah, she's the patron saint of the blind, who'e bones are buried in that temple, but I think that may be a coincidence. Oh yeah, the famous horse sculptures are also in that building, but most likely a coincidence. Eureeka! That's the building I'm actually looking for. (Or at least enough to point him in the right direction of the man who's tomb he was looking for). How did everyone miss the dates on the playbill at the end? How did he not immediately realize Sienna was a bit of an actress and was putting one on him too? It was pretty clear that she was the code-name the provost was talking with, too. They focused on her virginity, and then told Zobrist she'd never known any man before. This was supposed to make you think it was the male doctor, but it seemed obvious.
The story was very predictable. A genetic wizard created something to affect the human genome? No kidding. The pretty, young, misunderstood woman was somehow involved? Big surprise. I wasn't even surprised by the sterility aspect because Sinskey talked about her own sterility. It took every twist and turn of his other books, but just seemed like it was filling the mold. Like Dan Brown thought 'okay, I need a twist here... okay, that works. Moving on.' Who didn't see it coming that he stole the mask himself?
There were aspects that were just inaccurate. Langdon outruns Bruder in the cistern. A college professor- okay, he's in shape - left a military trained rapid assault/tactics soldier winded? Then he couldn't catch Sienna when she was only a few yards ahead of him? It just added to the transparency of the story...
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Thrilling and informative, the random insertions of art history in the middle of a chapter can be distracting. Gives a slightly outdated view on overpopulation.