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AMÉ ESTE LIBRO!!! Creo que es mi preferido después de El Código Da Vinci. Todo encajó perfecto, cada personaje bien perfilado (fan declarada de Robert Langdon), ritmo genial y motivaciones que hacen que uno se pueda identificar con algunos de los "bandos". Un consejo gratis?? No se molesten con la película, no le hace justicia
This went on maybe three chapters too long. Enjoyable enough though!
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Wow, I mean WOW this book is awful. It might be the worst book I've ever read? And I say that as someone who was strong-armed through the whole Fifty Shades series. This is true incompetence, I was literally yelling at the book through the whole second half. 0.25 stars feels a little extreme at face value, and it would be if it were just a matter of this being a poorly-written book. More than that, this book is actively harmful, primarily for the myths it perpetuates about overpopulation. Overpopulation is one of those things that people hear about in their early teens and they just assume checks out. All the reviews on here talking about how, at the very least, this book "made them think" about this "problem" -- I'm pleading with you over here, please look into the issue for more than two seconds. Put down the Joe Rogan and the Jordan Peterson and pick up something with some nuance. Do a quick google on the overpopulation myth, if only to get an alternate viewpoint.
But then, of course, it's also just astoundingly incompetent at all levels of writing. My favourite grievance is Brown's bizarre love of filtering, which makes for very laboured prose. "She felt herself glance", bitch, just tell me she glanced. Even better, just tell me what she saw. I'm already in her head, I can put together that she probably perceived her eyeballs moving and taking in light in the visible spectrum. Or maybe I'm not in her head, maybe I'm suddenly in someone else's, because this man LOVES head-hopping. Just stick to a POV for a single chapter, I dare you. The characters are all unbelievably flimsy (a lady whose only trait is that she's infertile, a lead main character whose only trait is that he's claustrophobic and unintentionally smug and lost his watch) and their inner voices are almost universally identical. And nobody reacts like a human being to anything, everyone's always flinching and gasping and staring and it's like, can you focus up please! You are literally just looking at an old painting! Lives are on the line!
The plot is an absolute mess, and feels more like an interactive theme park experience than something that could ever happen. (Another specific issue: benzos don't fucking work like that, and neither does memory.) It's just a series of stilted lectures Langdon delivers whenever he happens to remember something relevant. And the book is so keen on us thinking that Langdon and his love... interest...? are so so smart trust us they're extremely smart, but Dan Brown is also trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator, your average Kathy and Bill from the suburbs who haven't picked up a non-mass-market book since high school and don't know that the references it makes are extremely obvious. All the Divine Comedy references are very surface-level stuff you could pick up from a quick wikipedia summary. We've got doctors who apparently haven't heard of plague masks and CDC reps who have never heard of Thomas Malthas, okay sure bud.
It's just real bad. Dan Brown is trash lit by default but this was next level.
But then, of course, it's also just astoundingly incompetent at all levels of writing. My favourite grievance is Brown's bizarre love of filtering, which makes for very laboured prose. "She felt herself glance", bitch, just tell me she glanced. Even better, just tell me what she saw. I'm already in her head, I can put together that she probably perceived her eyeballs moving and taking in light in the visible spectrum. Or maybe I'm not in her head, maybe I'm suddenly in someone else's, because this man LOVES head-hopping. Just stick to a POV for a single chapter, I dare you. The characters are all unbelievably flimsy (a lady whose only trait is that she's infertile, a lead main character whose only trait is that he's claustrophobic and unintentionally smug and lost his watch) and their inner voices are almost universally identical. And nobody reacts like a human being to anything, everyone's always flinching and gasping and staring and it's like, can you focus up please! You are literally just looking at an old painting! Lives are on the line!
The plot is an absolute mess, and feels more like an interactive theme park experience than something that could ever happen. (Another specific issue: benzos don't fucking work like that, and neither does memory.) It's just a series of stilted lectures Langdon delivers whenever he happens to remember something relevant. And the book is so keen on us thinking that Langdon and his love... interest...? are so so smart trust us they're extremely smart, but Dan Brown is also trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator, your average Kathy and Bill from the suburbs who haven't picked up a non-mass-market book since high school and don't know that the references it makes are extremely obvious. All the Divine Comedy references are very surface-level stuff you could pick up from a quick wikipedia summary. We've got doctors who apparently haven't heard of plague masks and CDC reps who have never heard of Thomas Malthas, okay sure bud.
It's just real bad. Dan Brown is trash lit by default but this was next level.
Another great Langdon book. A twist I did not see coming. Kept me wanting to read.
I always hope that the emotions I felt for The Da Vinci Code will surface when I read Dan Brown's other books, but nothing comes close. However, I loved every single twist and turn in Inferno and am thrilled that Langdon is back in Europe. Brown redeemed himself in my eyes after the annoyance The Lost Symbol brought me. US history is not great for conspiracies and old knowledge. Europe is! Keep him there, Brown!
mysterious
tense
slow-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
Probably will be my last Dan Brown novel. I just can't get over the pompous references to architecture. Langdon had a very Alex-Trebek-Know-It-All feel this time around, and it was tedious. I do admit that it made me think a lot about overpopulation, what the implications of it are, and how we all choose to ignore it.
3.5 stars.
It's your typical Dan Brown/Robert Langdon fun read.
This time around, I was a little pickier about what I wanted to see/the level of research I expected. I mean, there's the typical lack of appropriate research--this line gets repeated over and over and OVER AGAIN:
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
They attribute it to Dante, blah blah blah, repeat ad nauseum BUT:
Here's the deal, kids.
THAT IS NOT FROM DANTE. THAT IS NOT FROM THE INFERNO. IT'S NOT EVEN ACCURATE.
If you've ever READ the Inferno, you'd know that actually the neutrals AREN'T EVEN IN HELL. They're on the outskirts looking pathetic. BOOM. Facts.
(I even did a quick Google to see where the quote came from. A lot of folks attribute it to Dante, but then with some digging I think I've found that it's a MISattribution, so there you go. Granted, I'm not really taking the time to research the issue myself right now, but I have a headache AND I'M NOT WRITING A BOOK SUPPOSEDLY BASED ON THE WORKS OF DANTE.)
But, Brown's big on repetition in this one--I swear, if I had to read ONE MORE TIME about that stupid plaque in the EXACT SAME WORDING EACH TIME, I was gonna go pop that floating balloon MYSELF.
All that aside, this really was just your typical Langdon adventure.
I would've appreciated a bit more ACTUAL use/knowledge/research of the Inferno, but for a cotton-candy read, it was still entertaining.
Looking forward to seeing where Langdon goes next.
It's your typical Dan Brown/Robert Langdon fun read.
This time around, I was a little pickier about what I wanted to see/the level of research I expected. I mean, there's the typical lack of appropriate research--this line gets repeated over and over and OVER AGAIN:
The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
They attribute it to Dante, blah blah blah, repeat ad nauseum BUT:
Here's the deal, kids.
THAT IS NOT FROM DANTE. THAT IS NOT FROM THE INFERNO. IT'S NOT EVEN ACCURATE.
If you've ever READ the Inferno, you'd know that actually the neutrals AREN'T EVEN IN HELL. They're on the outskirts looking pathetic. BOOM. Facts.
(I even did a quick Google to see where the quote came from. A lot of folks attribute it to Dante, but then with some digging I think I've found that it's a MISattribution, so there you go. Granted, I'm not really taking the time to research the issue myself right now, but I have a headache AND I'M NOT WRITING A BOOK SUPPOSEDLY BASED ON THE WORKS OF DANTE.)
But, Brown's big on repetition in this one--I swear, if I had to read ONE MORE TIME about that stupid plaque in the EXACT SAME WORDING EACH TIME, I was gonna go pop that floating balloon MYSELF.
All that aside, this really was just your typical Langdon adventure.
I would've appreciated a bit more ACTUAL use/knowledge/research of the Inferno, but for a cotton-candy read, it was still entertaining.
Looking forward to seeing where Langdon goes next.
It was a looooooong book. Sometimes the details lost me. It its one of his cleanest books...probably pg-13. I would recommend if you like Dan brown. If you don't.....then move on.