Inferno

Title: Inferno

Author: Dan Brown

Pages: 461

Genre: Fiction, Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Our favorite art history and symbology professor is back to save the world yet again.  I'm not sure what we would do without Robert Langdon.  This time Langdon wakes up in a hospital in Florence, Italy with no memory of how he got there.  He has a bullet wound in his head and finds out that somebody is trying to kill him.  Lucky for him, there is a hot young doctor who was treating him and is conveniently interested and able to join him in the clue hunt to backtrack his steps and to find out what is going on and how he can stop a worldwide plague.

My Review: First things first.  I am a total sucker for Dan Brown's novels.  Sometimes the story is a little silly and a stretch to believe, but I just love the geographical, architectural and art descriptions that fill the books.  I often find myself with google open next to me to look up maps of cities, street views of locations, photos of the artwork and wikipedia articles on the locations that make their way into these books.  The world will be in a world of hurt when Robert Langdon retires.

The Lost Symbol (Illustrated Edition)

Title: The Lost Symbol

Author: Dan Brown

Pages: 513

Genre: Thriller

Grade: A-

Synopsis: I already reviewed this book once: http://tysquibooklist.blogspot.com/2009/10/lost-symbol.html

My Review: I was so excited when browsing at the DI when I found this book. I haven't yet read Dan Brown's newest novel (Inferno) and I thought this was it. I got about 50 pages into the book when I realized that I had already read this book, so I decided to buy a used copy of the Illustrated Edition of the book and continue reading that version.  I love reading Dan Brown novels when three are pictures and diagrams of the artwork and symbolism that is described in the book.

The Lost Symbol

Title: The Lost Symbol

Author: Dan Brown

Pages: 511

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Robert Langdon has been summoned to Washington to fill in as a guest lecturer for his close friend, who is the Secretary of the Smithsonian. While there, he is drawn into a plot to uncover a secret that the Mason's have been protecting and guarding for centuries.

My Review: I quite enjoyed this book, just as I have enjoyed all of Dan Brown's other novels. I am really looking forward to reading the illustrated edition when it comes out. If there is one thing that I have learned from Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, it is that the illustrated editions really make the story come alive. Instead of reading Brown's descriptions of paintings, buildings and symbols, you can see them for yourself. The book was a little more wordy/descriptive than the previous novels that Langdon stars in and many people have complained about this, but I found the extra descriptions quite interesting. Dan Brown's novels never fail to make me think.

From the Book: "(p. 65) Despite Langdon’s six-foot frame and athletic build, Anderson saw none of the cold, hardened edge he expected from a man famous for surviving an explosion at the Vatican and a manhunt in Paris. This guy eluded the French police…in loafers? He looked more like someone Anderson would expect to find hearthside in some Ivy League library reading Dostoyevsky.”

“(p. 228) The coyly nicknamed explosive Key4 had been developed by Special Forces specifically for opening locked doors with minimal collateral damage. Consisting primarily of cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine with a diethylhexyl plasticizer, it was essentially a piece of C-4 rolled into paper-thin sheets for insertion into doorjambs. In the case of the library’s reading room, the explosive had worked perfectly.”

Digital Fortress

Title: Digital Fortress

Author: Dan Brown

Pages: 372

Genre: Thriller

Grade: B+

Synopsis: The National Security Agency has a relative new top-secret supercomputer which allows them to break any code and any encryption standard known to man. A former employee claims to have a new encryption algorithm which is unbreakable by the equipment the NSA has. The head cryptographer and her boyfriend are pulled into a thrilling race against the clock to prevent this encryption scheme from crippling U.S. intelligence.

Why I Chose This Book: I love Dan Brown novels and was in the mood for a thriller.

My Review: This was an easy quick read. I started the book late Friday night and finished it Saturday evening (which is the exact reason why I don't usually read during the semester - I can't put books down). While the book was not nearly as good as Angels and Demons or the Da Vinci Code it was still a great read. Like his other novels, there are things that are simply unbelievable while most of the book just borders on believability. With my background in computers and engineering it was very easy to follow along in the book. I'm not sure how easy (or even how interesting) it would be for somebody not interested in this type of technology. This book was especially interesting because of the Patriot Act and all of the issues with government snooping private people right now (the book was published in 1998, before the Patriot Act was signed). The biggest downside of the book were the 20-30 pages preceding the climax. With my background in nuclear engineering I knew what they were looking for long before they found it. This caused me to really speed read what should have been the most exciting part of the book.

Disclaimer: This book definitely needs a disclaimer. There was a bit of foul language and a non-graphic love scene. In this it was nothing like Brown's other novels.

From the Book: "(p. 14) Founded by President Truman at 12:01 A.M. on November 4, 1952, the NSA had been the most clandestine intelligence agency in the world for almost fifty years. The NSA's seven-page inception doctrine laid out a very concise agenda: to protect U.S. government communications and to intercept the communications of foreign powers.
"The roof of the NSA's main operations building was littered with over five hundred antennas, including two large radomes that looked like enormous golf balls. The building itself was mammoth--over two million square feet, twice the size of CIA headquarters. Inside were eight million feet of telephone wire and eighty thousand square feet of permanently sealed windows."

"(p. 174) Jabba resembled a giant tadpole, like the cinematic creature for whom he was nicknamed, the man was a hairless spheroid. As resident guardian angel of all NSA computer systems, Jabba marched from department to department, tweaking, soldering, and reaffirming his credo that prevention was the best medicine. No NSA computer had ever been infected under Jabba's reign; he intended to keep it that way."

Angels and Demons (Illustrated Edition)

Title: Angels and Demons (Illustrated Edition)

Author: Dan Brown

Pages: 498

Genre: Thriller

Letter Grade: A

Synopsis: This is the story of Robert Langdon's adventure before The Da Vinci Code. He is flown to CERN in Switzerland to help solve the murder of one of their top scientists. The murdered scientist had been branded with the annagramic word "illuminati" and Langdon was a leading scholar on this satanic cult. The search takes Langdon and the murdered scientist's daughter Vittoria to the Vatican and Rome where they are chasing the murderer while also trying to recover an explosive canister of antimatter buried somewhere in Vatican City.

Why I Chose This Book: I just recently used an Amazon.com giftcard that I got for Christmas to buy this book and I figured that I should read it.

My Review: I think that I like this book more than The Da Vinci Code. There are parts that are unbelievable, but they still make for an exciting story. It was fun to read the illustrated edition and to be able to see pictures of the churches, artwork and sculptures that are described in the book. I wish that I would have read this book before I visited Rome and Vatican City.

From the Book: "(p. 42, Langon speaking with the director of CERN) "But aren't scientists today a bit less defensive about the church?"
Kohler grunted in disgust. "Why should we be? The church may not be burning scientists at the stake anymore, but if you think they've released their reign over science, ask yourself why half the schools in your country are not allowed to teach evolution. Ask yourself why the U.S. Christian Coalition is the most influential lobby against scientific progress in the world. The battle between science and religion is still raging, Mr. Langdon. It has moved from the battlefields to the boardrooms, but it is still raging.""

"(p. 455) "Not on your life!" Langdon sat bolt upright, eyes flying open.
"Attento!" one of the creatures yelled, steadying him. His badge read Dr. Jacobus. He looked remarkably human."

The Da Vinci Code (Illustrated Edition)

Title: The Da Vinci Code (Illustrated Edition)

Author: Dan Brown

Pages: 467

Genre: Thriller

Grade: A- (I would give the non-illustrated edition a B+)

Synopsis: A Harvard symbologist (Robert Langdon) is in Paris, France when an albino monk murders the curator of the Louvre. Langdon is immediately a suspect and flees from the French Judicial Police with the grand-daughter (the cryptographer Sophie Neveu) of the murdered curator. They are sent on a wild goose chase in search of the Holy Grail and information about Neveu’s family. They are chased by the police and another group of people who are desperate to get their hands on the grail.

Why I Chose This Book: I used a gift card to purchase the illustrated edition of the Da Vinci Code a few years ago. I have never actually read it (Alison has) and I was in the mood for an easy, exciting read.

My Review: I’ve read this book before and I enjoyed it once again. It was especially enjoyable to read the illustrated edition. Instead of trying to imagine the architecture, paintings and sculptures that are described in the book, full-color photographs make it much easier to envision. While the book does make some far-fetched claims about Christianity I feel that it is up to every reader to decide what they believe and what they feel is fiction. It is especially enjoyable because it is a work of fiction that makes you think.

What is Dan Brown Writing Next? See this story from ksl.com.