Angels & Demons Book Review
Jack Q


Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, published in 2000 in New York City by Pocket Books, is an intense, fast paced thriller. Brown is 49 years old and lives in New Hampshire. The book includes shocking scandals, terrorist plots, massive explosions and love stories. It continues a strong theme of working with peers to overcome obstacles. It is Dan Brown’s first famous work, and the first of his four books involving protagonist Robert Langdon. His other works include The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol, and Inferno. This book kick starts a new generation of books, diving into the mystery genre like a rock in water. I believe that this book is a masterpiece from Dan Brown’s fingers, and will be read and enjoyed for decades to come.


The main character, Robert Langdon, is a professor of symbology from Harvard University. He knows almost everything there is to know about ancient symbols, organizations and codes. He can decipher any puzzle or riddle that is thrown his way. Robert is a very outgoing person who likes to think outside the box. He is forced to work with Vittoria Vetra, a physicist who works at a science lab called CERN in Geneva, Switzerland with her adopted father, Leonardo. She is very direct, and approaches tasks in one way. The two protagonists have two very different personalities, but find a way to work together and become very close to each other.


The main plot develops when a new technology called antimatter is created by Vittoria at CERN, but is then stolen. Antimatter has exponentially higher destructive capabilities than nuclear warheads. The real shock is not that it was stolen, but that it was placed in the Vatican with a timer. Robert Langdon is called to CERN to investigate, and quickly realizes that the antimatter was stolen by the ancient anti-religious organization, the Illuminati. Langdon is joined by Vittoria, who felt guilty about her technology being stolen. The two travel to the Vatican, in hopes of finding the antimatter and solving this mystery. However, when they reach the Vatican, they discover many new sides to this case. Langdon realizes that the Illuminati had planned to assassinate four Cardinals, and even the Pope himself. This starts a brand new effort to solve this ever growing mystery. Langdon has to battle through double crossings, deadly assassins, and death itself to solve this mystery.


While the book has an intricate plot and well-rounded character development, it also brings to the table a whole new set of spiritual questions. For example, the fictional work performed by Vittoria Vetra answered the age old question, is there a god? Her groundbreaking work into antimatter answered this question with a definitive yes, proving that at the point of the Big Bang, matter was created from absolutely nothing. This proved the story from the Bible from the book Genesis with science. True, this research was fictional, but it gave me thoughts as to whether or not this work could possibly be recreated, and opened my eyes to a balance between science and religion. The novel interacted with me in many new, intriguing ways that I had never seen before.


Possibly the most interesting feature to Angels & Demons is the scandals, both true or false that it reveals about organizations like CERN and the Catholic Church. For example, it told about how the Catholic Church publicly tortured and brutally murdered multiple famous scientists in the Renaissance, as an effort to keep faith in Catholicism. A fictional example is that many current famous scientists who were working at CERN were members of the Illuminati. The trend of scandal continued in other Dan Brown works such as The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol.


Angels and Demons introduced a whole new type of thriller to literature world, with its incorporation of mystery, history, religion and science. At the time, this was a never before seen mashup of genres, and it was extremely successful. The novel thrusted Dan Brown into fame, and for good reason. This is quite possibly the most well-rounded book I have ever read. I would give this book a nine out of ten stars. Brown’s work on Angels and Demons and his other books in the Robert Langdon series are intricate, complicated works of art that will spark readers’ brains and entertain for years to come.