Synopsis: Professor Robert Langdon awakes in a hospital in Italy with retrograde amnesia and only moments later realizes that someone is trying to kill him. After barely escaping the hospital with the help of an attractive young doctor, he tries to retrace his steps only to realize that world is about to be changed forever and time is running out. Dante's "Inferno" is the key to all the riddles left behind by a brilliant madman, but will he be able to figure them out before the deadline?
Review: I've been trying to stay away from the mainstream authors and read some authors I have never heard of, but I couldn't resist buying this book. Call it a guilty pleasure.
What I liked the most about this book was all the additional information that was given in it. Several other reviews I've read thought that it made it a slower read, but I did not. Since I have never been to Italy, all the additional information helped me to visualize the old cobble streets, small alleyways, and other cultural aspects that I may have not been able to pick up on otherwise. This helped me to transport myself into the book, which I like.
Something that made this book a little slow of a read, for me at least, was the constant flash backs throughout. Even though I do feel that some of them were significant, there were several that could have been cut making the read a little smoother. There was one that confused me a little and I had to go back to reread it. However, it was late and it could just have been my tired eyes playing tricks on me.
Overall, I thought that this was a fairly decent book. It had a cinematic quality to it that let you see it enfold before your mind's eye, which I like. It would be very hard to give you any specifics about the book without spoiling it, so I will only say this: If you like books with quite a bit of cultural/setting detail, literary references, and artistic symbolism then this book is for you. If all of those things are not your cup of tea, skip the book and wait to see it if they turn it into a movie.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
This book was purchased at a local bookstore; I was not asked to write a review on it.
Hi, I'm a new follower from Book Blogs! Check out my blog here Bookish Whimsy, and hopefully you would like to follow back. :)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Dan's previous books, so I am curious about this one, but have been reading mixed reviews. I hope I will enjoy it if I get a chance to read it. Great review!
Thank you for following. I've never had a blog before, so this is definitely a whole new world to me.
DeleteI checked out your blog and am now a follower of it. Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" is probably one of my favorite's and I do love the Kenneth Branagh adaptation of it. He plays Benedict so well! Anyway, I hadn't decided if I wanted to see the new film or not, but after reading your review I am more likely to see it now.
Thank you for the compliment about the review. You should definitely read it if you like Dan Brown's other work. It was a fairly quick read and I did find it enjoyable :)