Angels and Demons: Special Illustrated Collector's Edition Hardcover – 10 May 2005

Angels and DemonsApproximately fifteen years ago I was introduced to the writing of Dan Brown. More by accident than design I picked up a copy of his entertaining but controversial book ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and read it over a day or two. However the story of the main character, symbologist Robert Langdon did not begin with that book it commenced in Brown’s earlier publication ‘Angels and Demons’.An eminent scientist is murdered and items relating to his work are removed from his laboratory. Simultaneously the leaders of the Catholic Church are about to go into conclave to elect a new pope. Unbeknownst to the cardinals four of their number disappear just prior to conclave commencing. There is also evidence of the missing laboratory item having been placed on the grounds of Vatican City. Rumours abound of the return of a historical anti-Catholic organisation known as the Illuminati.Langdon is brought in because of his historical knowledge of the Illuminati. Drawing on his knowledge he follows the Illuminati trail across Rome in an effort to find who the modern day perpetrators are. Assisted by the murdered scientists daughter and having access to the Vatican archives Langdon finds evidence of Church secrets going back many centuries.In a book which simultaneously highlights the spiritual core of the Catholic Church whilst challenging the concept of Papal infallibility Brown creates a drama which keeps readers guessing right until the last pages. Made into a successful but sadly inferior movie the book enriches the reader with its attention to detail and its emphasis on the historical evolution of the Catholic Church. Brown makes public the perhaps privately held view that the Church has focused on suppressing the human spirit to fit into a narrative of its own making.I enjoyed my return to this eminently readable book. Truthful? Who knows. It certainly raises questions on topics that the Catholic Church has always regarded as being sacrosanct. Written several hundred years ago I suspect Brown might have had to deal with a lot more direct criticism from the Vatican than he actually received. However one thing is clear and that is the Catholic Church’s actions then and now shows its human frailty and human limitations more clearly than I suspect they would like?

I loved it. It is one of these books you can't put down once your start. I am a lover of conspiracy theories, so, Angels and Demons appealed to me. I only bought it because the author is well known but I did not expect it to be so good. I thought it would be a lot of hype and little substance. Nope, you can feel a lot of research has been done. Robert langdon's character is great and you would like to know more about his life, why he is still a bachelor etc... but the best bits were about the history of the Illuminati and the science bits. This I really enjoyed while learning a lot.Sometimes, the descriptions do go on a bit, like if you are in a classroom, so, I may have fastworded the reading a bit. Mea culpa! but I will still rate this book 5 stars.I did not write about the plot, plenty of other reviewers have done this much better than I would.

Symbologist Robert Langdon is called to CERN following the murder of one of the scientists apparently by the Illuminati. Soon he finds himself caught up in a series of events that has the world watching to see what will happen next.I love the film version of Angels and Demons but after finally reading the book I have to say I prefer it over the movie.The book is in places completely different to the film and contains characters not in the film version. To me the book is the complete story and I'm glad I read it.If you've seen the film, do yourself a favour and read the book. You won't regret it.

Not the first book by Dan Brown but the first book to feature Robert Langdon who is a well fleshed out believable and likeable character. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader occupied whilst posing thought provoking questions about science and God.A word of caution, this has been made into a film but the films were made in the wrong order with this book being made second and several characters and their actions and motives were altered substantially for the film, so if you saw the film and were dissatisfied try the book as I am certain you will not be disappointed. After all, the original source material is nearly always better than the Hollywood interpretation.

From the very start this book never lacks pace. A great story with lots of interesting detail. However one event in the book seemed t o be confused by a similar event later in the book ,the event being the branding again of the same man. I went back and reread but could not fathom it out.Anyway a jolly good read but it did have a very boring theological debate in it about 50 pages from the end that was quite unnecessary and very tedious. The End seemed to drag on and on but I kept going. It was going to be a 4star but it scrapped in as a 5 .

A leading scientist at CERN is murdered and his creation (antimatter) is stolen and placed inside the Vatican. The Illuminati, long thought to have ceased to exist are again threatenings the church with total and absolute destruction, the pope is dead and the four cardinals most likely to succeed him have been kidnapped. Robert Langdon, a symbologist is hired by the director of CERN to investigate. Along with Vittoria Vetra, the daughter of the murdered scientist, Langdon takes his investigation to Rome and the Vatican where he encounters deception, puzzles and murder. From beginning to end I enjoyed the book and would read it again (even though I've just finished reading it for the second time), I recommend it to anyone who likes a good murder mystery, five stars from me. I'm now off to read Dan Browns sequel to angels and demons, The Davinci code.