Andrew K. (kuligowskiandrewt) -
Helpful Score: 1
Inferno, the 4th novel to feature art historian and symbology expert Robert Langdon has all the hallmarks of a typical Dan Brown novel. Whether that a good or a bad thing is up to the individual reader:
1) Action takes place in real time. Fans of the television series 24 will love this.
2) The plot centers around some sort of global scavenger hunt, in which Langdon, along with assistance, translates symbolic clues in one location to determine their next stop.
3) An over-the-top, almost comic-book style villain, usually with one or more minions or lackeys to assist, is going to attain some sort of incredible goal if he is not stopped.
This time, the puzzle has to do with Dante, as Prof. Langdon attempts to determine where a demented genius a man obsessed with both The Divine Comedy AND the Black Death hid a biological threat against humanity. Most of the action takes place in Florence, although our protagonists do shift their base of operations towards the end of the book. One big difference between this novel and the earlier one is that we pick up in the middle of the adventure Langdon is suffering from short-term memory loss after a head wound. Action moves forward as some of the memory gaps over the past 24 to 48 hours are filled in.
If this were the first Dan Brown book I'd read, I believe I would have liked it a lot more than I did. Unfortunately, Brown's adherence to formula is beginning to wear thin on me. Even the things that deviated from past novels Florence rather than Rome, and non-Vatican villains, for example were insufficient to distract from the common points mentioned earlier. Bonus points are given for the fact that this novel DOES rebound from his previous work, The Lost Symbol, which in my opinion was the least of his thrillers, currently numbering 6. (4 featuring Langdon.)
Rating: 3 stars. Sorry Dan, it's a tough call as to what to keep and what to change when writing sequels to a wildly successful novel, but I fear what you (and your editors and the publishers and their publicity people and ) have selected has become a rut.
1) Action takes place in real time. Fans of the television series 24 will love this.
2) The plot centers around some sort of global scavenger hunt, in which Langdon, along with assistance, translates symbolic clues in one location to determine their next stop.
3) An over-the-top, almost comic-book style villain, usually with one or more minions or lackeys to assist, is going to attain some sort of incredible goal if he is not stopped.
This time, the puzzle has to do with Dante, as Prof. Langdon attempts to determine where a demented genius a man obsessed with both The Divine Comedy AND the Black Death hid a biological threat against humanity. Most of the action takes place in Florence, although our protagonists do shift their base of operations towards the end of the book. One big difference between this novel and the earlier one is that we pick up in the middle of the adventure Langdon is suffering from short-term memory loss after a head wound. Action moves forward as some of the memory gaps over the past 24 to 48 hours are filled in.
If this were the first Dan Brown book I'd read, I believe I would have liked it a lot more than I did. Unfortunately, Brown's adherence to formula is beginning to wear thin on me. Even the things that deviated from past novels Florence rather than Rome, and non-Vatican villains, for example were insufficient to distract from the common points mentioned earlier. Bonus points are given for the fact that this novel DOES rebound from his previous work, The Lost Symbol, which in my opinion was the least of his thrillers, currently numbering 6. (4 featuring Langdon.)
Rating: 3 stars. Sorry Dan, it's a tough call as to what to keep and what to change when writing sequels to a wildly successful novel, but I fear what you (and your editors and the publishers and their publicity people and ) have selected has become a rut.
