Monday, June 24, 2013

Inferno by Dan Brown

Overall rating:★★★
Robert Langdon wakes up in a hospital room in Florence with a bullet wound in his head and with some days lost out of his memory probably forever. He has strange visions of Hell as described by Dante in his famous classic book The Divine Comedy. Robert cannot remember why and how he arrived in Florence, why or who shot him, and he is supposed to be doing in Florence outside of his usual trips to the Renaissance city. 
All these questions will be answered as Dan Brown walks through the cities of Florence, Venice, and Istanbul. The mystery involves details of Dante’s Divine Comedy especially the poem related to Hell. The villain, obsessed with both the Divine Comedy and world overpopulation, creates the reasons for Robert Langdon being summoned to Florence, for people following both Robert Langdon and our evil man, and gives enough reason for world leaders to worry about his plan. 
Inferno is an entertaining reading. The action is concentrated in 48-72 hours, which can be overwhelming for some people. I personally prefer novels whose stories and action happen in a longer time period to be able to assimilate and enjoy each character and their personal tales. Reading Dan Brown’s book is an entertaining way of reading an encyclopedia. The writer succeeds in picking the readers’ curiosity. Other than that, the novel does not have any other value. The writing is not particularly beautiful and the characters do not have any depth or real philosophical ways to see life. I would expect that a movie would come out based on this book. If I could turn back time, I would wait for the movie instead of reading the book – there would not be a big loss of details or events, it would take less time, and probably the visual effects and photography of such beautiful cities would be more impressive on the big screen than on the pages of Mr. Brown’s books. 
The book is available in hardcover and Kindle.
Originality:★★★★
Beauty and use of language: ★★

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