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Angels and Demons

Author:
Dan Brown

Publisher:
Pocket Star

Date of Publication:
2000

ISBN:
0671027360

Rating:
6

Summary:
Angels and Demons is a prequel to the bestseller, The DaVinci Code, and includes the same main character, Robert Langdon. Like the DaVinci Code, Langdon is drawn into a web of mystery and intrigue thanks to his familiarity with religious symbols.

The story begins with Robert receiving an early morning phone call from Maximilian Kohler, the director of CERN, a scientific institution in Europe. Mr. Kohler, consigned to a wheelchair thanks to the religious piety of his parents who refused him medical care as a child believing god would heal him, has just discovered the disfigured body of one of his leading scientists – Leonardo Vetra. The corpse has had an eye cut out, and was branded with an ambigram of the word “Illuminati.” As Langdon has previously published several authoritative books on the subject of the Illuminati, Kohler contacts him for help in trying to explain what has happened.

Langdon is whisked across the Atlantic in an advanced plane to the scene of the crime where he witnesses the brutality of the murder firsthand. As he and Kohler discuss the murder and the Illuminati, Vetra’s adopted daughter, Vittoria, arrives, having been informed that her father was murdered while she was away doing research. Upon her arrival, the plot thickens when it is revealed that the Vetras teamed up to test Leonardo’s belief in god. Leonardo Vetra was also a priest and took Vittoria in as an adopted daughter when he found her in a Catholic orphanage and realized she had an inquisitive, scientific mind. Leonardo and Vittoria were working together to generate matter out of energy. The result of their experiment was the generation of matter and antimatter, a highly volatile substance that, when it comes into contact with matter, annihilates both substances in an extremely efficient explosion. The idea was to prove that Genesis was right, that god could create matter out of nothing. The experiment was not without its problems – storage of the antimatter required a special container that combined the magnetic fields of extremely powerful magnets to prevent the antimatter from coming into contact with matter. Each containment unit has a built in plastic-based battery system that will power the batteries for 24 hours if it is detached from its charging station. The charging station continuously recharges the battery, ensuring the safe storage of the antimatter.

Vittoria is forced to admit all of this to Kohler and Langdon when Kohler insists Leonardo’s death is related to his work. Kohler then has Vittoria take them to the Vetras’ lab where she shows them what they were working on. Kohler, of course, is impressed, but has yet to inform Vittoria of his concern – the lab is locked by a retina scanner that will only allow access to two people – Leonardo and Vittoria. With Leonardo’s eye missing, Kohler is afraid the lab has been accessed. In fact, it has… The Vetras’ usually created only very small amounts of the antimatter and stored it in such a fashion that if it were to explode the damage would be impressive, but not tremendous. In order to prove the feasibility of generating antimatter, they also created a larger sample, ¼ grams worth, that was stored in a hazardous storage chamber under the main lab. The large sample has gone missing.

Just as they realize the sample of antimatter is gone, Kohler’s secretary receives a call from the Vatican about a canister that has suddenly appeared on their security surveillance screens. The canister has a timer on it that is counting down from 24 hours and, in small letters says CERN on it. The Swiss Guard wants to know what the canister is and what it’s doing in the Vatican. Eventually they get through to Kohler who, thanks to his medical condition, is unfit to travel to the Vatican to help them with the canister. Instead, he sends Langdon and Vittoria.

The problem with the antimatter canister is two-fold. One, the amount of antimatter inside has the explosive potential of a small nuclear weapon. Two, its hidden. One of the wireless security cameras used by the Swiss Guard has gone missing and it is pointing at the canister. Unless they can find where the camera and canister are in the next 8 hours or so (that’s how much time is left when they notice it), Vatican City is doomed.

Langdon and Vittoria arrive in Vatican City only to realize that Conclave, the meeting of the Cardinals to choose a new Pope, is starting that day. The Pope died 15 days earlier. The Church, meanwhile, is being run by the Pope’s Camerlengo, Carlo Ventresca, a young priest who seems particularly pious. To complicates matters, the four “Preferriti,” or most favored Cardinals to be selected as Pope, have gone missing. An assassin calls the Vatican and informs all the interested parties that he has the Preferriti and will be killing them one at a time every hour, starting at 8:00 pm. The last one will die at 11:00 pm, one hour before the antimatter bomb will go off. Their deaths are retribution for the Catholic Church’s killing of four members of the Illuminati several hundred years ago. Also, the assassin will brand each of them with ambigrams that are mythically related to the Illuminati (peaking Langdon’s interest, as they are supposed to be just legends).

Through a combination of luck and skill, Langdon and Vittoria, along with the leaders of the Swiss Guard, are able to figure out where the assassin will be killing the Cardinals and they attempt to stop him, failing in each instance. All four Cardinals die and Vittoria is captured in the process. But Langdon is ultimately able to discover the secret lair of the assassin, which is also the legendary Church of the Illuminati. Bruised and battered from a long night of battles with the assassin, Langdon reaches the secret lair in time to prevent the assassin from raping and murdering Vittoria and, with Vittoria’s help, is able to defeat the assassin, resulting in the assassin’s death.

Meanwhile, Maximilian Kohler has contacted Vatican City and agreed to travel to the Vatican to help with the search of the canister. When Langdon and Vittoria hear this, they come to believe Kohler is the leader of the Illuminati (referred to as Janus by the assassin). Rushing back to the Vatican via a secret tunnel, they arrive just in time to hear the Camerlengo scream in agony – he’s been branded as well. As the guards burst into the room, it appears that Kohler is responsible. Kohler is quickly dispatched by a member of the Swiss Guard, but he is able to slip Langdon his hidden video camera before he expires (important plot point).

Everyone now believes the Illuminati plot has been foiled. As they rush the Camerlengo out to a waiting helicopter, he suddenly stops them and claims to have a vision – all of which is captured by news crews on live TV. The Camerlengo claims to know where the canister is and leads Langdon, Vittoria, a member of the Swiss guard, and a reporting team on a lengthy chase through the Vatican’s Necropolis to the alleged tomb of St. Peter, where they do, in fact, find the canister. Rushing back up to the surface with just minutes to spare, the Camerlengo jumps in the helicopter to dispatch of the bomb. Langdon, not realizing the Camerlengo’s plan, jumps in to assist him.

Initially the Camerlengo gives the impression that he is going to allow himself to be destroyed by the bomb. But he has no intention of dying. There is a parachute in the chopper. Taking the canister from Langdon, he locks it in a box and throws out the key. Then dons his parachute and jumps out of the helicopter, leaving Langdon to perish when the bomb goes off. Langdon, grabbing the only scrap of fabric he can find, ultimately jumps out as well, just in the nick of time. The antimatter canister’s batteries fail as scheduled and the helicopter explodes in a brilliant flash of light.

The Camerlengo uses his parachute to land on top of St. Peter’s Basilica, where he appears magically, giving the impression that a miracle has just occurred. Langdon, meanwhile, uses the piece of fabric he found to slow his descent just enough to allow him to land in the Tiber River without dying. A medical team sees him fall and rushes to his rescue, saving his life.

The Camerlengo is hailed as a miracle worker and man of god, but it is short-lived. When Langdon comes to, a nurse tells him his camera is broken but the sound still works. Realizing it is Kohler’s camera, he listens to it and realizes the truth. Rushing back to the Vatican (amazingly his legs aren’t broken), he enters the Sistine Chapel where the remaining Cardinals are preparing to make the Camerlengo the next Pope. Plugging the camera into a TV, he plays back Kohler’s video, which reveals that the Camerlengo set up the whole thing in order to give the Church back some authority in a world where that authority was on the wane. His goal was to give the impression of miracles to ignite a wave of faith. As it turns out, the Camerlengo killed the Pope too in setting everything up. In an intriguing twist it is also revealed that the Pope is his biological father, having conceived him via in-vitro fertilization, allowing the Camerlengo’s father to not break his vow of chastity.

With this knowledge, the Camerlengo realizes he has really screwed up. With the threat of prosecution looming, he escapes from the Sistine Chapel and immolates himself on the Papal balcony for all the world to see, ending the night with one more miracle. With the threat removed, Langdon and Vittoria escape to a plush hotel where their slowly kindled romance bursts into passionate flames.

Review:
Dan Brown can definitely write engaging novels: they suck you in and force you to keep with the book to find out what happens in the end. This novel is no different – you quickly become engaged in the story and have to keep reading (or listening in my case) to see how everything turns out. Brown also develops fairly compelling characters, which adds to the story. Finally, his knowledge of religion and elements related to it (e.g., churches, beliefs, history, legends, myths, rumors, conspiracy theories, etc.) is somewhat impressive, though occasionally flawed.

Lest people reading this review think I actually believed much of what is passed as truth in this book, let me point you to an excellent Wikipedia article on the book that points out some of the factual errors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_and_Demons . While the factual errors are not so glaring as to undermine the book’s plot, they are worth knowing – no reason to buy into conspiracy theories and the like when they are for entertainment purposes only.

The only real criticism I have of the book is that it is so clearly contrived. For instance, Langdon survives his jump from the helicopter thanks to the friction and drag provided by the fabric he takes with him from the helicopter. What I didn’t mention is that Langdon learned about the ability of a piece of fabric to create drag just that morning while at CERN. Kohler led him past a recreational wind tunnel with an overweight woman floating in the air with a small piece of fabric attached like a mini-parachute. It was that bit of information that later saved Langdon’s life. Numerous other elements of the story follow this pattern – with an early setup so it can be referenced later. Another example is Kohler’s camera – his secretary mentions his mobile electronics gallery earlier in the book in making fun of him and details all of its components, including the camera. The camera is later introduced as the deus ex machina that foils the villain’s brilliant plan. Contrivances abound in this book.

I also didn’t find the author’s discussion of religion all that compelling in terms of belief systems (e.g., agnosticism, atheism, deism, theism, etc.), but that is more of a minor point. What I did like was that the author realized there is, in many parts of the world, a decline in general levels of religiosity. I also liked the author’s critical depiction of the depths to which some religious people will go to inspire faith. While this is a fictional account, it isn’t that far removed from reality. People who derive their livings from religious fraud will go to great lengths to encourage faith and misguided belief. Religion is still the best scam around…

Overall, aside from the blatant contrivances, the book is very engaging and a fun read. Don’t believe any of it is real and you’ll find yourself lost in a world of “what if?” rather than a world of “is that really true?” Dan Brown is not a primary source and should never be relied upon for factual information. Doing so belies the reader’s ignorance. It’s just true enough to seem plausible, but that doesn’t mean any of it is actually true. Dan Brown uses legitimate authority to make his stories seem real – Robert Langdon is a scientist, after all. So, turn to science for facts; read Dan Brown for fun.

Note:
I listened to this book on my iPod.