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So the next book on the docket is Inferno by Dan Brown. This is the newest book in the series that
follows Robert Langdon through his journey of saving the world, religions,
and/or people with his symbolist background. I have read the other books that include him,
and I usually pick them up when they come out. Just in case you have been
hiding under a rock for a while these previous works include: Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, &
The Lost Symbol. These are obviously in addition to Inferno. Dan Brown has done a great job
with his writing and always ties in a lot historical knowledge into his
stories.
The first thing that I would like to draw attention to is
the writing style that Dan Brown uses. Like many successful contemporary
authors, he uses quick action/series of events paired with short chapters of
differing perspectives. This may sound confusing, but really is very common.
The events happen in the book are a quick timeline, even though I think this
one was more dragged out than the others. The chapters are broken up into short
“need to know” or “suspense building” sections; the point of view also changes
during the chapter which allows the reader to see the same events from
different character’s perspectives. I really enjoy this type of writing
because, having ADHD, my mind skips a lot and wants to know what the other
people are thinking. This method also allows Brown to draw out the suspense to
hook the reader and have them keep reading.
Robert Langdon is seen as the unlikely “intellectual” hero
that always seems to know the way around these catastrophic events with his
intellect. There is something enduring about that, and I appreciate that there
are still heroes that are seen in the spotlight as intelligent people. In a
world where our “role models” are useless and have no purpose whatsoever (i.e.
The Kardashians, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, etc.) in terms of being someone to
emulate, it is refreshing to see someone (even a fictional character) to uphold
the idea of using their own knowledge. Langdon is stated to have an eidetic
memory, and can remember pretty much anything that he sees/hears; and he is
also known for being brutally honest and extremely respectful. Overall he has a
number of attributes that makes him ideal for someone to admire.
This story opens up a little differently because the first
thing we see is a suicide by a man we later know to be named Bertrand Zobrist.
Langdon is then introduced as being in a hospital bed with a gunshot wound to
the head. Okay…not something I was expecting. Langdon then learns that he has
amnesia and cannot remember anything from the last few days. So right in the
beginning of the book we have the hero who is known for his mind power, and
then having that stripped away right from the start. We immediately meet
Langdon’s customary “pretty/innocent” female sidekick. This is a mold that has
been used in each of Brown’s books about Langdon, but it is a formula that
works. I think that if it was just Langdon running around, it would be boring
having him talk to himself and seem egotistical. The sidekick is a must, and
Langdon just happens to attract the pretty women around him. The twist in this
story, which I wasn’t expecting AT ALL, was that she was actually involved with
the villain of the story. This is a different direction that Brown takes that
makes the archetypal female sidekick a fresh idea.
There are a number of twists that happen in this book that
are nice to see. Even though Brown’s books follow a similar format (just like Rick
Riordan in his Percy Jackson books), they are still enjoyable because they are
just overall good stories. The whole plot of the story is based around the villain,
Bertrand Zobrist, and how he is trying to take population control into his own
hands. He is a brilliant bioengineer that designs a plague that he is planning
on releasing into the world. There is a lot of mystery surrounding it because
Zobrist has been developing this strain while being hidden from public view by
a man known as the Provost. Zobrist is also being hunted by the WHO (World
Health Organization) at the same time. Zobrist is concerned because he feels
that the human race will not last the next century because it’s huge growth in
population. The plague he develops is an interesting twist in and of itself. I
will not spoil how it works when it is released. And yes, the plague gets
released and you will have to read it to see the details. The other thing that
makes Zobrist mysterious is that he is obsessed with Dante’s Divine Comedy. Queue:
Robert Langdon. This is how Langdon is tied to the story because the clues have
to do with Dante’s works. The other big twist is that Langdon is being chased
through the story by people trying to kill him and stop him. So it is a little
bit different than usual.
My two pet peeves for the book are minimal and more of a
general annoyance. The first issue has to do with Langdon’s Mickey Mouse Watch
(if you’ve never seen one, look here). In the previous books there is a story
about how important this watch is to Langdon and that it reminds him not to
take things so seriously all the time, which create the irony of the situation
he is always in. In the beginning of Inferno
Langdon is being pursued by an assassin while in the hospital and when his
female sidekick, Sienna Brooks, helps him to escape the watch is left behind. Okay,
I understand it’s important to him, but it’s not like his arm was chopped off.
Through the rest of the book (the last 98% of the pages) the concept of the
missing Mickey watch is brought up no fewer than 10 times. By the second time
it’s mentioned it’s obvious it will be returned to him in some way at the end
of the story. Just like we learn about symbolism in an English class, it’s not
mentioned because it’s unimportant. Then,
sure enough at the end of the story the watch is mailed back to him and all is
well. Like I said, it’s more of an annoyance because it’s so minor and just
distracting that Brown takes away from the story to remind me that his precious
watch was gone. It’s like every time Brown is telling me “HEY!!! Don’t forget
about the Mickey watch, it’ll come back later…wait for it…”.
The other issue that I have with the book is more along the
lines of distracting from the plot as well. This just deals with the sheer
volume of historical information that is provided. I enjoy the history that accompanies
the storyline in all of Brown’s novels, but I felt like this one was over the
top. It seemed like there was a lot of background explained for something so minor.
Through a lot of the book I was starting to get information overload. I just felt
that it took away from the story a little bit. Now, I understand a possible
reason for this annoyance. The other books the Langdon stars in, I have a pretty
decent background on the history from those, so possibly it didn’t seem as
daunting. Inferno has a lot of
Italian references and has different languages used throughout, so I understand
that I may have a pet peeve about my own ignorance of Italian culture.
Regardless of the small issues that I have, I thought the
book was pretty good. Not necessarily great, because it carries the same format
as the others; however, it’s still enjoyable because of the little twists. I
don’t want to give away too much from the story because I if you are going to
read it, I don’t want to ruin it. However, there should be enough here to give
you an idea about the plot. If you haven’t already checked out Dan Brown’s
other books, go do that too.
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