Inferno

When I read The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons years ago, I remember not being able to put them down. The chapters were short and always ended with a mild cliffhanger so you just had to keep reading, and you wanted to keep reading.  Everything was a clue to something big.  I remember being absorbed by those books.  They kept me up at night turning the page.

Now comes Inferno.  I was going to the bookstore to read it with the hopes that eventually I would move up on the library waiting list.  I think I was around number 300 or so. I know, call me an optimist.  Anyway, since the list was moving at a snail's pace, and I wanted to kick my feet up on my couch to read it, I finally broke down and downloaded it to my eReader.  What can I say now that I've finished it?  Well, I kind of wished I'd waited for the library.

The book is definitely engaging. It's the same Dan Brown style we've known all along. Short, quick chapters. The protagonist racing through the streets of a European city trying to save the world one Art History clue at a time.  This time around he is mostly in Florence, Italy following clues related to Dante's Inferno.  He's trying to stop a virus from being released into the general population.  The creator of the virus has a problem with the rapid population growth on Earth and has a mind to do something about it.  Well not if Robert Langdon and the World Health Organization have anything to say about it. The whole book you think that if the virus is released people will die, but there is a little twist to that.  If you know for a fact that you won't read the book, highlight my spoiler starting here ---> The virus actually will make one-third of the population STERILE so they won't produce any more kids, therefore putting the population in check without actually killing anyone. <---

My first degree is in Art History so I love the idea of Robert Langdon.  This is why I loved The DaVinci Code. However, I just wasn't into this book as much as I thought I would be and I know exactly why.  The writing is not good.  I was reading it and that same thought kept coming to my mind. It took away from the story for me.  There were chunks of the story that were repetitive. There were also a lot of catch phrases and clichés.  I kept thinking about Stephen King's book about writing and shaking my head because I think Dan Brown might not have read it.  If he did, he certainly didn't heed any of the advice in it. 

Overall, it's a perfectly good book for vacation and a lazy weekend.  It's a quick read and might give you some food for thought regarding population control, but don't fool yourself into thinking it's a classic.  

**Edit:  A friend of mine just reminded me that I also read The Lost Symbol a few years ago.  I forgot I ever read that book. I guess that speaks volumes.**