October's Read -- Angels and Demons chat

What did everyone think?

Will post tomorrow in detail, as didn't want to read and run. But looking forward to chatting about this one.

I was prepared not to like this book when I initially started to read it. Not sure exactly why, I think because I've not read any other of Dan Browns books before and had only seen the Da Vinci Code on DVD. But I actually surprised myself and really got into the book. I thought it was paced well, some books seem to move around too quickly and you can loose track of characters (or maybe it's just me ) I suppose the only bit that I found slightly disappointing was after the helicopter ride, surely one of them should haven't have made it?

What did everyone else think? Any favourite characters or any you didn't like?

I'm not really a crime thriller type person usually.

I actually quite enjoyed this. Like Lisa said I think the pace was good. I certainly wanted to keep reading and the switching scenes meant there was no time to get bored.

I found the physics bits at the beginning interesting, being from a science background this appealed to me. I liked the suspense in deciphering the clues.

I was quite amazed about how many times someone or something tried to kill Robert and yet he survived them all. Very action film ish. I liked Robert though, poor man, a quiet university professor in the middle of all this action. At least he got the girl in the end.

I was totally unprepared for the final twist and really didn't see it coming. I thought I had it all worked out. That's good though, I don't like books where the ending is obvious from early on.

All in all, I liked it and I'm glad I read it as it's probably not something I'd usually pick up.

I enjoy the book on a superficial level. But there are many things that annoyed me.

1) He offers no sources for his scientific "facts" and uses ideas which are clearly not his without giving credit. I wonder how many people would know after reading that antimatter is a real thing and currently being produced but cannot be produced in the quanities that he states. It also cannot be used as a source of energy nor could it be used to make a bomb (it couldn't even be transported). He could have put an afterword in and indicated which ideas are based in truth and which are entirely false. (My info gotten from here. Yes CERN have had to make a whole site about this book. Interesting tidbit from there: "The total amount of antimatter produced in CERN’s history is less than 10 nanograms - containing only enough energy to power a 60 W light bulb for 4 hours.")

2) I don't like how he kept switching to the viewpoint of the killer. I feel it's usually a sign of a bad writer when they can't keep the plot going using just one person's point of view.

3) The twist at the end was okay. However I am always annoyed at twists that you could not have seen coming. I don't mind being lead down a wrong path (usually the obvious one laid out by the author) but at least give hints of the truth path so that I can go back and reread and think "doh! I should have paid more attention and seen that coming." I don't feel that twists which come out of thin air are clever. Lay the groundwork beforehand. If he has done this then please let me know and I will eat humble pie but I just felt that up until the video is revealed the bad guys could have been any one and the story would have still made sense.

I think that's it. I didn't mind reading it, though it was tough to get into at the beginning. Dan Brown just personally annoys me.

Bump! Come on, I know more people read this!

I have to agree with you on couple of things.

[quote="joeli"]

2) I don't like how he kept switching to the viewpoint of the killer. I feel it's usually a sign of a bad writer when they can't keep the plot going using just one person's point of view.

I find this annoying at times, and find books that do this hard work. Although this wasn't as bad as some I have read.


3) The twist at the end was okay. However I am always annoyed at twists that you could not have seen coming. I don't
mind being lead down a wrong path (usually the obvious one laid out by the author) but at least give hints of the truth path so that I can go back and reread and think "doh! I should have paid more attention and seen that coming." I don't feel that twists which come out of thin air are clever. Lay the groundwork beforehand. If he has done this then please let me know and I will eat humble pie but I just felt that up until the video is revealed the bad guys could have been any one and the story would have still made sense.

Completely agree, the villian could have been one of serveral people and it would still have worked. Not sure if this correlates to a good writer or one who hasn't tied all the ends of his plot together.

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