The novel focuses on the ongoing war between science and religion for centuries.
The thing i absolutely loved about the book is that it's all based on facts.
It gives an exciting introduction to the world of conspiracy theories (before this book i had never even heard of Illuminati lol).😂🙈
This book is so exhilarating, thrilling, and imaginative! I love how the author has mixed scientific and religious elements perfectly.

I think you should definitely read it if you're a begginer. This book will definitely get you into mystery-thriller books. So if you're looking for something like that then i would highly recommend reading Angels and Demons.
I'm giving it a 4.8 star rating because some of the plot twists are so predictable- though it didn't stop me from reading and was still very exhilarating.
So yeah, apart from that the book is a real page turner!

Also, the movie based on the book sucks! I don’t think this counts as a con for the book, but still..
Don’t watch it. Especially not if you haven't read the book yet because then you might not even want to read it.

The breadth and depth of architectural and physical detail is good but the science is iffy, which normally wouldn't be much of a downside except that the author clearly went to a lot of effort to make it as accurate as possible--I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it might've seemed more accurate twenty years ago. I'd say the twists were pretty predictable, except that somehow, even though I suspected

the camerlengo ever since Chartrand mentioned the walk they'd taken together, Janus's true identity still caught me off guard because the author had spent the last hundreds or so pages advancing the Kohler-is-Janus theory

, so kudos for that. Vittoria is, unexpectedly, a better developed and more capable character than Langdon, so ally points for that--and then a whole slew of them taken off because the Hassassin and Kohler are, respectively, absolutely skin-crawling racist, Islamaphobic, and ableist stereotypes. On a pure narrative level, it's mediocre; in its representation, worse than mediocre. Also, more malapropisms than a Bush speech. There have to be better "solve-conspiracy-puzzle" thrillers out there. 

The Catholic Church’s circus tent is about to come crashing down. Dan Brown is incredible at creating a fast-paced while still multi-layered thriller that at the same has the spectacle and religious esotericism as an Indiana Jones film. (Robert Langdon is effectively Indiana Jones without the aesthetic) The religious and artistic history entranced me like hypnosis—Christians stole the practice of “god-eating” from the Aztecs after conquering their empire. Some of the plot points seemed a little unnecessary though—why does Robert go into the helicopter? I did the love the fast pace but slow burn of the reveals, like the dead Pope actually being the camerlengo’s father and not just his foster father, and the camerlengo’s reveal as Janus. Vittoria and Robert are a cute couple, and they are definitely a good match—she’s determined and flexible (literally and figuratively) and he’s quiet and compassionate. The scientific theory, though advanced, is clearly and concisely explained to the non-scientific mind. The backstories (for Langdon and Vittoria especially) are incredibly compelling, like how Vittoria came to meet and grow up with the man that would adopt her. The Hassassin’s deadly inspiration and glorious delight in his cruelty weave a spell-binding villain. But the one of the most significant elements of the story is the fact that you can truly walk this Path of Illumination—from “Habakkuk and the Angel” in the Chigi Chapel in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Popolo (Earth—Terra) to the “West Ponente” relief in St. Peter’s Square (Air—Aria) to “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa” in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria (Fire—Fuòco) to the Fountain of the Four Rivers in front of the church of Saint Agnes in Agony in the Piazza Navona (Water—Acqua) and finally to the Church of Illumination within Castel Sant’Angelo. The path is real though the story may not be. Let angels guide thee on thy lofty quest…

I wanted to reread The Da Vinci Code but decided to read the first of the Robert Langdon series before getting to the second book again. Angels and Demons was a fine enough read, definitely wasn't as pulling for me as I was hoping. I didn't love that the villain of the first three-quarters of the story was a stereotype, and I also disliked the insta-love between Langdon and Vitoria. 

What I did like about the story was how Langdon just seemed to be Some Guy for the first two and a half hours of the audiobook--he had no idea why he was there an neither did anyone else; he was just the first person they found who was a professor of religion when they googled it, which I find so funny. He was basically useless for three hours and just acted as a walking purse for Vitoria. I thought it was hilarious.

I also think a lot of male authors try to make good female characters and fail horribly. Dan Brown, however, seemed like he was trying to make a cookie-cutter female support character and accidentally made a pretty cool woman. I really liked Vitoria. Again, thought her relationship with Langdon was pretty rushed and didn't feel right, but I liked their friendship, it was fun. Plus, their final interaction where Vitoria said Langdon only wasn't religious because he hadn't let her fuck him yet was. Pretty great, I'm not going to lie. It was fun.

I also liked the balance that seemed to iron out by the end of the story between religion and science. Learning about the Pope and his own utilization of both polarized opposites was interesting, and I thought it was cool.

Didn't love this book, and it wasn't as fun as I was expecting, but I appreciated the twist at the end, and I like that Robert Langdon was kind of pathetic. Love that for him.

Στο βιβλίο “Illuminati - Οι Πεφωτισμένοι”, γνωριζόμαστε με τον καθηγητή Ρόμπερτ Λάνγκτον, τον κύριο πρωταγωνιστή των βιβλίων του συγγραφέα. Τα γεγονότα λαμβάνουν χώρα στο Βατικανό, όπου ο Λάνγκτον καλείται να εμποδίσει τα καταστροφικά σχέδια της αρχαίας μυστικής αδελφότητας που ακούει στο όνομα Illuminati. 

Από άποψη γραφής θύμιζε πολύ το προηγούμενο βιβλίο του Brown, τον Κώδικα Ντα Βίντσι το οποίο είχα διαβάσει πριν από αυτό. Η αφήγηση ήταν ίδια, τριτοπρόσωπη, δίνοντας μία εικόνα για τις σκέψεις διαφόρων χαρακτήρων, βοηθώντας έτσι τον αναγνώστη να τους γνωρίσει καλύτερα. Η γραφή ήταν απλή, περιγραφική εκεί που έπρεπε και τα κεφάλαια ήταν μικρά και περνούσαν γρήγορα. 

Κάτι το οποίο είδα να επαναλαμβάνεται, είναι η αδυναμία του συγγραφέα να δώσει περισσότερη «προσωπικότητα» στους πρωταγωνιστές. Τόσο ο Λάνγκτον, όσο και η σύμμαχος του, Βικτόρια Βέτρα ήταν αρκετά βαρετοί σε ορισμένα σημεία και δεν ένιωθα δέσιμο μαζί τους. Εξαιτίας του μεγάλου όγκου πληροφοριών και συμβολισμών που υπάρχουν στο βιβλίο, θεωρώ ότι εμποδίζεται η εξέλιξη των χαρακτήρων, οι οποίοι ήταν σαν ρομπότ. Για ακόμη μία φορά, το ενδιαφέρον μου στράφηκε στους δευτερεύοντες χαρακτήρες, από τους οποίους μερικοί ήταν πιο περίπλοκοι και (κατά εμέ) καλογραμμένοι. 

Η πλοκή ήταν ενδιαφέρουσα και εκτυλισσόταν γρήγορα ενώ προσωπικά τη βρήκα περισσότερο ενδιαφέρουσα σε σχέση με το προηγούμενο βιβλίο. Υπήρχε παραπάνω δράση και η μάχη μεταξύ επιστήμης και θρησκείας μού κέντρισε περισσότερο το ενδιαφέρον. Η εξέλιξη των γεγονότων κινεί την περιέργεια του αναγνώστη, καθώς και τα cliffhangers σε ορισμένα κεφάλαια και οι ανατροπές αποτελούν την κορύφωση. 

Είναι ένα ωραίο αστυνομικό θρίλερ, με το οποίο μπορεί να περάσει ευχάριστα η ώρα. Μην το αντιμετωπίσετε σαν ένα βιβλίο που θα σας ανοίξει τα μάτια, παρά σαν ένα ευχάριστο ανάγνωσμα. Αν δεν έχετε διαβάσει βιβλία του Dan Brown, είναι ένας ωραίος τρόπος να ξεκινήσετε.