Inferno

Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon awakens in an Italian hospital, disoriented and with no recollection of the past thirty-six hours, including the origin of the macabre object hidden in his belongings. With a relentless female assassin trailing them through Florence, he and his resourceful doctor, Sienna Brooks, are forced to flee. Embarking on a harrowing journey, they must unravel a series of codes, which are the work of a brilliant scientist whose obsession with the end of the world is matched only by his passion for one of the most influential masterpieces ever written, Dante Alighieri's The Inferno. 

When you think of the Renaissance, what do you think of? Do you think of pillars of science, like Galileo and Kepler? Maybe you thought of the works of Shakespeare? Or maybe, you thought of the great works of art by such visionaries as Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci?

And if you thought of Da Vinci, maybe you remembered a book written by Dan Brown by the title of The Da Vinci Code that was turned into a movie starring Tom Hanks. At least that's how my brain works. Regardless, Inferno is the fourth book in Dan Brown's series of books starring symbologist Robert Langdon.

Inferno follows Langdon as he tries to unravel the clues left by a scientist fixated on the end of the world and stop the catastrophic events that will transpire if he doesn't. At first glance, the story-line is fairly straightforward. But as you read, there comes twist after twist, until you don't really know whose loyalty lies where. It makes for a very exciting read, and I can definitely understand why they are adapting this for film.

Dan Brown has a way with words for sure. His descriptions of the places that Langdon and his associates travel to are so good, you can almost picture them in your head. That is something I absolutely love to find in a book. Being able to picture a locale based on its description and then looking it up and having that mental image match what it actually looks like? There's nothing like it.

The characters are well written as well. Granted, as I was reading the book, I was imagining Tom Hanks as Langdon, so my perception may have been a little askew. That being said though, the other characters, whom I have no context for other than the text on the page, are fleshed out and believable too.

Inferno is worthy of 9 stars in my opinion

Honestly, this book had been sitting on my shelf for months, where I didn't spare it a second glance. I hadn't realized it was part of the same series of books like Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. Only after I saw the trailer for the movie adaptation did I put 2 and 2 together and was immediately drawn to it. I wish I had read it sooner in all honesty.

It's a great read, and definitely has some rereadability to it. I highly recommend it. And personally, I will be looking forward to seeing the film adaptation to see how Brown's literary genius translates to the silver screen once again.

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