Title: Inferno
(Robert Langdon Series #4)
Author: Dan Brown
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
First published: May 14th 2013
Finished reading: March 18th 2015
Pages: 461
“The human mind has a primitive ego defense mechanism that negates all realities that produce too much stress for the brain to handle. It’s called Denial.”
I promised myself wasn’t going to read any Dan Brown novels anymore, mostly because the general plot is becoming repetitive and with so many great books out there I prefer staying away from possible disappointments. But when I was given a copy of Inferno, I decided I was going to give the Robert Langdon series another try. I was told this fourth book is slightly different from the first three and thus refreshing… Although now I’ve read it, I’m not completely positive I agree. Sure, Dan Brown is able to write an entertaining story with a fast pace and easy-to-read prose, but somehow I constantly had a feeling of a deja vu. I enjoyed the setting in Italy and learning more about the architecture in Florence and Venice, but the general plot itself is quite similar to the previous books. Professor Robert Langdon with his life in danger and a beautiful woman helping him trying to solve the puzzle before it’s too late, people chasing them continuously… This could be a short summary of any of the three books I’ve read in this series. (The only one that’s missing is The Lost Symbol, of which I actually own a copy but I’m not sure if I end up reading it.) I guess Inferno ended up being exactly what I feared; entertaining, but too commercial and repetitive.
Robert Langdon is back, and it doesn’t start of well for him. He wakes up in a hospital without knowing where he is and how he got there… Instead of at the Harvard campus back home, he finds himself now far away and in the middle of Italy. Robert doesn’t have much time to think about his situation, as a mysterious woman shows up at the hospital and tries to kill him. The beautiful doctor Sienna Brooks ends up saving him and soon she is helping him on his quest as well. It turns out that Robert was in Italy on a mission, and the answers he is looking for are found in the city of Florence where he woke up. He now both has to try and escape the people who are trying to hunt him down and try to solve the puzzle at the same time. A nearly impossible mission… What has Dante’s masterpiece to do with all of it? And can Robert really trust the people around him? The professor soon has to race to find the answers on time before it’s too late…
This book seems to be extremely popular and very successful commercially, but I don’t think I would end up recommending it to someone. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I hated reading Inferno. I was just expecting something better and not the same old general plot I’ve read before. The threat of a virus or an epidemic disease makes for a nice twist, but in the end it is yet again Robert Langdon trying to save the day. Dan Brown‘s prose is easy to read, but unless he starts writing a novel with a different plot, I think I will stay away from his other novels.
Yep, to me it was like reading a history book set in a Dan Brown novel rather than the other way around, know what I mean? The history was more compelling. 😛 I won’t read another one either.
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My thoughts exactly! The historical references and the architecture descriptions for me were the best parts of the novel… Not the way I think Dan Brown had intented his novel. 😉
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Yeah, I doubt it. 😛
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I agree with you on this. I did find the book enjoyable for the most part, especially the twist! But some of the action sequences were a bit far-fetched, and I did notice a lot of similarities between this book and previous ones. After a while they can get a bit generic
But I’d say yes to reading The Lost Symbol, it’s one of the better ones. Just don’t touch Digital Fortress, that one’s awful!
-Christie 🙂
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Yeah, I agree. Good to know about The Lost Symbol; I will probably read it at some point just to complete the series! And unfortunately I’ve already read Digital Fortress a while ago, and I agree that one is aweful.
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One thing that was refreshing to me was the ending. (Yes, I’m going to talk about it.) I thought it was interesting that Langdon didn’t save the day. He kind of botched the message and the ‘evil’ mastermind had his way. He hasn’t yet proposed an alternate future that extreme in his other novels and I thought it was cool that he did. It gives him the opportunity (though I doubt he’ll take it) to explore that version of the world in future novels.
Happy reading!
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Yes, that’s true. At least it didn’t end in a total cliche, although *warning, spoilers!* the virus didn’t end up being as lethal as was expected… So it wasn’t the total disaster they were supposedly fighting against. But I agree that a book set in the aftermath of the disaster would definitely be interesting.
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