Inferno: A Novel

The favorite author of the new generation readers has once again struck with his powerful pen, a mesmerizing and wonderful fiction, worth reading many times.Robert Langdon, the American professor, highly talented and expert in mythological symbols of the old world is called upon by the World Health Organization (WHO) to break the secret code of the famous painting of Dante’s Map of Hell also referred as La Mappa dell’Inferno, to unveil a dangerous plot by a renowned genetic engineering scientist Bertrand Zobrist, to destroy human race. The plot opens in Florence, Italy and winds up in Istanbul, Turkey passing through a series of twists and turns in tracing the final destination of the secret place and date where the scientist proposes to release the dangerous virus to the world, in a Sunken Palace somewhere in the middle of the world. In this journey, the reader is taken through a beautiful journey in gaining exquisite knowledge of Dante Alleghieri’s famous work “The Divine Comedy” composed in early 1300s, wherein he describes his great journey through the various stages of the so-called Hell in Christian religion. This great composition is the most widely read and respected in the world. Dante’s interpretation of his Hell and the Great Plague of Europe in the 1300s (also referred as Black Death) were contemplated to arrive at a disturbing fact that the World is over-populated as of now and needs to downsize the existing population by some means as fast as possible to help the human race to continue for some more centuries. This called for Bertrand’s wild and brilliant idea of creation of highly virulent air-borne vector virus that if enters the human body renders him/her infertile forever. This according to the scientist is the only immediate solution to curb the ever increasing human population that shall lead to widespread calamities, famines, starvation deaths and disasters in the near future. His great leadership on the Transhumanist movement whose fundamental tenets is that we as humans have a moral obligation to participate in our own evolutionary process and use our technologies to create healthier, stronger and intelligent human beings without waiting for the long periods of natural evolutionary process. However, Robert Langdon with the help of WHO and Sienna Brooks, lover of Bertrand Zobrist and a highly intelligent doctor do find the place and date of the release of virus. But will they be able to save the world? One must read this wonderful work of Dan Brown to catch the excitement!Pros: Some of the greatest places of interest in art and architecture across Italy, Venice and Turkey have been widely described with a lot of information on the history and significance of each and every great monument built that stands as a mark of human intelligence in the ancient period. The author’s outstanding talent in his research abilities and zeal to pursue world history through art and architecture is absolutely unmatched as of today. The reader will remain hypnotized and carried right into the middle of the scenes as long he/she is reading the book.The description of Piazza Del Duomo, the statue of David, Vasari’s paintings, cylinder seals, Death masks, the Medici, Palazzo Vecchio’s Hall of Five Hundred, Boboli gardens, Buontalenti Grotto, the Vasari Corridor, Uffizi Gallery, Mappa Mundi, the church of Dante, the Baptistry of San Giovanni, Gates of Paradise, The Rod of Asclepius, the grandeur of Vatican city, the Doge’s Palace, St.Mark’s Basilica, the Transhumanist Philosophy, the cupola of San Simeone Piccolo, story of St. Lucia’s bones, the origin of the word ‘quarantine’, the Grand Canal of Venice, the Venetian Gothic Architecture, the Byzantine architecture, the history of Horses of St.Mark’s, the Pala d’Oro, the Bosporus Waterway of Istanbul, the mosque of Hagia Sophia (considered as the eighth world wonder), Istanbul’s 300 yr old Spice Bazaar, the tomb of Henricus Dandalo, the Sunken Palace and finally the Dante Symphony by Franz Liszt are some of my interesting topics for study in this book.Cons: The fact that the great American professor was mentally manipulated through a series of illusions by the World Health Organization to help them decode the secret lying behind in Dante’s painting to save the world was not acceptable to me. Though Bertrand’s vision and cause is worth a standing ovation, the means he chose to achieve the goal seemed to be wrong.My favourite quote in the book :“The decisions of our past are the architects of our present”My rating is 5 out of 5

Dan Brown's new Robert Langdon adventure will attract a broad audience. When you see copies for sale on point-of-purchase standups in the grocery store, you can count on that.Will it please his cohort of current readers? Probably. Will it top The DaVinci Code as a cultural phenomenon? Probably not.It is definitely a `Robert Langdon book'. Much of the plot consists of Langdon running around Florence and Venice, hand in hand with an attractive, intelligent woman who is younger than him. They will see many magnificent works of art, particularly architectural works. Each will have a deep history and each will have aspects, quirks, symbols and secrets that Robert Langdon will explain to us. The plot is quite complex and the ongoing commentary on Dante's Inferno (and the rest of the Divine Comedy) will hold the reader's interest.The story (keeping spoilers to a minimum): Langdon wakes up in a Florence hospital with amnesia and a wound to the head. He escapes through the offices of a young doctor, as individuals are attempting to either kill him or at least keep him from pursuing his quest. The quest is to discover a plot perpetrated by a very rich and very intelligent but potentially quite mad, neo-Malthusian scientist, who is concerned about overpopulation and grand ways to abruptly curtail it. The scientist has hired a secret firm directed by `the provost' (this will be an odd choice of title, to most academics), who is running interference for the scientist and facilitating his plans. The provost, however, is not fully aware of the nature of the scientist's plans and after the scientist commits suicide and the nature of those plans becomes clear, the provost has second thoughts.Simultaneously, the plans are a great concern to a woman who heads the World Health Organization. Either she or the provost (this is not immediately clear at the novel's outset) has, at his or her disposal, a small group of darkly-clad shock troops who are also after Langdon.The chief mysteries are: what is the scientist's plan? Why does Langdon have amnesia? Who is after him and why? Who is on his side and who isn't? Will he be able to foil the now-dead scientist's plan? And, ultimately, who can he trust, since the characters may not all be what they pretend to be?The art history/architectural/Dantean materials are all interesting and, Brown claims, all quite true. The Dantean materials, however, are not as integral to the plot as the title would suggest. The title also refers to the scientist's plan and that is the central plot element in the book, not some new, canny, revolutionary reading of the Divine Comedy.Bottom line: this is not a book in which religion, theology or intellectual history play a central role. It is a `mad scientist' book, though the scientist might not actually be mad.It is also not a terribly plausible book. At some points we almost feel as if we have walked onto the set of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (if Napoleon Solo were an art historian). The factual content is very imposing and impressive, but, sentence-by-sentence, the writing can be crude and nearly comic.The book will meet the expectations of most Dan Brown readers and it will hold nearly every reader's attention. It will doubtless be made into a movie, but that movie will be tricky to direct, since the plot's convoluted and often implausible premises, combined with its mad-dash action will present problems of integration and continuity. Unless the material is handled very skillfully (and perhaps seriously tweaked), I would expect some gasps of incredulity from the audience.For all that, it is a good summer book with a great deal of material on some of the world's artistic masterpieces. While it is not up to the standard of The DaVinci Code it will not challenge or shock any religious sensibilities.

Very captivating and makes you wanna turn every page.

Atendeu às expectativas

Dan Brown fans are never disappointed with Mr Langdon and his adventures and this one is no different. Absolutely thrilling and gripping from the beginning to the end and what a fantastic conclusion it has got. Some of the ideas in his books are really surprising on how close they are to real life issues to the world and what some of the environmentalists think of it. Crazy read and a thrilling finish!

And another book with the lead character of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. This time he has to solve a puzzle that has many riddles and codes to understand.I am impressed by the quality of storytelling that Dan Brown puts into his books. Many years ago I read his The Da Vinci Code, was blown away by it’s content and abandoned my daily newspaper to read novels instead. Inferno has the same intensity as The Da Vinci Code and the storytelling dazzled me again. My interest was maintained throughout as there are tonnes of background to enjoy. I got so much reading pleasure from this very long read that runs to 528 pages.I enjoyed this thrilling adventure which has lots of twists and turns together with many lies, plenty of deception and a lot of reasoning. This conspiracy develops at a good pace and Dan Brown quotes numerous examples from the past to back up his novel. Inferno was written in 2013, long before Covid-19 but it makes you wonder considering all the references to China in this story and what happened in 2020 globally in real life. Inferno is an intelligent read that poses the scary question of what mankind can do about overpopulation and the future of our planet and species. Along the way the reader learns a lot about art, history, numbers, religion and symbols.I enjoyed reading Inferno and found it very entertaining. I liked how Robert was able to find hidden secret passages and there was even a hint of romance between Robert and Sienna Brooks. Looking back I consider Inferno to be an OUTSTANDING 5 star read. This book has it’s critics but I found it fun and very engaging.

I recommend 100% the seller. With the cellphone screens my eyesight have deteriorated very fast. So the large print books are great for me. I just wished that the publishers paid more attention to this. The book is in perfect, almost pristine condition. And if you like informed and exciting thrillers and walk through the streets and museums of Florence, Inferno is a very good option, and Dan Brown is a great and cultured guide. (Note: Inferno it's not about hell, but Dante's masterpiece).

The quality of the paper is bad, but I noticed this is the case with most English editions.. I am probably used to the good quality of the Italian editors. As for the story itself it's really great, Dan Brown as usual is able to take the reader to the adventures with the characters, and it is possible to lean new things, in this case artwork and buildings..I couldn't put the book down, it is really engaging.