Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon starts his search for the murderer of Leonardo Vetra, one of CERN’s top physicists, on request by Maximilian Kohler, the director of CERN, when he had been found dead with the ambigram of the word ‘Illuminati’ seared onto his chest.
The Illuminati were an apparently extinct secret society. Alongwith Vittoria Vetra, Leonardo’s daughter, Langdon starts his search for a stolen canister of a dangerous substance, antimatter, a few grams of which could destroy miles of earthly matter in a single annihilation. It ran on batteries, powering it for a mere 4 hours more. The canister was detected to be in Vatican City, Rome.
In Rome, Langdon and Vittoria get involved in a search for the four missing ‘Preferiti’, who had been nominated for election in place of the late Pope. They are assisted by Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca, the late Pope’s closest aide.
Langdon and Vittoria begin on a quest to retrace the ‘Path of Illumination’, a task set for any new member of the Illuminati, which led to the four ‘Altars of Science’, four major locations in Rome believed to be associated with the four prime elements of all things in existence: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Incidentally, the Preferiti were to be executed at these holy places as ‘sacrifices’ to the good Lord.
With time hopelessly running out, the Swiss Guards evacuate the St. Peter’s Basilica. In the meantime, the Camerlengo apparently drifts into a trance and retrieves the lost canister from the catacombs beneath the Basilica, claiming to have been directed by God, and takes it high up into the sky in a helicopter for imminent annihilation. He had faultlessly preplanned his descent to the roof of the Basilica with a parachute. This would have been masterfully stage – managed if the overenthusiastic Langdon did not climb up to the ‘copter to witness the whole incredible incident and miraculously survived to tell the tale.
Meanwhile, Cardinal Mortati faced a collapse in the ancient system of voting when the Camerlengo appeared unhurt to greet the crowd outside and overwhelmed by the apparent ‘miracle’, they started chanting his name. Mortati’s second attempt at resuming the voting was interrupted by the display of the video recorded by Kohler of his visit with the Camerlengo, where he brands himself and also confesses his role in creating the illusion of the Illuminati. At this intersection of Truth, Science, Religion and Rituals, the Camerlengo, a religious fanatic, sacrifices himself by burning, as if at a stake.

A scientific thriller, this book is almost suitable for anyone above ten years of age, whose opinion about science is not something exceptionally boring.

Dan Brown takes modern scientific facts and gives them a greater dimension, so that it is permeated in the atmosphere of Faith and Thought. Some comments voicing the message of the author constitute the basis of my own ideas. Vittoria Vetra says that Faith is universal, and the way we study it depends on us. Some of us pray to Jesus, some of us go to Mecca, while some of us study subatomic particles. This problem finds its solution in the remarks of Leonardo Vetra, where he says:

‘… yet remarkable solutions to seemingly impossible problems often occur in these moments of clarity. It’s what gurus call higher conciousness. Biologists call it altered states. Psychologists call it super – sentience. And Christians call it answered prayer. Sometimes, divine relation simply means adjusting your brain to hear what your heart already knows.’

Vittoria Vetra is no showpiece in the novel, but an integral part of its intense 24 – hour drama. Her cryptic remarks keep the pace of the storyline clear and intelligible. She is the prelude of the story and its culmination. Robert Langdon uncovers the history, contributing to the strange, the medieval and the mysterious. The Camerlengo is the crux of the story. He is schizophrenic, with a scheming one – track mind, but a forceful character – a staunch believer in Catholic religion, but incongruously believes that he had to help his religion to survive. His faith redeems his character as a tragic counter – hero.
For myself, my first – hand experience of visiting Rome and the Vatican provided a reality as a basis on which the twilight atmosphere of stalking death rendered it a gripping, absorbing experience.

To achieve the tremendous impact of the climax and the denouement, Brown had tweaked some facts in places. He has said that antimatter was a limitless source of energy and power, while in reality, it consumes more energy than it releases. Moreover, CERN does not at all have red brick buildings – they are white concrete buildings.
On the other hand, the World Wide Web was indeed invented by CERN. Not only that, it is very difficult to store antimatter as well, for its property of instant annihilation. So it has to be stored in an electromagnetic trap of a canister. But the few grams of antimatter which was stored was too big an amount to be stored that way.

I'm a science student myself, and this book made me feel.... TRIUMPHANT!

Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, who was born and raised in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA. He is best known for the 2003 bestseller, The Da Vinci Code. His novels are set in a 24 – hour time period, featuring the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and religious or scientific conspiracy theories. The young Brown used to spend hours on anagrams and puzzles. He was a student of Amherst College. He suggests that his books may be used as a positive catalyst for introspection and exploration of Christian faith.

Bookbrowse.com has described the novel as ‘part thriller, part mystery and all action.’ Kirkus Reviews has described the events of the story as ‘thrilling cat-and-mouse manoeuvres’, while ebooknet.com has commented that if Tom Clancy and Umberto Eco could be fused together, Dan Brown would be the result.

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Created Jul 09, 2011 at 8:35am • Submit your own review...