Angels & Demons

[BarTopDancer]

I just finished reading Angels & Demons. I loved it. I think it was better than the DaVinci Code. More action, more at stake. It has been a very long time since a book sucked me in like this. I found myself with an open mouth going wtf more than once. Great book.

[katiesue]

I had the same opinion when I finished reading it too.

[flippyshark]

It was certainly an entertaining read, but I have to admit that one element went waaay off my suspension-of-disbelief scale. (It's something near the end so if you haven't read the book and plan to, do not open the spoiler window below.)

Jumping out of a helicopter many thousands of feet in the air holding onto a tarp? And then he was perfectly okay!?!?!?

Oh well, not like the book was aiming for anything like realism.

[Alex]

I barely made it through The Da Vinci Code because the writing was such hack. I made it about 75 pages into Angels & Demons before throwing the book away. I wasn't even willing to risk it getting into another person's hands. Better that it be recyled into cardboard.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

I guess it just depends on what you are looking for in a work of fiction. Personally, I'm less interested in logical feasability than I am in good storytelling and interesting characters. I thought "A&D's" had both and I preferred it over "The Davinci Code".

Of course, I also adore Dean Koontz, who many consider a hack.

[Alex]

The stories he is trying to tell are fine by me (though I strongly disapprove of his deceptions in claiming historical truth for some things that simply aren't). It is the quality of writing that I find abominable (but it is ok to disagree, just sharing my opinion).

[BarTopDancer]

While I think it would be amazing if The DaVinci Code were real (mainly due to my feelings towards organized religion), I don't, and never once thought it was real. The places are real, maybe the organizations are real, but the events? Fiction.

I never got the impression that A&D was being presented as historal truth.

[Alex]

So far as I know, nothing in Angels & Demons is presented as true that isn't. Things in The Da Vinci Code are presented as true that aren't.

But we've already had that discussion.

Independent of that, though, I find Dan Brown to be an incredibly inept writer.

[Not Afraid]

I thought A&D was better candy than DaVinci. Entertaining and fun but I agree Flippy's observation about the scee near the end. It really ruined it for me.

[BarTopDancer]

Jumping out of a helicopter many thousands of feet in the air holding onto a tarp? And then he was perfectly okay!?!?!?

This element has been used before in other novels that I read and I have come to accept that it is pure fantasy. It didn't bother me at all, didn't make me suspend the book-world I was submersed in. Maybe that's why.

[Alex]

This element has been used before in other novels that I read and I have come to accept that it is pure fantasy. It didn't bother me at all, didn't make me suspend the book-world I was submersed in. Maybe that's why.

Wait, so at the end of the book, if I understand that correctly,

a guy hand holds a tarp and uses it as a parachute to survive a long fall?

I have to ask, BTD, what books are you reading where that happens to often that you except it as a fantasy trope? I don't know that I've ever run into that in another book (and I read a lot of actual fantasy).

[Kevy Baby]

Yes Alex, that was what happened.

The problem with this element is that it is so farcical that it is very disruptive to the story line. While the book is fiction, it is not a fantasy novel. Putting that element in was like injecting a gnome with magical powers into the middle of a Tom Clancy book.

[jdramj]

I still enjoyed reading the book, regardless. I would love to visit the places mentioned in the book, and it is fun to ponder such fancilful things as a super secret scientist commune and such, even though there is no shred of truth to them. It is fun to just let my mind wander by getting sucked in a book like that after dealing with 4 kids and their homework and laundry and meals and my job....etc...

[BarTopDancer]

Wait, so at the end of the book, if I understand that correctly,

a guy hand holds a tarp and uses it as a parachute to survive a long fall?

I have to ask, BTD, what books are you reading where that happens to often that you except it as a fantasy trope? I don't know that I've ever run into that in another book (and I read a lot of actual fantasy).

Perhaps fantasy was the wrong word. But in a book where there is anti-matter, a Havard scholar going into the Vatican library alone, priests kidnapped and branded, a plane that can go from the US to Eurpoe in a half hour, etc... my illusion of reality was gone. I was in the world of Angels & Demons, and with everything else going on, no that didn't bother me. I was also still caught up in my wtf moment and had to see the sequence of books to see if A&D was before or after DVC.

[CoasterMatt]

While the book is fiction, it is not a fantasy novel. Putting that element in was like injecting a gnome with magical powers into the middle of a Tom Clancy book.
Isn't Patriot Games full of leprechauns? :evil: