4 stars****
Dan Brown is one of my favourite authors. I was actually badly waiting for his new release and when this book came out, I was so excited (Robert Langdon is back!).
As much as I love to, it is difficult to write a review about this book because it is a suspense story and if you are planning to read it, I don’t want to ruin the suspense. So here is just an overview of the book:
'The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis' - Dante Alighieri
The whole story is based on above quote. A genius genetic scientist Bertrand Zobrist is very obsessed with Dante Alighieri’s Divine comedy, a great poem describing Dante's journey after death through hell to heaven. Dante's hell has 9 rings for different type of punishment and the darkest place in there is for those who don't react in crisis as the quote suggested.
It is shown that Zobrist is concerned about overpopulation and believes that according to the size of the earth, the population should be around 4 billion. He sees population growth as a major crisis world is facing now. So, in order to react to the crisis, he has plotted a virus to decrease the population growth. To stop this destruction, the World Health Organisation hires a symbolist Robert Langdon to crack a code that is believed to guide them to a place where Zobrist has hidden his virus. Now, Langdon has 24 hours to crack the code and save the world. Still, I don’t understand why Zobrist had to leave the code behind for finding the virus if he didn’t want anyone to find it.
There are obviously things to criticise but…. I still love to read Dan Brown. I like to read for all his hard work he spends researching his plot and time he invests in deciding what to put in this book. His books give me a feeling that I am watching a serial, where there are similar characters and genre but different plots. I love them because they belong to the category where you know what’s going to happen but don’t know at the same time. I love them, also because once I am done with reading for a day, I still think about the story and assume what’s going to happen after that. Even if Dan Brown writes a worst book ever, I will still read it.
The best things about his books are, it describes the history of the places in such an interesting and adventurous way. The book is fast paced and has suspense from 1st page till last page. That makes the whole story more interesting. Overall, a great read. Just wondering when he is writing next!