Reading – Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, p. 1- 42

This book actually came before the Da Vinci Code and is Robert Langdon’s first adventure.  I just found it last week and I’m excited to dig into this novel.

In the prologue, we are introduced to physicist Leonardo Vetra and he is being attacked.  The intruder asks for a password and when Vetra can’t give him one, the intruder continues to press a white hot object into Vetra’s chest, burning him. Then the intruder produces a blade and it hovers over Vetra’s face just long enough for Vetra to scream “For the love of God!”

In chapter 1, Robert Langdon is awakened by a discrete particle physicist named Maximilian Kohler at 5:18 a.m.  He claims he needs to see Langdon, however Langdon dismisses him and tries to go back to sleep.  Langdon then receives a fax of an image.  The image is a human corpse that had been stripped naked and its head had been twisted completely backwards.  Also, his right eye had been cut out.  On his chest was a terrible burn.  He was imprinted with a single word, “Illuminati.” The phone rings again.

In chapter 2, Langdon answers the phone and agrees to help. He is told it is an hour’s flight from Boston to Kohler’s lab.

In chapter 3, two men meet in a dark chamber. One asks the other, called the killer, if he was successful and the killer replies yes. He then gives the first guy a heavy electronic device and says that it’s an honor to serve the brotherhood.

In chapter 4, Langdon flies to Geneva, Switzerland

In chapter 5, the killer recalls how he met his employer, a man named Janus, on the phone fifteen days ago. He also thinks of his ancestors, the Hassassins as they were called, and how their name eventually evolved into the modern day word, assassin.

In chapter 6, Langdon arrives at CERN (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) and meets Kohler.

In chapter 7, Langdon and Kohler walk through the campus and talk.  On the way, they pass a free fall tube for indoor skydiving.

In chapter 8, they walk to Vetra’s room.

In chapter 9, Langdon examines the corpse and tells Kohler the history of the Illuminati brotherhood, which was thought to have vanished. Langdon reveals that the Illuminati symbol on the man’s chest is the long-lost symbol of the world’s oldest and most powerful satanic cult.

In chapter 10, the Hassassin has two hours to relax so he rewards himself for his hard work by going to a whore house.

In chapter 11, Langdon explains how he doesn’t actually think the Illuminati are resurfacing. He believes a more plausible explanation would be that some other organization has taken control of the Illuminati brand and is using it for their own purposes. He also doesn’t see why the Illuminati would want to murder a physicist because they believed in the abolition of Christianity and held men of science in the highest regard. Kohler states that Vetra was anything but an ordinary scientist.  They then enter Vetra’s study.

I thought this was very similar to the Da Vinci Code in that the novel opens with a murder and Langdon gets asked to check it out.  It also deals with a secret brother hood.  The style is also similar in the way some of the chapters are split between different perspectives.  Of course, this book came before the Da Vinci Code, so I guess the Da Vinci Code followed this format.  Although, this time Langdon is not a suspect and is really just there to help.