inferno

inferno
robert langdon #4
dan brown
mystery/suspense
doubleday
published 2013

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology, Robert Langdon, is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history's most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces ... Dante's Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Landgon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science.  Drawing from Dante's dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust ... before the world is irrevocably altered.

My ranking of Dan Brown's novels seems to go in the order of which they were published.  This would be my least favorite in the Langdon series.

The book could have been like any great spy novel.  You don't know who to trust, who is telling the truth and just when you think you've got everything figured out the author turns everything upside down and you are back at square one.  It sounds great and in theory it is, but Brown has turned Robert Langdon into a smug and arrogant know-it-all who absently stares off into space remembering his past lectures and VIP status.  It was incredibly disheartening and frustrating.

The subject matter (which I won't reveal in order to keep this spoiler free) was not something new to me, but it also wasn't something I was particularly interested in.  What's more the history lessons and background information on Dante Alighieri was so thorough and excessive I was bored.  Descriptions of landmarks were so textbook-like and I found myself skimming or skipping passages altogether.  It was unpleasant.

Had I not had to read this book for my book club I wouldn't have finished it.  Once I got passed the first third of the book it was very slow going.