Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown

I read The Da Vinci Code about a year and a half ago and found it quite fascinating. Angels and Demons is a prequel to this; it is the first book featuring Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon.

The book begins with Robert receiving an early morning call. A physicist in a major Swiss reserach facility (CERN) has been murdered, and the center director wants Robert to analyze a symbol seared into the murdered man's chest. It is the word "Illuminati" written as an ambigram (the word looks the same both upside-down and rightside-up). The Illuminati were an ancient Italian brotherhood of learned men who objected to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Four of their members were brutally murdered by the church, and the others fled Italy. A new Illuminati emerged, one bent on revenge. And, despite all the academic evidence that the Illuminati no longer exists, it appears that they are exacting their revenge against the Catholic Church.

Whoever murdered the physicist also stole a vial of antimatter, a subtance identical to matter except that its particles' electrical charges are opposite to those found in matter. Antimatter is highly unstable, and a very small amount has a blast radius of nine city blocks. And it turns out that whoever stole it plans to blow up Vatican City. Furthermore, the Pope has recently died, and the four men who were the top choices to be the next Pope (the preferiti) were kidnapped. One will be killed each hour, until all are dead, and then Vatican City will be destroyed.

Robert teams up with Vittoria Vetra, the murdered physicist's adopted daughter and a physicist herself, and together they try to find the cardinals before it is too late. Meanwhile, members of the Swiss Guard try to find the canister of antimatter. In their search, Robert and Vittoria attempt to locate markers on an ancient path to the Illuminati lair.

I would have to say that I definitely learned a lot in reading both The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. The Author's Note at the beginning of Angels and Demons states that the Illuminati actually did exist, and that the references to works of art, tombs, tunnels, and architecture in Rome, as well as their locations, is factual and that all of these things can still be seen today. Furthermore, it is very thought-provoking reading in terms of science and religion and how these can be intertwined (if they can be), ethics, and so on. For example, the murdered physicist, who was also a Catholic Priest, believed that he had scientifically proved that some of the occurances in Genesis were at least possible, but this was very upsetting to some religious people, who believed that trying to prove such things scientifically was actually demeaning to God. Definitely fascinating reading.