3B Annotated Reading List

Brown, Dan. Angels and Demons. Leicester: Thorpe, 2007. Print.

Vatican city is plunged into panic as a powerful, dangerous technology is stolen from the world's foremost scientific research institution, having the potential to vaporize the city. Moreover the cardinals of the Catholic Church are in conclave, and all the cardinals are in Sistine Chapel, all except the four that are up for election. These events are tied together by an unlikely villain, and an equally unlikely hero arises to oppose that villain: He is the renowned Harvard Symbolist, Robert Langdon.
Langdon seems to fit an intellectual archetype, because he is simply so knowledgeable, and can figure pretty much anything out. Moreover, he is not a fighter or violent person at all, considering he had "the Hassassin" at gunpoint and still ended up nearly dying. I realize this could be offensive to other intellectuals, but all I'm saying is his character fits the stereotype: smart, sensitive, and abhorring performing violent acts himself.
710 Pages

Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code. New York: Anchor, 2006. Print.

In his second adventure, Langdon finds himself of a "Grail quest," traipsing about through Western Europe with the French police in hot pursuit. With a cryptographer of their ranks assisting him, he finds that he must crack the codes left by a brilliant man, the highest member of a society dedicated to protecting the grail, and discover many secrets not meant for his eyes. However, the secrets the grail contains could rock the world, and more specifically, the church, to the core, and one group will not let this happen under any circumstances. Enter Opus Dei, in The Da Vinci Code.
One dead ringer of seemingly all for Browns books is a complete unexpected twist near the end, preceeded by a vague, enigmatic enemy. In addition, this enemy always seems to end up being a close ally, bent on using whatever the entire quest is for to better mankind in their opinion. I'm sorry if that doesn't make much sense, but I am trying to accomplish two things; explain Brown's typical plot devices, and keep the specific characters names unanoucned. After all, who does not hate spoilers? Anyway, this knowledge makes for regular readers a sense of anticipation, a desire to see who is the defector, and for the new readers a very complex seeming plot web disrupted by a sudden moment of insight when the true enemy is revealed. These assets make Langdon's writings very interesting and holding, as well as spellbinding and time-consuming (in a good way).
597 Pages (Please count as 3 books.)