Inferno - Dan Brown

I am not too much of a Dan Brown fan so to say but I remember having quiet liked Da Vinci Code when I had read it back in college and then after reading  Angels and Demons my liking for Mr. Brown waned. Lost Symbol was lost to me and of course the in betweener's Deception Point and Digital Fortress were given the royal ignore. So I don't really know what made me pick Inferno up, probably it was the face book updates or the fact that the Divine Comedy actually lies in the Asiatic Society library in Mumbai which Mr. Brown seems to have moved it to Florence.

So anyway whatever the reasons I did pick it up and actually quiet enjoyed reading the book or atleast the first half which like most of Brown's books are replete with a lot of trivia which kind make you google stuff up. Inferno is of course at the very essence similar to the other books, Langdon getting up dazed, asking help from his consulate, being helped a woman who just happens to understand his situation and saves the day for him and later he is able to save the world. What works in all of this tried and tested formulaic story line is the wonderful way in which the theme is ensconced, in this case it Dante's Divine Comedy and other historical pieces associated with it and with it contemporary scientific research and fiction on Overpopulation, transhumanist movement etc,. What did not work for me for the elaborate description of architecture of the museums in Italy and Turkey (the Hagia Sofia in this case). Probably I would have enjoyed it more had I seen those places before hand or if Mr. Brown had also provide some kind of pictorial depictions of the same for other wise these descriptions were only making the story loose it's pace. I actually skimmed through a lot of these passages. Of course the story is gripping, rife with all the trivia and mystery which makes it a good read but I would definitely want to give the architecture a miss. All in all it's a decent book and Inferno is definitely a book one should own, for beneath the cover lies the beautiful painting of Gustav Dore of the river Styx on the book.

Actually has the making's of a priced possession.