Just about a quarter of the way through this. It's very good so far.

This book is the prequel to "the Da Vinci" code and is slightly better written. It's another book about the Catholic church and science and power.Some of it is believable and the fast pace of the action makes up for the rest.

Smiling Postman just delivered the packet, book is in good shape and the packet wasn't harmed in any way. Can't wait to get into this, I'm planning to read this and Da Vinci Code (in English this time) in a row.

Angels and demons.. yep.

I actually liked this book, not as uch that I liked Da Vinci Code, but hey this wasn't so far behind it. I love series, I love that I knew Robert Langdon before.

I haven't been a fan of Catholic Church ever, and I'm very interested in secret societies and conspiracy theories. Hidden clues and especially ancient or otherwise older hidden clues are my favorites! I have a feeling that Robert Langdon series are going to capture me when ever they are published.

Ambigrams! The graphic designer in me was stunned. Now I know new word and it is all about graphic science.

So, I liked this book, I loved it because it made my brain twist with fact and fiction. Da Vinci Code made that too, but it is even better is the whole serie does it to you.

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I plan to offer it in a monthly meet up here at Tampere. We'll see.

One interested already, maarit.

I got this book in the meeting yesterday. I have already read the Da Vinci code so I wanted to check this out too. I don´t think Mr. Langdon is so special but I like the facts about history, religion, church etc... They´re really fascinating stuff. As this will be a ring I hope I finish it in the near futre. We´ll see...

I read this after finishing Da Vinci Code, so I thought I had a pretty good idea what it would be. I was right and I was wrong. Angels & demons has a lot more action than Da Vinci code, almost too much but its themes move in the same world as in the DVC(symbols, wrongdoings of the Church, cultural history). I liked the final twist in the plot, talking about poetical justice.

For anyone interested in the relationship between science, the catholic church and God this is a good one. I have to admit though that I hate, no I intensely dislike the hero of the book (and the Da vinci code) Robert Langdon. And I don´t know why... He´s just too much for me.

Still a book well worth reading. and people will talk to you if you read it in public place. Same happened with the DVC, absolutely everybody has heard about it and they wanna know if it´s any good. I´d say it is.

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As this was given to me in the monthly meeting in Tampere and it is a ring here are the participants (sorry folks, I forgot to make this list!)

aava <--here
margih
monke
flipa
chirel+ sammaltassu
em64
hunnamus

...and I will pass it to Margih, hopefully soon.
_________

17.11.2004

Send it to Margih today, hope she will get it asap as she`s going to a spa and will have lots of time to read it...

Thanks Aava, I received it half an hour ago :)
This book came to me just in time, I can start to read it today. And I´ll enjoy this book at least in the evenings at the spa, days can be busy in the pools, saunas, treatments, thermal baths, etc ;)

I´m impressed, I really loved this book. "Angels and Demons" is the first book by Dan Brown I´ve read and can´t wait to read all the others, too.
I really enjoyed reading this!

Got this from margih at the meetup. Have a couple of other ring books before this one...

Finished the book finally this morning - it took a while to read as it was just my bedtime reading. If you are running against the clock and have just 5 hours to save the Vatican, you would think that everything is happening with a breathtaking pace. But no, Dan Brown's biggest problem is that he is trying to tell too much in one book. The last 200 pages were good though when finally everything was really happening and not just waiting to happen. Having read Da Vince Code and Angels and Demons I'm starting to have some serious doubts that Mr Brown is having some unresolved issues with the Catholic church. It is like he is "attacking" the Vatican but like a good Catholic at the end he does not have the guts to fulfil his evil plans. And I don't even know whether he is Catholic or not... Might be that I have totally misunderstood the guy.

Will be passing on to the next member of the ring - if I only knew who it is...

Got it in the last meeting, forgot to journal it before.

Very intelligent and exciting book. I just couldn't stop reading it! The story was extremely clever and sounded real. I really want to read more books by Dan Brown. This was my first one and absolutely not the last one! I'm impressed.

This book was quite good. Actually it was hard to put down once I started reading it. I enjoyed the "conspiracy theory" -theme of Illuminati and the catholic church. Things I didn't enjoy that much were the violence inflicted on innocent characters and the many small similarities with the Digital Fortress.

Never having read Dan Brown I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Mostly, I guess I expected pop conspiracy entertainment with zero depth, and this was actually my initial impression of the book when I had read a few chapters. The story, in the beginning, had a naive feel to it, and the characters seemed shallow. The narration felt like it was addressed to a child, very simple and easy to chew, everything explained again and again and still again, in increasingly simple words. There were even some blaring errors (there is, according to Dan Brown, a language called Islamic).

After a while, the thickening plot and the quickening pace sucked me in and voilá, suspension of disbelief was born (and retained except for a few errors and silly points). The riddles and such were good and maintained my interest. I was pleasantly surprised when my assumptions about the plot and the characters were repeatedly proven wrong in the long finale, when twist after twist convinced me of Brown's skill in misdirection. But what really won me over, and made we want to read Da Vinci Code, was the fact that this book contains real thought. Religion and science are not simply themes for a plot here, they are really deeply examined and the story can be said to be about them. This book gets you thinking, in a good way. It's not just entertaining fantasy, it has real-world philosophical value.

I liked how Brown finished with a perfectly neutral stance on the central issues. You get to make your own conlusions and insert your own values. I don't understand the comments about Brown attacking Catholicism or the Vatican, he is very objective about them! But you have to finish the book before seeing the whole picture.

This book goes now to Monke, who apparently is the next in the ring.

Entertaining book. I have not read Da Vinci Code, so I can't compare, but I liked this one. I always have had a place in my heart for conspiracy theories so this one really was interesting. I liked the symbols that can be read either way.

Going next to EkaVekara, I think.

Thanks Monke. The book was brought by messenger from BookCrossers' meeting. I look forward to reading it.

The thematic duality and the sturdy structure initially set my hopes high for this one. Based on the flying start, I was hoping for a host of symbolic and scientific tidbits along the lines of duality, unity, and creation: the GUT, for instance. However, the mediocre storyline soon became unmistakably 'Dan Brown-ish' enough to cut my wings--seems like Brown's got all the right elements at hand, but once again the wrong formula. As always, I was majorly put off by the wafer-thin characters, including the main protagonist and his charming companion; the overly simplistic narration; and the identical plots in Brown's novels. However, the heights of the operatic closure no doubt suited the context here :-)

The philosophy of inversions/ambigrams could've been fully explored to make the novel a more fascinating read. Maybe John Langdon should've been called in to co-author?

However, I'm tempted to rank this one the most readable and the most philosophical of Brown's work I've read so far.
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Back to EkaVekara as soon as he finishes reading The Asti Spumante Code by Clements--a parody of The Da Vinci Code. Highly recommended for BookCrossers, btw.

This was certainly better than The Da Vinci Code. There were lots of action, thrill and surprises. A good read!

I cannot evaluate the accurateness of the numerous descriptions of particle physics, but I couldn't help paying attention to a few technical flaws. First of all, various characters were complaining about their cell phone having no dial tone (see, e.g., Chapter 25, p. 118; Chapter 27, p. 120; Chapter 106, p. 472). Well, I haven't heard of a cell phone with a dial tone.

The most famous formula of physics was presented as E = MC² (Chapter 29, p. 126). I agree that the notation is somewhat arbitrary, but I guess the standard way of putting this is E = mc². Note the italicized symbols and the distinction between upper and lower case.

In Chapter 100 (p. 440), the angel in Santa Maria della Vittoria was pointing west to Piazza Navona. In Chapter 105 (p. 467), the bird at Piazza Navona was looking west to Castel Sant' Angelo. However, these three places do not lie on the same straight line, as may be judged from the map of Rome presented on the first pages of the book, or from the trigonometrical considerations in Chapters 100 and 105.

Caught the book from BND happening.

CAUGHT IN TAMPERE PIRKANMAA FINLAND

Finally had time to read the book. It could have been better and it could have been worse - I liked it a bit but not as much as most of you here. After reading this and Da Vinci Code I think I've had enough of Brown's books. This had some interesting points and exitement in plot, but still I wasn't fully convinced.

A friend brought the book with her from Tampere, as she knew I inteded to read it anyhow. Finally had the time to read it. Well, the language wasn't as bad as in DaVinci Code which I read in Finnish (so a matter of translating?) but still...I admit skipping a lot of the "plot parts", romance bits etc, and reading througly only the interesting parts about science, Illuminati and Rome. But sure, exciting and refreshing since I don't read too much books from this genre.

I might not release the book quite yet, since my boyfriend intends to read it too.

CAUGHT IN TURKU FINLAND