A book I recently read is Angels and Demons by Dan brown. I really enjoyed it: it was intriguing, intense, caught my attention, and left me speechless in the end.
For those of you who haven’t read the book, it is an amazing story, a mixture of science fiction, adventure, and mystery. The action is mainly in Rome and the Vatican where and ancient scientific brotherhood, persecuted by religion, is raising to destroy the religious capital of the world. A man and a woman are digging out ancient works from the leader of the scientific community in order to prevent the Vatican from disappearing and to save the lives of many. At the end, the Vatican is saved and just as the story is about to have a happy end, a dark, shameful, and disturbing secret is revealed. The chamberlain turns out to be the initiator of the threat against the Vatican with the single idea of restoring people’s faith in God.
The amazing plot of this book made me think about people’s goals and purposes. Does the goal justify the means? What does each of us believe in? Why do we need to believe in something and is it wrong if we do not see God in religion but in science or in art? ... I believe many of the questions that the book sets are given some answer that doesn’t impose itself but rather gives the reader background on what to think about. The need of people to believe in something and the controversy on what this something should be are undoubtedly the most important issues in the book. They gave birth to the war between religion and science centuries ago. Angels and Demons still does not solve this eternal problem but proposes some solutions and compromises so that peace and tolerance could finally be found.
Another part of the novel that impresses me was the solving of mysteries, interpreting signs, and looking for clues. The two main characters were trying to save the lives of the four preferiti (the cardinals most decent to take the popes position), running across Rome, looking for the four altars of science. The genius of the ancient architecture of the altars and the founder of the scientific community in Rome, who managed to hide its message from those who want to destroy science, astonished me. The book kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time and I just could not wait to read what happens next. The perfect mixture of science fiction and mystery made Angels and Demons my favorite book.
