Inferno by Dan Brown, the fourth volume of the
Robert Langdon series, opens with an amnesic Robert who needs to flee the
hospital to avoid getting killed by a hired gun. Helped by Dr Sienna Brooks, he barely escapes
only to find himself in the midst of a crisis: a plague that will annihilate one
third of the population of the world is to be released in 24h and the only way to
stop it is to solve the puzzle left by a madman. Will Robert’s knowledge of Dante’s Inferno
serve him well enough to prevent this disaster?
I’ve always liked the Robert Langdon series; they
remind me of the Indiana Jones movies.
However I must admit that so far, the format had been pretty repetitive
and linear. That didn’t bother me, but
it made the books slightly predictable.
In Inferno, however, Brown took a completely different approach by
throwing us right into the action. Just
as Langdon, we have no way of knowing what happened and have no option but to
go forward.
I really enjoyed the fact that all the action
happened within 24h. It made for a great
pace. Of course, as usual, many passages
contain explanations of the Dante symbology, which slow down the action. However,
it would be difficult to remove them because the reader would have no way of
understanding Langdon’s deductions. I
love learning while reading so I personally enjoy this. Plus, I feel this is Brown’s signature. To add to this, because of the structure of
the story, there is a lot of exposition through flashbacks. This weighs down the narrative a bit but it
didn’t really bother me. I guess Dan Brown
makes it works. I’m not sure a new
writer without a reputation could pull it off, though. Chances are an editor wouldn’t want to take
the chance to publish something that heavy.
As always, Robert was a lovable character. I definitely saw Tom Hanks in my mind and let’s
be honest, who doesn’t think Hanks looks like a nice guy? As for Sienna, she was a great pairing for
the professor; her superior intellect got them out of situations Robert couldn’t
have. What I really enjoyed was how,
aside from Robert, the motivations and intents of the other characters were never
what they seemed to me. Brown tricks the
reader into believing one thing, then another, making us as confused as his
main character.
The ending really surprised me and pleased me
very much. It was unexpected and very
different from the endings of the previous book. I recommend the book without hesitation.
