I just started a job as an acquisitions editor for a publishing house. So now I'm getting paid to be judgmental (and to read all day which is better than great). So now I'll share some judgments here, too, about books I've read. I promise I'll never reveal any spoilers so they all will be safe to read.
Inferno by Dan Brown
4 Stars
Dan Brown is an incredible story-teller, which is why you can read his 400-500 page books in a few days. They play better in your mind than the movies do on the screen. This book was not his best. (The Da Vinci Code will probably always hold the title for that one.) The confusion and lack of purpose at the beginning makes it drag slightly more than I am used to with Brown, but once you start getting clues from events that happened before the narration started, it picks right back up again.
I loved this book, but I'm not sure if it was because the story rivaled that of Angles and Demons of if it was because I got to visit everywhere Langdon went in Italy a week later. (If you are going to Florence or Venice anytime soon, READ THIS BOOK.)
My biggest problem with Brown's books are his cliches. Aside from the cliche phrases that the characters use a bit too much, Robert Langdon being a tall, handsome, mature, and wise hero with one "fatal" flaw off being claustrophobic is too big of a cliche for a rounded protagonist.
However, this book was worth the read. Dan Brown is so good at throwing surprises at you at the very last minute, making you think that it could not possibly make sense by the time you get to the end, and then revealing all the turn of events in a whole new way. Well done, Brown. You did it again.
And here's a little trinket for your time:
Just laxing on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
