Inferno

Dan Brown. The brain behind The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol offers another thrilling story called Inferno that has the touch of History, Mythology, Crime and Mystery. Having read his previous books, I consider picking up his next book for reading as a safe bet. Obviously, I still haven’t got a chance to read his other books Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress but that doesn’t deter me from selecting this one. This book, like its predecessors, is based on the fictional symbolist Professor Robert Langdon of Harvard University who is requested to assist in saving the world (as always) by deciphering codes and symbols.

Plot: Like France (The Da Vinci Code) and the United States of America (The Lost Symbol), Italy offers a perfect location to Inferno. Robert Langdon, the famous professor, symbolist from Harvard University, wakes up in Florence without any knowledge about the events that happened a few hours (probably a day) earlier. He suffers from retrograde amnesia, which means his memory relating to the past few hours have been wiped off. He suffers from memory lapses at times, and hallucinations about a silver-haired lady, a green-eyed monster, a mask, hell and the book The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri.  With all the memories jumbled and mashed up, he is prone to be manipulated by people who are around him.

A potential disaster (a plague or a virus) has to be stopped that shall occur on a specific date and time. The person behind this is a dead scientist Bertrand Zobrist who wishes to curb the population of earth before the human species go on the verge of extinction. Langdon is well supported by a smart looking lady Dr Sienna Brooks, who has a past of her own to prevent this disastrous event. Behind the curtain, lies a puppet master who calls himself The Provost, the reason behind the catastrophic turn of events. The provost himself is unaware of the things done by the dead scientist who has been his client for the past year. For the provost, everything seems to be perfect, until his client Dr Zobrist commits suicide, leaving him in a catch-22 situation. The plot becomes dangerous and murkier with the involvement of the World Health Organization and Surveillance and Response Support. With manipulated stories all around him, Langdon has two tasks to accomplish, one being to prevent the disaster and the other being to regain his partially lost memory.

Does he succeed in his plan to foil the disaster? Does he regain his memory? Who is the antagonist? The answers lie within the book.

My Take: Honestly speaking, I would have preferred the book’s name to be Deception Point 2, the reason being the twists and manipulations that gracefully gel with the story plot. The historical references tend to get on the nerve at times. According to me, The Da Vinci Code was supposed to be the best book written by Dan Brown, until he wrote The Lost Symbol which has now been replaced by Inferno. By the end of the book, the reader literally feels sorry and confused about the characters, exhausted and relieved to have completed reading the book. Without a doubt, this book remains one of the best books written by Dan Brown.