Angels & Demons door Dan Brown

Title: Angels & Demons Author: Dan Brown Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc. Edition: 2000 Number of pages: 569 Title explanation: The title referrers to the 4 indications to find ‘The Path of Illumination’. Every indication is hiding in a statue. You can find ‘The Path” by following the angels. Which genre does the book belong to? The genre of the book is thriller. Where is the story set? In Vatican City
The setting of the story: The story is set in Vatican City. The main subject is ‘Illuminati’. They stole antimatter from Leonardo Vetra, and they killed him. They threaten to blow the Vatican up, by placing the dangerous antimatter into The Vatican. That’s where the story is set. Is it important to know where it happens in order to understand the story? Yes, because the writer tells you al lot about the conclave. And they are searching for the killer and the antimatter at different places in Vatican City. When is the story set? The story is set 15 day’s after the pope died. The conclave is a sanctified event to select a new pope. Describe a passage/situation in the story to illustrate your answer: When they just got there, the conclave just begins. Nobody can enter, or leave the main-fault. Is it important to know in which period the story is set in order to understand what happens in the book? Why (not)? No. But you have to know it happens during the conclave, but you will read it. You can’t miss it. Is the story told in chronological order or are there flashbacks or big intervals in the story? Illustrate your answer by giving examples from the book. There are no flashbacks or something like that. There is one chapter, where you get to know why Robert can swim that good, and why he’s a little bit claustrophobic.
Give a short outline of the story in your own words. It is not possible to keep the outline short. It’s a very complicated story. It is kept as short as possible. The story begins with an event, in which two people take place. The reader knows nothing about the previous events, and why the two people are doing what they do. The two people are physicist Leonardo Vetra, and an intruder. Then the real story begins. The first head character is introduced, Robert Langdon. He is dreaming in his bed in Massachusetts when he is being awoken by the ring of his telephone. It’s 5:18 A.M. On the phone is Maximilian Kohler, a discrete particle physicist. He wants to see Robert immediately because of a murder in his lab, CERN.* Robert Langdon, who is a professor of religious iconology at Harvard University, doesn’t understand what he has to do with that until he gets a fax. On this fax the corpse is shown, with branded on the chest a single word, Illuminati. Now Robert has seen this, he decides to do what Kohler had asked, and he comes to C.E.R.N. Then there is a switch to two men. One is the killer of Leonardo Vetra, the other one is his constituent. Then you go back to Robert Langdon, who flies from Boston to Geneva in 1 hour, with a plane that goes Mach fifteen. Then there is again a switch to the killer, who tells his story about how he has met his task maker, and about some kind of brotherhood. Then we go back to Robert, who has landed in Geneva, and meets Maximilian Kohler. Kohler brings him to the body of the late Leonardo Vetra. While walking through CERN, Robert doesn’t know where to look. In the office of Leonardo Vetra there is a thick, white fog. This is to preserve the body. In the office Robert -after having examinate the body- tells about a secret brotherhood called the Illuminati. It appears to be a brotherhood set up by the brightest minds in the 1500’s. They had an ultra secret lair in Rome they called the Church of Illumination. Langdon then tells about the background of the group, and the symbols of it. Then we go to another character, a young guard, he notices something strange on the video monitors before him, he sees some kind of canister. Then we go back to Langdon. He is shown the study of Leonardo Vetra, and then Kohler and he go to await Vittoria Vetra, the daughter of Leonardo. The three of them then go to her and her father’s lab. There explains Vittoria about her work as a particle physicist. She tells that her father and she have created antimatter. There in the lab, they find out that a large canister of antimatter has been stolen. This is a big problem, because when antimatter comes in contact with matter, both dissolve. The canister contains a full quarter of a gram, which converts to almost five kilotons**, and once removed from its recharging platform at CERN, the canister would count down inexorably. When they’re back in the main atrium, Kohler gets a phone call, in which he is told where the canister is. He sends Vittoria and Robert of to that place, Vatican City. In between these chapters, another character is introduced. This man, Cardinal Mortati, is in St. Peter’s Cathedral. He oversees a sanctified event, called conclave. This is to elect a new pope. Through his eyes, you get to know that there are a lot of cardinals from all over the world, and that four cardinals are missing. These were not ordinary cardinals, but the chosen four, i preferiti. In Vatican City, Langdon and Vittoria are taken to the office of the Swiss Guard. There they meet Commander Olliveti, the person in charge there. Langdon and Vittoria can’t convince Olliveti to search for the missing canister, because he thinks that it isn’t dangerous. Then they try to speak with the late pope’s ‘chamberlain’, il camerlengo. In the Pope’s office, Langdon and Vittoria explain the whole situation. The camerlengo does take them serious. While they’re in the office, the assassin (the killer of Leonardo) calls. He tells about the four missing cardinals, he tells that they are going to be killed in public. They we’re going to be killed at the markers of ‘The Path of Illumination’. Langdon goes to the archives of Vatican City to find the clue for the first marker. These markers are four sculptures that are a tribute to the four elements of science, Earth, Air, Fire and Water. In the archives they find a book which leads them to the Pantheon. When Langdon and Vittoria are in the Pantheon, they can’t find one of the missing cardinals. Few moments later, they notice that they are in the wrong church, and have to go to Santa Maria del Popolo. Once Langdon, Vittoria and Olliveti are there, they find the cardinal, already dead, with on his chest the word Earth. In the church they search for another clue to the next marker. They find it, and notice that it’s at St. Peters Square. When they arrive at the square, Langdon is the first one to find the second cardinal, but he couldn’t be saved any more, he had the word air on his chest. Langdon goes again to the archives, and finds the next marker, a sculpture in Santa Maria Della Vittoria. But he is locked in the room because someone had just killed power. When he finally escapes, and gets to the church with Vittoria and Olivetti, the third cardinal is still alive and hangs in the church. Beneath him is a fire, and the word fire is also branded on his chest. The assassin is still in the church. He kills Olivetti, tries to kill Langdon and takes Vittoria with him. Langdon can escape from the fire, and finds the last mark, at Piazza Navona. Here he with the assassin, who puts the fourth and last cardinal in the Fountain of the Four Rivers. Langdon finds himself in another battle with the killer, but can escape once again and at the fountain he finds the last mark which points to Castle Sant’ Angelo, the Church of Illumination. There he finds Vittoria and the assassin, and they fight again. This time, Langdon and Vittoria can kill the assassin, and they go off to St. Peter’s Cathedral to find the canister. The camerlengo knows suddenly where it is, but when they have it, it’s too late to bring it to CERN. The camerlengo and Robert then go into a chopper, and fly as high as they can. They let the chopper go higher, and they both jump out of it. Langdon survives, and on the ground he and Vittoria discover the truth about the whole situation. It appears that the camerlengo has been the task maker for the assassin, and that he has set up the whole plan. The camerlengo, once he finds out that the truth has come out, burns himself on top of St. Peters Cathedral. After all these events, we go to a new day, later. A new pope is selected, and Robert and Vittoria have survived all the horror, and enjoy a vacation in Rome. *CERN stands for Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire, and is the world’s largest scientific research facility. It stands in Geneva, Switzerland. **A kiloton is the same as 1.000 metric tons of TNT. From whose perspective(s) do we get the story? Explain your answer by referring to the story. We get the story from Robert Langdon. There is no speaker, but you get to know what he thinks and wants. Later in the book, you will get to know Vittoria’s thoughts too. Who is/are the main character(s) in the book? Why do you think so? The main characters are Robert Langdon, Vittoria Vetra (owner of the antimatter), Maximilian Kohler (CERN), the assassin (the killer from the Illuminati, Olivetti (head security Vatican City) and il camerlengo. You get a lot to know about them, and the whole story is about them. Is there a character in the book you really liked or hated? I disliked Maximilian Kohler. He’s a grumpy man, who has no feelings, as it seems. He can’t walk, so he sits in a role chair. He never smiles or laughs. That all together makes him a scary man. I don’t trust him. In the story you find out that he’s guilty, so my feelings were true. What is the most important subject in the book? Why do you think so? Explain this by giving examples from the book. The most important subject is the ‘Illumination’. That is a group of assassins, which –according to scientists- died many years ago. Everyone thinks that they don’t exist anymore. But now, they seemed to be alive again. People are murdered by one person, and every time he kills somebody, he leaves a fire mark behind. They know that he works for the Illuminati because the marks are the symbols of the Illuminati. The Illuminati stole the antimatter and hides it somewhere in the Vatican. The story is about finding the antimatter and the assassin who killed 4 cardinals in charge of the Illuminati.
What kinds of ideas/opinions about this subject are being described in this book? Did the writer of the book try to show you something about this particular subject? In other words what is the theme of the story? The theme is cooperation, how to work together, and solve the problem. There is a lot of tension in the book, because they don’t know if they are on time. It is an explosive international thriller. Everybody knows the book. There is no massage in the book, but it could be reality. Only the antimatter is doubting. That is what I like about a book. It is fantasy, but it COULD BE reality.