Teuntje, Boekverslag 3: Dan Brown - Angels and demons

1. Beschrijvingsopdracht


Dan Brown, Angels and Demons, Simon & Schuster inc., 2000

Ik heb dit boek gekozen omdat ik in dezelfde periode naar Rome zou gaan. Ik wist dat dit boek zich in Rome afspeelde. Daarnaast had ik de Da Vinci Code ook al gelezen, wat ik een erg goed boek vond. Ik wist dat dit boek eraan vooraf ging, daarom was ik wel nieuwsgierig. Ik vond het wel handig om het te combineren met mijn engelse boekverslag, en heb het dus in het engels gelezen.

samenvatting:

The book begins with a prologue, in which immediately tension is being stirred up. 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 opdrachtgever. 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 recharching 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 hassasin (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 Olliveti, 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 hassasin is still in the church. He kills Olliveti, 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 meets with the hassasin, 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 Castel Sant’ Angelo, the Church of Illumination. There he finds Vittoria and the hassasin, and they fight again. This time, Langdon and Vittoria can kill the hassasin, 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 hassasin, 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 elected, and Robert and Vittoria have survived all the horror, and enjoy a vacation in Rome.
Bron: http://www.scholieren.com/boekverslagen/18586

2. Verdiepingsopdracht

Dear Robert Langdon,

I must say it is quite an adventure, all that you’ve been trough.
First of all, I want to praise you for your heroic behaviour. You had nothing to do with this whole case, knew none of these people, and still, you decided you wanted to help and get things solved. I think that’s very admirable. Is it in your nature to do the right thing for mankind? Because I noticed that you do kind of the same in the Da Vinci Code.
I do think you act kind of cool when you see the dead body of Leonardo Vetra. I personally would be absolutely disgusted if I would see a body mutilated like that. You seem to feel the same way in one way, but in the other way you deal with it like you see that kind of stuff every day. Which I don’t think you do.
How come you’re so interested in those mystic things? You know a lot about symbolism and occult groups like the illuminati. I couldn’t get from the book why that is. It would have brought maybe a little more depth to your character.
I think it’s good of you that you explain everything about the illuminati in a very clear way to everyone involved. In that way, us readers can also learn a few things, and we don’t lose track of the story.
I think you did a good job when you were trapped in the office of Olliveti. It’s a good thing you knew that when a Pope dies, the Camerlengo is in charge until a new one is elected. Though this was also a little bit too much of a coincidence… But still, a smart thing that you called the Camerlengo and came out of the office that way. Of course you didn’t know then that it was the Camerlengo who set the whole thing up.
I also admire your brightness. You always seem to keep your head in the game and have everything under control. This is a very good thing in these kind of situations. The way you found the Path of Illumination so fast was a bit unbelievable, but if you hadn’t, whole Rome would have been blown away. So I suppose it’s a good thing. Every other person would’ve never come up with all those churches and sculptures so fast. Because everything happened in just a few hours.
The way you pretend you’re dead in the fountain is also quite genius. You breathe through a tube and stay at the bottom of the fountain. That was the hassassin thinks you’re dead when you actually aren’t. That was really smart.
What wasn’t so smart, is that you get in that chopper. Even I knew that he was planning on escaping with the one parachute. So it was kind of stupid to go with him. But you make that up with all your brilliantness in other situations.
I understand that you do everything in the story so unbelievably fast, it’s to keep everything going and keep it exciting for the readers.
And in that you succeeded the most. You did keep me on the tip of my chair and following you every move. I want to thank you for that. I really enjoyed reading your adventure and finding out so much about Rome, the Illuminati, the Vatican, all those statues and all the hidden symbols in everything.

3. Evaluatie

Ik vond het een heel vermakelijk boek om te lezen. Het is erg goed en spannend geschreven, maar wordt soms wel een beetje overhaast. Dit is aan de ene kant wel fijn omdat het zo constant spannend blijft, maar aan de andere kant wordt het hierdoor wel enigszins ongeloofwaardig. Als al die beroemde geleerden niet verder kwamen dan het eerste punt van het Pad, hoe komt het dan dat Robert Langdon het in een paar uur helemaal uitgevogeld kan hebben?
Dat soort dingen storen me soms wel, maar niet zo erg dat het verhaal erom minder wordt. Dat is ook niet het belangrijkste. Het belangrijkste is de bizarre symbolische toch door Rome heen, terwijl er constant nieuwe, verminkte lijken opduiken. Ik heb regelmatig gehuiverd bij de beeldende woorden van Dan Brown, wat absoluut geen vervelende ervaring was.
De verdiepingsopdracht vond ik moeilijker dan de vorige, maar nog vond ik het wel redelijk te doen. Ik kwam er pas achter toen ik het afhad dat ik het per ongeluk in het engels heb gedaan. Maar dit zal vast geen probleem zijn. Het boek vond ik goed te begrijpen, en daarom heb ik ook geen problemen gehad met de opdracht.
Het kritisch naar het boek kijken vond ik soms wel moeilijk, omdat ik dit normaal niet echt doe. Ik lees een boek, en oordeel of ik het goed of slecht vind. Ik oordeel echter niet waarom ik dat vind. Meestal spreekt de schrijfstijl me in zo’n geval niet aan. In dit geval denk ik dat het me toch redelijk gelukt is om kritisch te zijn.