Book Review : Inferno by Dan Brown. A Thriller Tourist Guide

With a Bourne Identity meets Dante meets Harris Tweed thriller, Dan Brown is back with a bang with his new novel, Inferno and with it we again meet the erudite Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon.

Much was speculated before Inferno hit the shelves, including whether the book would be about Da Vinci’s long lost master piece in Florence but the speculations have now been laid to rest.

Robert Langdon in this story finds himself in a Florence hospital with no recollections of how he got there and only has a laser pointer that reveals renaissance artist, Sandro Botticelli’s depiction of medieval literary giant, Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, which is a part of Dante’s epic poem the Divine Comedy, the other parts being, Purgatory and Paradise. Aided by the attractive 208 IQ Dr. Sienna Brooks, and hunted by shadowy Backwater type security agency, The Consortium. Langdon is launched on a quest to discover a weapon, built by a crazy mad scientist that has the ability to depopulate the planet of human species. To find that weapon, Langdon has to race against time, solving various puzzles and codes, travel from Florence, Venice to Istanbul before it’s too late to save the planet.

The novel deals with the futuristic concepts of trans-humanism (an international movement that aims to enhance human intellectual, physical and psychological abilities by using cutting edge scientific research), delves deep into the question of overpopulation and its effects on human civilization while exploring deepest recesses of the hell visualized by Dante more than 600 years ago .    

Although Inferno is definitely a page turner, it suffers from being a bit too formulaic. From Angels and Demons, Da Vinci Code, Lost Symbol to Inferno, it seems that Dan Brown is following a certain pattern for the Robert Langdon series, consisting of famous art pieces, a mad genius villain on an arcane quest, beautiful but intelligent female sidekick and a forever alone Robert Langdon. All of this actually has the effect of making the novels a bit too predictable. Although to Dan Brown’s credit, he does pull out some surprises, thus upsetting the formula he has so faithfully followed in the preceding novels, but then quickly reverts back to the same setting as the novel nears ending, speaking of which, I found the ending of the novel somewhat anti-climactic, considering the crescendo of revelations and surprises that he was building up towards the end.

Also, the book falls into the trap of erudition in which its predecessor, The Lost Symbol fell in, thus making the pace of the story lethargic. Parts of the novel give an impression that Dan Brown is acting more like a tour guide rather than a thriller author. It seems that he is under pressure from the armies of fans and detractors alike who religiously dissect every piece of fact to either uncover some hidden knowledge or to prove that Brown is really a nutjob. And thus the author in order to impress (apparently) tries to cram ever more information so that you got to have an encyclopedia with you every time while you are reading the book.

Compared to Lost Symbol, this book is less lethargic, but unfortunately nowhere near the genius of Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress. That does not mean that Inferno doesn’t make up for a good read. The novel might make up for a summer blockbuster, but that, so far is undecided.

 Moreover it seems that Dante’s Divine Comedy will enjoy a brief resurgence in readership amongst the younger audience before slowly fading back to relative obscurity.

Despite some factual errors and a slow moving narrative, it nonetheless is a highly interesting read and towards the conclusion, the novel is unputdownable.

Inferno definitely deserves a place in your bookshelf. 

Neither Can Live While the Other Survives

Brian Greene in his book, The Fabric of Cosmos, while explaining about the Principle of Equivalence to the layman, writes,

  “Right now you feel gravity’s influence. If you are standing, your feet feel the floor supporting your weight. If you are sitting, you feel the support somewhere else. And unless you are reading in a plane or a car, you probably also think that you are stationary-that you are not accelerating or even moving at all. But according to Einstein, you are actually accelerating. Since you’re sitting still this sounds a little silly, but don’t forget to the usual question: 

 Accelerating according to what benchmark? Accelerating from whose viewpoint? "

According to Einstein, absolute space provides a benchmark. Now you might wonder why I am boring you with some obscure physics principles, here’s the reason why.

The reason I mentioned this obscure and murky scientific principle was to draw a comparison to the human society. How do we judge a society’s moral values? What benchmark do we have to declare that such and such activity in a society is wrong or unjustified? Take the case of wine for example. In one culture (to be precise a religion) drinking wine is forbidden while in another wine is allowed. They both have their own benchmarks to judge their values against and both claim that they are right. But how does a person like me who is neither here nor there choose between the two? That is what I am stuck on. What absolute benchmark should I choose to define belief, my moral values, the way I live life. Or should I be my own boss.

 Religion is something that I believe should be avoided in creating a benchmark to judge anyone or anything? Why? Because there are a gazillion other religions out here and each professes that, it is right and divinely inspired. So many religions. So many followers, all vying for the coveted position of being close to the Lord. One claims that the Messiah hasn’t come yet, another says that the Messiah came , got crucified and caught a flight to Heaven and will come back soon to fight evil doers, while the last one basically says that the Messiah will come at the end of times but he would just be a subordinate of its own Prophet, who was the last in the long and illustrious line of Prophets.

 Every religion is contradicting each other that thus creates a need for an absolute benchmark, which can be used to judge and choose between right and wrong, and one that can be accepted by all. But here’s the catch. The human society does not work this way. There is no singular universally agreed guidebook that we earthlings have, that we can use for guidance and to distinguish between what right and what wrong. And the reason why they are not yet in existence is because of a small little code in our DNA.

Since man is nothing but the pinnacle of biological, evolution that has taken several billion years, it is thus a fact that we are the best version of a genetic program that has undergone an untold number of revisions , one particular code in this program pertains to survival. Humans didn’t build houses or discover fire for scientific or aesthetic purposes, they built and discovered for survival, i.e. survival of their species. It s a code that stretches back to the days when we were primitive bacteria swimming in earth’s primeval oceans.

 But this code actually has transcended mere body protection to the active defense of ideas and beliefs. These ideas and beliefs are the reason for a community’s survival and war is a tool of protection for its survival and continuation of its values. Different beliefs thus co-existing is a feel-good thought but one that is just a mirage. It is like the prophecy about Harry Potter and Voldemort which says “Neither can live while the other survives” why? Because the expansion of one belief system would come at the cost of contraction of another. And that’s where our survival code kicks in.

USA didn’t kick out Soviet communism because it was evil? It fought against it because the expansion of Soviet bloc would undermine the progress of USA and its capitalist allies.

A Nuclear Armageddon

 Even the religions are not immune to the effects of this evolutionary code. The concept of Armageddon, which is so widespread in the Abrahamic religions actually says that peace will only be created when all the earthlings are converted to one faith only . Just One Faith. There is no room in the scripture for diverse faiths. Yes, you can co-exist for a while but when the Messiah comes, you have no choice but to submit to his faith otherwise you are on the highway to hell.

 So try judging that against a benchmark!

There will be no benchmark to judge these actions unless one is actually decided unanimously by the earthlings, which leaves no room for dissent. And to leave no room for dissent means destroying the opposing ideas and belief. It’s a sinister aspect of life, but one with which we have to live with.