Inferno

For the majority of this book, I hovered around a 3 or 3.5 star rating. It was an entertaining thriller, full of twists, transformations, and “didn't-see-that-coming” moments. There wasn't anything inherently wrong with it; indeed, the overall tone was dark, exciting, and encouraged me to continue.What leaves me at 3 stars is the sad realization that after such a monumental effort, this is not a book that belongs in the Robert Langdon mythos.The book's premise - wherein Professor Langdon is called upon to save the world from the machinations of a madman (in this case, one fueled by a deep understanding of and dedication to Dante's [b:Inferno 15645 Inferno (The Divine Comedy, #1) Dante Alighieri http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333579470s/15645.jpg 2377563]) - fits. This is what we expect from a Langdon story and early on, it delivers. There is a sense that the world of Dante will permeate the story in profoundly macabre ways.Unfortunately, that premise slowly disappears. Chase scenes ensue ad nauseam, stopping only to overwhelm the reader with every historical fact about the European environment in which Landon is running (a mechanism that, although it served Brown well in [b:Angels & Demons 960 Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1) Dan Brown http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1303390735s/960.jpg 3338963] and [b:The Da Vinci Code 968 The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2) Dan Brown http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1303252999s/968.jpg 2982101], is overplayed here). Chapters stream by and, in my case, left me with a sense of, “Well, okay - but when are we getting to the good stuff?”What is the “good stuff”, you ask? One needs only to look at the previous three Landon novels for inspiration. In all three, Dan Brown took his time to weave in the types of historical mystery that hover between ludicrous and profoundly possible. These elements made the expected thriller/chase scenes more interesting: the race fulfilled the desire to find clues, solve puzzles, and put together astounding theories. There was a sense of adventure, conspiracy, and higher meaning.Inferno only has an inkling of that. As someone who has read and enjoyed [b:The Divine Comedy 6656 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320552051s/6656.jpg 809248], I was thrilled by the idea of Robert Landon descending into Dante's world and watching the visions of Inferno permeate that adventure. It just didn't happen. Elements of Dante, his life, his poetry, and the higher meaning exposed by his philosophies were only briefly touched on. At times, it seemed as though Dan Brown, desiring to have an archetypal “historical great work” to fit into a Langdon adventure, somewhat haphazardly settled on Inferno. It's as if Brown took his trademark thriller ingredients, tossed them into a blender, and in the middle of the process, jammed in a few pages of Inferno. The concoction just isn't satisfying.As the book hurtles towards its conclusion, the aforementioned plot twists add some spice and excitement; unfortunately, by this point, it's too late: there simply isn't enough time left to recreate the magic that came so easily in the previous three Langdon books.And so, I give this 3 stars - I wanted an Angels & Demons-esque mystery, but instead, I got [b:Deception Point 976 Deception Point Dan Brown http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1266447971s/976.jpg 3135896] with some neat art and architecture thrown in.