Angels and Demons

This book is a prelude to Dan Brown's the Da Vinci Code.
If you have liked the DA Vinci code then you are sure to love this book because it is one of the most amazing piece of fiction you could ever find somewhere on earth.
This is a story of Mr. Robert Langdon, A professor of religious iconology and symbology at Harvard University. He is awakened at his home by a phone call from Mr. Max Kohler, the director of CERN, the world's largest science research facility in Geneva, Switzerland. When Langdon reaches CERN, he is told that a senior physicist, Mr. Leonardo Vetra has been killed and he is branded with a strange symbol on his chest "Illuminati" . The symbol considered by many as a brand of an ancient secret scientific society is also an ambigram of a sort. When the daughter of Leonardo, Ms. Victoria arrives, they realise that a new scientific invention "antimatter " which was stored in a canister is stolen from CERN. Antimatter is an highly infalmmable substance which will explode after tha back up battery of canister is discharged in 24 hours and with it, it will destroy everything in half a mile diameter. So from here starts the race against time,which takes victoria and Langdon to the vatican city - the sacred place which hold the highest religious significance in the entire Christiandom and where the conclave is being undertaken to select a new Pope.
In a search for the canister, Langdon realise that the ancient anti-religion group of scientific brotherhood are plannimg to murder the four main cardinals of the conclave on the four altars of sciences namely Air, Fire, Earth and Water. So in order to stop the killings they will have to find all the altars of scinece in the Vatican city and the adjoining country of Rome. With twist and tura and one secret revealing after another finally Langdon and Victoria are successfull to find all the altars of science and save the vatican city but not without finding out some harsh truths about the ancient secret Illuminati and the Vatican City itself.
The book itself is really very intriguing and Dan Brown has created the characters the situations so exactly that your are bound to be virtually glued to the pages. one after another so many secrets are revealed that the reader is in a roaler coaster ride in the world of secret societies, religion, science, ancient artefacts and architectural places, etc. The story is compact and complicated but in the end it also tries to answer one moral question arising everywhere in the world.
The best part of the book is its pace, no where the book seems to be dull and lenghthy but there is a feeling of intrigue and curiousity in each scene and sequence. Dan Brown has created a master piece.
A must read for all the lovers of an entirely different genre of fiction.