Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K Rowling

This is the first book of Harry Potter, if you like it there are six more to read. Harry Potter is a fantasy book that takes place in our time England and at a magic place called Hogwarts. The author JK Rowling is very good at describing the looks of the characters in the book, and it is easy to get a feeling about their appearances. Also the author makes an excellent job making you feel that you are in the book. She describes the setting and landscape so well that it is easy to get a feeling about it. The text is easy to read and the words are not hard to understand.

In this book you become acquainted with a boy called Harry and all the people he met in his first year at Hogwarts. It may seem that he is just an ordinary boy living with his aunt, cousin and his aunt’s husband, but that’s not the case. Harry is anything but ordinary. He is actually a wizard, and as it turns out, a famous one too. Apparently his parents were killed by a really evil wizard when he was only a baby, this wizard called Voldemort tried to kill Harry too, but the love from his mother made the killing spell from the wand backfire, and instead of killing Harry it almost killed Voldemort himself, leaving just a scar on Harry’s forehead. And for that reason Harry is famous in the whole magic world. He is the one that stopped Voldemort from his tyranny. When he arrives at Hogwarts, that is a school for magic, he makes new friends that later becomes his best friends, they are called Ron and Hermione. He also succeed in making enemies, one really annoying person that Harry does not like is called Malfoy. At Hogwarts you are accommodated to a special dorm, Hogwarts has 4 different ones, they are called Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenslaw. It is a special hat that you put on your head that decides who goes where. Harry and Hermione and Ron ends up in the same dorm, the one called Gryffindor. Harry also makes friends with some of the teachers at the school, in particular there is the gardener Hagrid, he is a half giant, and the principal Dumbledore.                      Harry and his friends find out about a stone, this stone in particularly gives the one who has it eternal life, and now they must find it before Voldemort does.

If you like magic, adventure, elves, giants, and other imaginary beings, this is the book for you. There is much more in this story to tell, but I feel that I must leave some room for you to explore this magic world for yourself.  I highly recommend it.

I don’t know if there are a message in the book, just the normal; evil versus good.

Written by Josefin

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

This is a review of Joseph Conrad´s Heart of Darkness which was published in 1902. It´s hard to say which genre it belongs to but I´d say it´s a mix of drama, thriller and novella.

The story takes place on a steamboat going up a river in Africa, sometime during the 19^th century. It is never said on which river or where in Africa the story takes part, however the description of the landscape and the history of Joseph Conrad hints that it is the Congo river.

Heart of Darkness is about a man called Charles Marlow, an Englishman who takes a job as a steamboat captain for a trading company. From there, the story is rather blurry. Marlow sets out to find a man called Kurtz who is also working for the trading company. Kurtz is positioned in Africa and is supposed to find ivory for the company, but a rumor says that he has gotten ill. Therefore Marlow is sent to find him and bring him back.

Marlow is at first a regular young man, happy to be working as a captain for the trading company. As he´s traveling along the river and sees the darkness in men, the darkness of colonization and the darkness of the wild nature he goes from happiness to anger and indifference.

Heart of Darkness was rather difficult to read because it´s written in a strange way. There are barely any chapters and you are never really sure of what´s happening in the story. You´ll often have to backtrack and read some parts a couple of times, and still you can´t really make any sense of it. A good example is when Marlow is looking for a person. Suddenly they talk about this person as if he´s dead and buried and just as sudden this person is in their party and alive. The scenery also changes without warning. On one page Marlow is on the steamer, and when you flip the page he´s on land, perhaps half a year forward in the story. It gets very confusing.

Heart of Darkness is a good book, but not more. It portraits the evil of men and colonization in a good way, but that´s it. It´s not the kind of book that keeps you glued to the pages since there aren´t really any thrilling moments, even though there could be if it were written in a different way.

I wouldn´t recommend Heart of Darkness to the regular reader. Heart of darkness is for those who´d like to see what the 19^th century colonization´s was really about and how greed and violence changes men.

Written by Robin

Schindler's List

The book I have read it was a contemporary of Thomas Kennelly’s famous novel. It was published for the first time in 1982 under title “Schindler´s Ark”.

The book tells the true story of Oscar Schindler - a rich, German businessman who risked his life almost every day during the Second World War to save as many Jews as possible.

Oskar Schindler, the hero of the story, was born in 1908 in a middle - class German family, he had a happy, careless childhood. After he finished his education he started to work at his father´s factory and he got married to Emily - a young, religious girl, who reminded of his own mother.   

After his father went bankrupt, Oskar, who was very intelligent and charming and had many business contacts easily found a new job as a sales manager.

As a young man Oskar was not interested in history or politics although he became a member of the Nazi Party to get better contracts from Germans. Nothing indicated that words from Talmud “He who saves a single life, saves the entire world” will become a motto of his life.

The Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939, and then Oscar who was only 29 years old at that time, got the proposal to start a new business in Krakow - Poland, gradually he opened a factory there.

 Oscar was always a man who loved the luxury life: good food, drinks and beautiful women..The turning point in his life was when he saw what the Nazis were doing with Jews in the ghetto, he saw how they were killing children, women and men. He understood then the devil`s plan of exterminating Jews and realized what Holocaust means. He started to employ Jews in his factory and he always treated them well and with respect. The job at his factory was for Jews the only chance to survive; otherwise they were sent to concentrations camps and died in gas chambers.

He was accused many times for being a “Jews lover”, he was also arrested a couple of times, but with the help of his high – ranking German friends he always managed to get free. During the war he spent millions on bribing Nazis to save as many human beings as he could. He succeeded to save around 1.200 Jews. After the war he lived in Germany and for a while in Argentina where he started a new business, but for many reasons he did not succeed. After the war, according to his wife’s words, “he had done nothing impressive with his life”.

“The Schindler Jews” never forgot him and in 1961 Schindler was formally honoured in Tel Aviv in the Park of Heroes and he was declared an Honourable Person for saving the lives of more than 1.200 Jews.

He died in Berlin in the autumn in 1974 and, according to his wishes, he was buried in Jerusalem.

In 1993, one of the most famous American directors - Steven Spielberg created a film “Schindler´s list” based on the book, which was a great success and won seven Oscars. Millions of people around the world got to know the history of Oskar Schindler´s heroism.

It was a great book to read, mainly because it tells the true story; the language was easy to understand. I recommend reading it; I think everyone should know this incredible story.

Written by Ewa.

Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup

I have read Slumdog Millionaire written by the Indian author Vikas Swarup. Slumdog millionaire was published in 2005 and was originally called Q&A. However, after the popular film adaptation the book’s name was changed to Slumdog millionaire, the same as the movie.

This book is a drama with many intense parts where you are thrown back and forth between hope and despair.

It takes place in modern day India. The environment is mostly dark and goes hand in hand with the story. When times are bad the environment is dark and full of shadows and when the main character experiences something positive the world brightens a bit. Even when all seems good the world still seems grey and dull.   

You get to meet a lot of different and interesting characters in this book and I have chosen to take a closer look at some of them. There is one main character Ram Mohammad Thomas who is also the narrator of the story. He takes part in the Indian TV-show “Who Will Win a Billion?”. Ram has lived a hard life but has managed to withstand falling in to darkness and has become a better person. Through his experiences in life he is able to answer the 12 questions in the game show. Other personal traits that I have picked up are that he is stubborn and is determined not to fail at anything he attempts to do. There are two main supporting characters one is named Salim and the other one is named Nita. Salim is Ram’s best friend and dreams of becoming a movie star. He is a part of the adventures in Ram’s flashbacks and seems to be a person who dares to follow his dreams. I believe that Salim does not realize the seriousness in some situations and does not understand the consequences of his actions. Ram is totally different he is more realistic and does not trust people as easily as Salim. You could say that Ram is a bit of a protector to Salim. Nita is a prostitute who Ram meets when he makes a living as a Taj Mahal tour guide. They instantly connect and Nita strikes me as a beautiful but yet a bit unsure young girl.

The story is about Ram Mohammad Thomas who is one question away from winning a billion rupees on the TV-show “Who Will Win a Billion?”. But instead of giving him the final question the game host makes sure that Ram gets arrested, accused of cheating. How is it possible that an 18-year old boy from the slums can out smart doctors and teachers? He must be cheating, or is he? Ram is very confused and angry by this and demands that he can explain all this to someone. He gets to talk to his lawyer Sitka and he tells her just how he got to know all the right answers. The reason why he gets all the questions right is because of life experience. For every question asked he gets a flashback from his life that is in some way connected to the question and is able to get the right answer. The reason why he is participating in the TV-show is because he wants to free his one true love Nita from her pimp. The pimp refuses to give her away without pay and this is what drives Ram.

The language of the book was relatively easy to follow. There are a few hick ups here and there where the author uses difficult words and sayings. That makes you have to read the sentence one or two times extra to figure out what he means. These small bumps in the road are a rare find in Q&A and for the most part the English is readable for almost anyone with basic English knowledge.

The message of the book according to me is a very big part of this particular book. Because it flows through the whole story and with every decision the main character makes. I think the message is too and that nothing is impossible. The main character achieves the impossible by coming from a seemingly treacherous situation where his one and true love never can become his because of a pimp. Then turning it around and against all odds wins a TV-show all to free her and reunite with her. I guess another obvious message is if you set your mind to something you should not give up because if you just believe and maintain on the right track your goal is reachable.

I think that this book gives a great view of society and the poverty and what really is going on in such places in India. The character descriptions make you get a great connection to each character in the book and the way they act and what the go through is really moving. This also makes the characters come alive. The story itself is exciting from the first page to the last and it leaves me with a sort of feel-good sense. Yet I feel touched and angry about how some people are treated and that this exists in real life. To summarize it simple I can only say that this is one of the best books I have ever read. I think it has it all, excitement, romance and drama. I would be crazy not to recommend this to anyone. Everybody should read this book because it makes you think and it is just absolutely fantastic.

Written by Rebecca

Enigma by Robert Harris

  -“Enigma is a very sophisticated enciphering machine and Shark is its ultimate refinement. So,   we’re not talking about the Times crossword..” – Tom Jericho
   This book, from 1996 by Robert Harris, tells us the story about Tom Jericho, the mathematician from Cambridge who was recruited to Bletchley Park as a cryptologist.

He almost lost himself in love with the beautiful but mysterious Claire at the same time he was trying to break the German World War 2, secret and very complex Enigma U-Boat code. The novel starts off with the cold winds in Cambridge.

Plot:

Bletchley Park has been blacked out by the Germans and the U-Boat code, Shark is no longer possible to force. Tom Jericho, the only one who managed to break Shark, is recovering from a nervous breakdown, caused by his intense work at Bletchley.

He’s staying at King’s College in Cambridge when his old chief, Guy Logie arrives to ask him for help.

Tom Jericho, helplessly in love with Claire Romilly, encounters new puzzles to solve and discovers there is a security leak at the Park. A Nazi spy? It’s no longer a game of just breaking Shark.

Claire, who also works at the Park, suddenly turns out missing. Her housemate Hester Wallace joins Tom to find out what happened and stumbles across secrets that can easily put themselves and the whole war at great risk. Tom and Hester finds, hidden in the cottage where she lives, stolen cryptograms from a German eastern front transmitter, ADU.           A Nazi spy inside Bletchley Park.

The Americans have put three large Liberty convoys to sea to aid Europe and now, no one knows where the German U-Boat packs are. Just that the convoys are steadily steaming across the northern Atlantic and that somewhere out there in the cold darkness, the enemy’s waiting. They have 4 days to break Shark.

Structure:

The novel is written as a mix between past and present, authentic facts and fiction. It’s educational for anyone who wants to know more and even gives the reader some simple models of the underlying mathematics that’s used for crypto analysis. At the beginning of each chapter, the author also puts a note from the lexicon “Most Secret” from Bletchley Park.

The story is tightly packed with occurrences, pushing the story forward, where the author lets the reader take part in several side stories like Hester Wallace’s own self supporting story line. Then by weaving them all together, he creates a very dynamic flow which of course intensifies as the novel is about to end.

Setting:

The setting for this book is Britain during World War 2, specifically Bletchley Park and selected areas in Cambridge, London and Scotland. It’s a gloomy, cold, windy and damp, not to say grey world. The reader finds out that Britain even smells because of shortage of hygiene products. The reader can certainly understand there is a general shortage of just about everything, because the characters are not even sure what they’re being served at the lunch cantina from time to time. A dessert that looks like cake but tastes like paper as well as the ladies who colour their lips with vaseline and red beetroot are two examples. An effect of the war as it says in the book.

The main characters:

Tom Jericho

Tom Jericho is the brilliant mathematician from Cambridge who solves the puzzle of Shark, then works himself into a nervous breakdown. He’s in love with Claire, but eventually understands that road is closed. He goes from being a rather boyish, insecure young man to become stronger and safer as a person as he manages to solve the situations one by one. In my opinion he matures along the story.

Hester Wallace

Hester Wallace is Claire Romilly’s housemate who also applied for a spot as a crypto-logist, but in a man’s dominated world, she became sort of a glorified file clerk, sorting and organizing received cryptograms at the Park. Eventually she got to show her qualities as a cryptologist. Secretly of course, but yet she did. Like Tom, her character develops from being a smaller, somewhat “stowed away” personality, to begin to understand her true value and begins to take some well earned place. She doesn’t really mature along the way like Tom does, but she does grow in self-esteem.

The Germans

The Germans are the nasty ones wanting to take over. In reality as well as in the book, most of them are just ordinary men under orders from those really wanting to take over, the real Nazi thugs. One of the captured German U-Boat captains even had his teddy bear brought along onboard his U-Boat. Nevertheless, they still constitute one of the main obstacles in the novel and they do not develop in any direction.

The Enigma cipher machine and World War 2

The Enigma machine and the world war play a significant role in this novel and that’s why I regard them as two of the main characters and like to merge them into one. The Enigma machine gave the Nazi headquarters methods to secretly and safely communicate with their troops through garbled text. These so called cryptograms were then transmitted in Morse code. Before Bletchley Park and their deciphering machines, it looked as if the Nazis were going to win the war.

                 Theme:

                 This novel is about the seemingly impossible struggle against the war machine and also about “man’s” everlasting hope. It’s about the hope that gave people both courage and strength to in the end, overcome an almost invincible enemy. It is about love. Not only between woman and man, but also the love for the humanity and for the dream of that anything can be accomplished, no matter the situation. It’s all about what we decide is important enough.

 Style:

                 The way the novel is written by the author, shows that either he’s a brilliant researcher, or this is in fact one of his personal interests. By starting off every chapter with a specific word and an explanation, which I can confirm to be correct, he brings a lot of technical knowledge to the reader. Being very accurate in describing crypto analysis, Morse code and even military tactics, he also leads me to believe in the rest of his story.

He has a great talent and a delicate feeling for describing the small things in life and at the same time he brings a trembling and mysterious tension to the story. He puts facts and authentic notes and messages here and there, making this novel even more trustworthy.

This story is a soft action thriller with a lot of enigmas for both main characters and readers.

                 Target audience:

To catch the inner essence of this novel, I recommend the readers to be fairly fluent in the English language, but the book can of course still be enjoyed by those who aren’t.

                 If I was to recommend this novel, it would be to anyone with an enough serious mind, who would like to experience the tension in a really qualitative action thriller. Though the novel does not really contain any harsh violence, the use of the language sometimes is and I’d would like to  recommend  parental advisory or guidance for readers under 15 years.

                 Personal response:

                 I got the movie for birthday present from my ex fiancée years ago and recently bought the book from Adlibris in English and my immediate response was, that the movie doesn’t stand a chance against this piece of gold. I just couldn’t stop reading it. Enough said. I’d now like to end my review with a quote of that which caught my eyes and then never really let go:

”WHISPERS – The sounds made by an enemy wireless transmitter immediately before it begins to transmit a coded message”

A lexicon of cryptography ’Most secret’ – Blethcley Park 1943

Written by Ulf

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

This is my book review of Bridget Jones’s Diary and the book was written by Helen Fielding. In 1996 the book was published and in 2001 the movie of Bridget Jones’s Diary came. Bridget Jones’s Diary counts as a comedy novel, chic lit.

The book is a diary then for it’s written in the present all the time. The story begins at Mr.  & Mrs. Aconburys New Year Party in Grafton Underwood. The couples are close friends to Bridget’s parents. At that party she meets Mark Darcy for the first time. I should say as adult because they’ve met each other when they were children.

Bridget Jones

Bridget's mother is constantly trying to match Bridget with any man. Bridget is single and the reason the mother thinks is because she is not capable to get a man so therefore she will arrange it instead. And Bridget, in turn, has no chance to assert herself against her mother, but it ends up with her doing as her mother said.

Daniel Cleaver

Daniel Cleaver is Bridget's boss, Bridget and he flirt by sending e-mails to each other, but then also start a relationship. He is a womanizer and thinks life is too short to be bored. He says he knew Mark Darcy in the past.

Mark Darcy

Mark Darcy is perceived as a dry and also boring lawyer, he is strict and does not come up with any unplanned adventure like Cleaver does , but behaves more sober and thoughtful. He is spends time mostly with like-minded and therefore a lot with his colleagues in the law company.

Somewhere in the middle or the end of the book, you notice that both Bridget and Mark have changed. Mark is a bit more relaxed and does not have the same rigid manner and Bridget is not as obsessed by weight loss and not as anxious or nervous like before. Daniel, however, has not changed at all and continues in the same track as before – as a womanizer.

                                                                                                                         

The plot is about Bridget Jones, who talks about what it is like to live her life as a 30 year old single in London, never to find the right one, the fight for the ideal weight, the friends she can not survive without and contests with the boss Cleaver.

This book is easy to understand, that’s why I chose to read this book.  And the book is fun from the beginning. That makes it easier to read then.

I love this book, the first time I read this book and saw the movie I was in the same age as Bridget in the book – and she did things that was so typically me, like “playing” drums in the air and then finish that solo with a kick in the air…I love that!!

That which makes this book so great is that I can relate so much to myself. Like how she

thinks, her silly but oh so funny excuses, her concerns about appearance and get a boyfriend.

Her faltering attempts to talk about feelings with a new boyfriend. It was like that I also

felt a period. I recognize myself so well and I think that's precisely why I love this book.

I don’t think there’s anything in the book that is bad and I would surely recommended this book to other people. I would highly recommend this book, because if you want a good laugh and get the feeling that you will recognize - read Bridget Jones’s Diary!

Written by Anette

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

“The lovely bones” was written by Alice Sebold, born in Antigo, Wisconsin in 1963. When the book was published in 2002, it became a great success.

It´s a fantasy-novel that takes place in the suburb somewhere in America during the seventies, when people still thought the best of each other.

The young narrator and main character, Susie Salmon is a fourteen year old schoolgirl with a crush on her classmate, his name is Ray Singh, the new boy from England. Early in the book Susie is brutally raped and murdered by Mr. Harvey in a cornfield, underground. And throughout the book we get to follow her story both on earth but mostly from her perspective in heaven. Or as she calls it, the in-between.

Susie´s father, Mr. Jack Salmon is a good man and has a beautiful father-daughter relationship with Susie. He´s the one struggling most to find Susie and won’t give up, even thou his marriage with Susie´s mother Abbey is falling apart. He becomes suspicious and starts his own investigation when the police eventually give up. Abbey deals with the loss by escaping, abandoning her family when they need her the most.

Grandma Lyn comes to the rescue and moves in to help the family, a determined woman with humor and a strong personality. She practically raises Buckley, Susie’s little brother and she helps out with the house. Susie’s sister, Lindsey, doesn’t get that much attention at first, but after a while, when she grows up and turns in to a young woman she has a crucial role finding out the truth about Susie.

Mr. Harvey is the neighbor across the street. A man who has murdered before and is well aware of the details that has to be taken care of. He´s that kind of man who no one knows anything about, on the surface he seems to be the perfect gentleman. But no one knew he killed Susie.

The book starts with the lovely and innocent Susie telling us quite frank and honest:

"My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered." In the in-between she meets a girl named Holly, and all the other women Mr. Harvey killed before her.

With fantasy and expressive words the writer explains Susie´s heaven and you immediately feel fascinated and somehow, humble and not so afraid of death. You start hoping that life after death is as beautiful as in Susie´s heaven and that maybe you also have someone there, watching over you like a guardian angel. With warmth and small glints of humor mixed with the horrible fate the author manages to make me want to read more.

I think it´s important when you read the book to keep an open mind to fantasy and illusionary things, because this vivid story swings between what’s real and what’s not. I can recommend this book to people who likes good and captivating books, whether you believe in life after death or not.

Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

This novel is a teenage fiction novel which was first published in 1991.
The story is about Helen and Chris who are just about to start university when Helen gets pregnant and the questions are whether to keep the baby or not and will they stay together. The novel is split into two points of view and the reader gets to take part in the thoughts of both Helen and Chris.
I think it was a good book that can be read by adults as well.

Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard

Across the barricades is a teenage novel about Kevin and Sadie. They live in Belfast and the story takes place during the 1970s when there were a lot of antagonism between the Catholics and the Protestants. Kevin is a Catholic and Sadie is a Protestant and their relationship is looked upon with resentment by people in their neighbourhood. A Catholic shouldn't date a Protestant and people around them become quite violent in trying to stop them from seeing each other.
I think this novel gives a good picture of what it was like living in Belfast at the time of the troubles, when there were Catholic areas and streets and Protestant areas and streets and you couldn't really move around freely. It brings up the subject of belonging to different groups in society and the conflicts it can cause if you happen to fall in love with someone from a different group.
The novel is the second in a series of five about Kevin and Sadie and it can be read as a part of the series or enjoyed on its own.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Introduction

Book review of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code

The book that I am going to review is The Da Vinci Code written by the American author Dan Brown, originally published in 2003 and it is a thriller-fiction.

The story starts with a dead man, Jacques Saunière curator of the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the story leads to a lot of churches and monasteries, most of them in France and in the UK.

Characters

Main character
Harvard professor Robert Langdon, famous professor of religious symbology. When he visits Paris he becomes suspected of  murdering the curator of the Musée du Louvre.

Sophie Neveu, agent from the DCPJ’s (Direction Centale Police Judiciaire) Cryptology Department and grand-daughter of the murded Jacques Saunière. Langdon and Neveu have to prove Langdon’s innocence and solve the mystery behind the murder.

Other important people

Captain Bezu Fache and Lieutenant Jérôme Collet, two police officers from the DCPJ and responsible for the investigation of the murder of Jacques Saunière.

Bishop Manuel Aringarosa, connected with Opus Dei and with the headquarter of the Vatican.

Albino-monk Silas, once upon a time safed by Aringarosa, Aringarosa was at that time a simple missionary from Madrid. Silas faithfully follows the will of Opus Dei. All he does, he does in the name of God.

The Teacher, a mysterious voice who tells Silas what to do.

Sir Leigh Teabing, a famous British Royal Historian. His life passion is the Holy Grail.

Content

The story starts with a dead man and a lot of symbols. One clue leads to the next clue and all the time Landon and Neveu are wanted by the police. Langdon is  wanted for murdered and Neveu is  wanted for helping a murderer.

What message did Jacques Saunière tell his grand-daughter?

Is the Christian Church telling lies about Jesus and Mary Magdalene?

Is the patriarchal Church leaning on a lie?

Is the explanation which had lead to the women’s non-part in the organization of the Christian Church, just a lie?

And what is the big secret that Jacques Saunière carried, and wanted to tell after his death?

The scene is the Grand Gallery of the Musée du Louvre:

“Saunière looked remarkably fit for a man of his years…and all of his musculature was in plain view. He had stripped off every shred of clothing, placed it neatly on the floor, and lain down on his back in the centre of the wide corridor, perfectly aligned with the long axis of the room. His arms and legs were sprawled outward in a wide spread-eagle, like those of a child making a snow angel… or, perhaps more appropriately, like a man being drawn and quartered by some invisible force.

Just below Saunière’s breastbone, a bloody smear marked the spot where the bullet had pierced his flesh. The wound had bled surprisingly little, leaving only a small pool of blackened blood.

Saunière’s left index finger was also bloody, apparently having been dipped into the wound to create the most unsettling aspect of his own macabre deathbed; using his own blood as ink, and employing his own naked abdomen as a canvas, Saunière had drawn a simple symbol on his flesh – five straight lines that intersected to form a five-pointed star.

The pentacle.”

Form - message

There are words for a lot of symbols, organizations and religious rituals, everything with at least one meaning, making the story sometimes complicated to understand.
The chapters are short and most of them end with a cliff-hanger.

Along the way, Langdon educates Sophie as well as the reader in large amounts of information concerning religions, symbols, history, and the story of the Holy Grail. The author does it in the same way as when you read a good spy thriller. All the time you wonder if the story could be true, the possibility that the story could have been true or it is fiction and nothing but fiction. Most of this kind of secret societies never leave any comment. It makes it easier writing about them and the reader doesn’t know what to think.

There are organisations named in the book that you didn’t even know existed. Opus Dei, the Priory of Sion, the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (more commonly known as the Knight Templar).

Opinion

It’s a book full of surprises. When there are problems, the solution sometimes turns up from nowhere, bad guys and good guys changing roles. Persons you thought where a bad guy, unexpectedly turns into a good guy and contra wise. This means that you don’t know in which direction the story will go on.

It’s a book full of religious conspiracies and secret societies and the quest for what might be the ultimate mysteries of Christianity.

It’s a very thrilling book, between the true, the probability and the fiction. And you don’t know when and what belong to the different categories.

Even if you don’t recognize all the words, and maybe miss some connections, you still want to continue reading this book.

Written by Alf

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