The New York Times - Janet Maslin
…Inferno puts the idea of a plague front and center, invoking the black plague, its casualty count and its culling effect on mankind. Mr. Brown is more serious than usual when he invokes Dante's dire warning: "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis"…But the main emphasis here is hardly on gloom. It is on the prodigious research and love of trivia that inform Mr. Brown's stories…the ease with which he sets them in motion, the nifty tricks…and the cliffhangers…the gamesmanship…And finally there is the sense of play that saves Mr. Brown's books from ponderousness, even when he is waxing wise about some ancient mystery or architectural wonder.
Publishers Weekly - Audio
Harvard Professor Robert Langdon returns for another globetrotting adventure in Brown’s latest. Awakening in an Italian hospital room, Langdon is suffering from short-term amnesia. He has no idea what’s happened to him during the past few days or why he’s in Italy. Before he can begin to pull his thoughts together, an assassin breaks into the hospital and attempts to kill him, sending the academic, along with a beautiful nurse, fleeing into the streets of Florence and straight into a mind-bending mystery, the key to which is buried in Dante’s masterwork, the Divine Comedy. As Langdon travels around the world, navigating his way through a labyrinth of clues, it becomes clear that he is in a race against time to stop an evil mastermind’s devilish plot that threatens the future of all humankind. Paul Michael’s narration is clear and precise; his pronunciation of each word, including large passages in Italian, is impeccable. He skillfully keeps the story moving at a strong, steady pace and balances a large cast of international characterizations with ease. He also manages to deliver Brown’s signature mountain of historical material without slowing the story to a crawl and offers an accomplished reading sure to satisfy any listener. A Doubleday hardcover. (May)
Publishers Weekly
The threat of world overpopulation is the latest assignment for Brown's art historian and accidental sleuth Robert Langdon. Awakening in a Florence hospital with no memory of the preceding 36 hours, Langdon and an attractive attending physician with an oversized intellect are immediately pursued by an ominous underground organization and the Italian police. Detailed tours of Florence, Venice, and Istanbul mean to establish setting, but instead bog down the story and border on showoffmanship. Relying on a deceased villain's trail of clues threaded through the text of Dante's The Divine Comedy, the duo attempt to unravel the events leading up to Langdon's amnesia and thwart a global genocide scheme. Suspension of disbelief is required as miraculous coincidences pile upon pure luck. Near the three-quarters point everything established gets upended and Brown, hoping to draw us in deeper, nearly drives us out. Though the prose is fast-paced and sharp, the burdensome dialogue only serves plot and back story, and is interspersed with unfortunate attempts at folksy humor. It's hard not to appreciate a present day mega-selling thriller that attempts a refresher course in Italian literature and European history. But the real mystery is in the book's denouement and how Brown can possibly bring his hero back for more. Agent: Heide Lange, Sanford J. Greenberger Associates. (May)
EW.com
A DIVERTING THRILLER...Brown stocks his latest book with all the familiar elements: puzzles, a beautiful female companion, and hints of secret conspiratorial agendas.
The Washington Post
BROWN IS AT HIS BEST when he makes readers believe that dusty books and musty passageways are just covers for ancient global conspiracies.
The Wall Street Journal
FAST, CLEVER, WELL-INFORMED...DAN BROWN IS THE MASTER OF THE INTELLECTUAL CLIFFHANGER.
USA Today
AS CLOSE AS A BOOK CAN COME TO A SUMMERTIME CINEMATIC BLOCKBUSTER...Brown builds up Langdon's supporting cast, which is the strongest yet.
From the Publisher
A book-length scavenger hunt. . . . Jam-packed with tricks.” —The New York Times
“Fast, clever, well-informed. . . . Dan Brown is the master of the intellectual cliffhanger.” —The Wall Street Journal
“One hell of a good read. . . . As close as a book can come to a summertime cinematic blockbuster.” —USA Today
“A diverting thriller.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Brown isn’t just a novelist; he’s a crossover pop culture sensation. . . . Inferno is the kind of satisfying escapist read that summers were made for.” —The Boston Globe
“Harrowing fun threaded with coded messages, art history, science, and imminent doom.” —Daily News (New York)
“[Brown is] the planet’s most dastardly thriller writer. . . . Inferno moves with . . . velocity, excitement, and fun.” —The Independent (UK)
“An adventure ride through a literary text. . . . [A] sweeping spectacle.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“A fast and furious race.” —The Plain Dealer
"A master of the breathless, puzzle-driven thriller.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
“What Brown does in a way that appeals to millions of people around the world is tell stories that remind us there’s more to the world than meets the eye.” —The Huffington Post
Library Journal
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (Angels and Demons; The Da Vinci Code; The Lost Symbol) returns in another thriller that invokes history, architecture, science, and conspiracy. Langdon wakes up in a hospital bed with no memory of the last two days. He’s surprised to find himself in Florence, Italy, and even more shocked to disomeone is out to kill him for something he knows. The doctor treating him helps him to escape from an assassin, and the chase is on. Can Langdon follow clues that tie d the chase is on. Can Langdon follow clues that tie in to Dante’s epic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, and stop a plot destined to change the world forever?
Verdict Brown delivers an amazing and intense read that arguably is the best Langdon thriller to date. Everything a reader expects from Brown is here, plus a well-written thriller with jaw-dropping twists as well. A high demand for the works of Dante plus a surge in Italian tourism is sure to follow. The king of the historical thriller is back, and this book will easily dominate the best sellers lists for quite some time. [See Prepub Alert, 1/15/13.]—Jeff Ayers, Seattle P.L.
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Kirkus Reviews
Brown's (The Lost Symbol, 2009, etc.) latest, in which a very bad guy is convinced that there are entirely too many people roaming the surface of the planet, and, because he's a fan of Dante and the Plague both, he's set to unleash inferno upon the world. Naturally enough, this being a Brown novel, someone is in possession of a piece of occult knowledge that will save the day--or not. The novel is populated with the usual elements in the form of secret, conspiratorial organizations and villains on the way to being supervillains, and readers of a literary bent may find the writing tortured: "This morning, as he stepped onto the private balcony of his yacht's stateroom, the provost looked across the churning sea and tried to fend off the disquiet that had settled in his gut." To his credit, Brown's yarn is somewhat more tightly constructed than his earlier Langdon vehicles, though its best parts are either homages or borrowings; the punky chick assassin who threatens Langdon, for instance, seems to have wandered in from a Stieg Larsson set, while the car-chase-and-explosions stuff, to say nothing of Langdon's amnesiac wanderings around the world, would seem to be a nod to Robert Ludlum. (Being chased by a drone is a nice touch, though.) If you want more of the great medieval poet Dante woven into a taut thriller, see Matthew Pearl's The Dante Club. Ace symbologist Robert Langdon returns, and the world trembles. Perfect escapist reading for fans.
