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people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #250,886 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
Meandering, Unsatisfying and A Bit Condescending
I've read Dan Brown's first 4 books at least twice each, so I consider myself a fan. His previous book, The Lost Symbol, was a slight downturn from the excitement of his first four, but I figured perhaps it was me, the reader, who just wasn't as interested in DC and its symbology, and Dan Brown was still as hot as ever.
Unfortunately, it's now two in a row, which is starting to be concerning.
Inferno was disappointing, in a nutshell.
There was no excitement in the storyline. Because the story begins with the reader having absolutely no clue about anything at all as to what is happening, and then immediately becomes one chase after another, you don't have time to properly establish a relationship with Langdon and his usual Extremely Beguilingly Beautiful Strong Somewhat Mysterious Female + 1. Continually, the whole novel is comprised of one chase scene after another, so the reader has no chance to catch their breath and just chill for a bit with Langdon and see what's new with him and what he's been up to since he traipsed through DC.
Langdon's Extremely Beguilingly Beautiful Strong Somewhat Mysterious Female + 1 for this particular novel is Sienna Brooks, and although this book's time range is about 2 days, she manages to seemingly fall in love with him by the end of the book, notwithstanding her Mysterious background and the circumstance of this partnership.
Meanwhile, Langdon is being chased all over Italy by Scary Dangerous Men In Black, but he will find himself stopping for a moment to lose himself in memories of lectures he gave on this or that artifact, or to have one of HUNDREDS of "Ahh..." too clever moments of wry irony wherein Langdon recalls that such and such sculpture or painting or symbol is not what the commoner assumes it is, but something much more - usually - phallic in origin.
Finally, the ending. I was left unsatisfied. This book started transitioning into Michael Crichton territory by the last quarter... which is NOT at all what I want from a Robert Langdon novel.
