From the Publisher
Hold on to your seats!
This is one roller-coaster ride of a thriller by a sparkling new talent, and for those of you smart enough to buy it, there's an additional bonus in Dan Brown's brilliantly-conceived web-site... I guarantee that it'll add to your enjoyment of the book, and have you frantically trying to work out what's true and not true. As the jacket blurb says, whichever way you look at it, this is an astonishing thriller!
From the Inside Flap
When a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered in a Swiss research facility, a Harvard professor, Robert Langdon, is summoned to identify the mysterious symbol seared onto the dead man's chest. His baffling conclusion: that it is the work of the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years - reborn to continue their bitter vendetta against their most hated enemy, the Catholic Church.
In Rome, the college of cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Yet somewhere within the walls of the Vatican, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion. While the minutes tick away, Langdon joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to decipher the labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome to the long-forgotten Illuminati lair - a secret refuge wherein lies the only hope for the Vatican.
But with each revelation comes another twist, another turn in the plot, which leaves Langdon and Vetra reeling and at the mercy of a seemingly invisible enemy...
Angels & Demons is a breathtakingly brilliant thriller which catapults the reader through the antiquity of Rome, through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals and even the most secret vault on earth. As the prequel to Dan Brown's worldwide bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, it has the distinction of introducing his readers to Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon.Angels & Demons begins the journey of enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.
From the Back Cover
An ancient secret brotherhood
A devastating new weapon
An unthinkable target
CERN Institute, Switzerland: a world-renowned scientist is found brutally murdered with a mysterious symbol seared onto his chest.
The Vatican, Rome: the College of Cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Somewhere beneath them, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion.
In a breathtaking race against time, Harvard professor Robert Langdon must decipher a labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols if he is to defeat those responsible - the Illuminati - a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years, reborn to continue their deadly vendetta against their most hated enemy, the Catholic church.
About the Author
Dan Brown is the bestselling author of Digital Fortress, Deception Point, Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and Inferno. He is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he has taught English and creative writing. He lives in New England.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Angels & Demons
By Dan BrownPocket
Copyright ©2006 Dan Brown
All right reserved.
ISBN: 1416524797
Chapter 2
Do I have your attention now?" the man's voice said when Langdon finally answered the line.
"Yes, sir, you damn well do. You want to explain yourself?"
"I tried to tell you before." The voice was rigid, mechanical. "I'm a physicist. I run a research facility. We've had a murder. You saw the body."
"How did you find me?" Langdon could barely focus. His mind was racing from the image on the fax.
"I already told you. The Worldwide Web. The site for your book, The Art of the Illuminati."
Langdon tried to gather his thoughts. His book was virtually unknown in mainstream literary circles, but it had developed quite a following on-line. Nonetheless, the caller's claim still made no sense. "That page has no contact information," Langdon challenged. "I'm certain of it."
"I have people here at the lab very adept at extracting user information from the Web."
Langdon was skeptical. "Sounds like your lab knows a lot about the Web."
"We should," the man fired back. "We invented it."
Something in the man's voice told Langdon he was not joking.
"I must see you," the caller insisted. "This is not a matter we can discuss on the phone. My lab is only an hour's flight from Boston."
Langdon stood in the dim light of his study and analyzed the fax in his hand. The image was overpowering, possibly representing the epigraphical find of the century, a decade of his research confirmed in a single symbol.
"It's urgent," the voice pressured.
Langdon's eyes were locked on the brand. Illuminati, he read over and over. His work had always been based on the symbolic equivalent of fossils -- ancient documents and historical hearsay -- but this image before him was today. Present tense. He felt like a paleontologist coming face to face with a living dinosaur.
"I've taken the liberty of sending a plane for you," the voice said. "It will be in Boston in twenty minutes."
Langdon felt his mouth go dry. An hour's flight . . .
"Please forgive my presumption," the voice said. "I need you here."
Langdon looked again at the fax -- an ancient myth confirmed in black and white. The implications were frightening. He gazed absently through the bay window. The first hint of dawn was sifting through the birch trees in his backyard, but the view looked somehow different this morning. As an odd combination of fear and exhilaration settled over him, Langdon knew he had no choice.
"You win," he said. "Tell me where to meet the plane."
Copyright ©2000 by Dan Brown
Continues...
Excerpted from Angels & Demons by Dan Brown Copyright ©2006 by Dan Brown. Excerpted by permission.
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