Inferno

The book hit the market about six months ago, but due to severe financial constraints (RM98.90 per book) couldn't fork out my meagre money to purchase it, despite being constantly propelled by intense enthusiasm and excitement.

When I went to Taiwan a few weeks ago, I found the book at a book shop, and it cost only NT$450 (due to depreciation of Malaysia Ringgit, it converts to RM50), and so I bought it immediately. After all, RM50 for a hard cover book is very worthy.

Inferno is slightly different from Dan Brown's other work. It begins immediately with a suspense, and it catches pace after it. Unlike The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol, they begin with great suspense, and the mysteries build up over pages and then the pace quickens. Inferno decides to be a little recalcitrant - it begins with Robert Langdon awakes with amnesia, and realises himself being hunted by assassins who will go to great lengths to ensure he does not breathe anymore.

What enlightens me the most is that this book contains very minimal Christianity compared to The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. I'm not a Christian, and no offence, but I have no interest to read about religions in a purely fictitious novel. I don't really care about the controversy behind them, because I ain't a Christian and I know nothing, and I think fictions are fictions. They do not merit solid historic background. If your education prepares you right, you can tell whether a historic fact in a fiction is authentic or misleading.

However, Inferno is, in my opinion, less engaging than the other Robert Langdon's series, although the suspense is still powerful enough to keep me absorbed for hours.

Probably the best book for 2013. I'm definitely waiting for the sequel.