Heaven's Revenge

Angels and Demons

Angels and Demons

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon works with a nuclear physicist to solve a murder and prevent a terrorist act against the Vatican during one of the significant events within the church.

—Anonymous and assmn316

Following the murder of a physicist, Father Silvano Bentivoglio, a symbolist, Robert Langdon, and a scientist, Vittoria Vetra, are on an adventure involving a secret brotherhood, the Illuminati. Clues lead them all around the Vatican, including the four altars of science, Earth, Air, Fire and Water. An assassin, working for the Illuminati, has captured four cardinals, and murders each, painfully. Robert and Vittoria also are searching for a new very destructive weapon that could kill millions.

—XXDustfingerXX

Despite his notorious relationship with the Roman Catholic church, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is once again called upon to decipher the clues to a catastrophic conspiracy. The Pope has died, and before a conclave can begin to determine his successor, the four preferitti (primary hopefuls for the papacy) are kidn*pped. An ominous threat of their hourly demise, along with the complete annihilation of Vatican City, is issued as an elaborate revenge scheme by a persecuted group known as the Illuminati. With their meager time limit steadily counting down, Langdon, accompanied by beautiful physicist Vittoria Vetra, must travel throughout Rome to unravel the carefully hidden signs that will lead them to a terrifying adversary, a harrowing discovery, and the shocking truth.

—The Massie Twins

The Pope has died and the conclave has been called. Four candidates have been chosen. However, before the voting, the four candidates are killed one by one. The killer leaves clues that seem to say that he or she is a member of the Illuminati. Strangely though, the Illuminati was long thought to be eradicated. Who is the mastermind? Who revived the Illuminati? What do they want?

—Ryanking

After the death of the Pope, the conclave has gathered in a locked room to choose his successor among four cardinals designated "preferitti". However the quartet is abducted by the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood that was supposed eradicated. The symbologist Robert Langdon and the scientist Vittoria Vetra, who had her powerful and dangerous prototype of antimatter research stolen, are invited by the Vatican police to help them in their investigations. They are received by the receptive Camerlengo, Patrick McKenna, and by the reluctant Commander Richter. They are informed that the Illuminati have promised to kill each cardinal every hour from 8:00 PM and then blow up Vatican City with the antimatter. Robert and Vittoria have a few hours to unravel the clues and discover where the lethal weapon might be hidden.

—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Angels and Demons continues Dan Brown’s saga, following Robert Langdon on another adventure to solve mysteries that contain a semi-religious base. The novel juxtaposes science and religion in a way that brings the two concepts into conflict with each other. The story begins with a murder at the CERN laboratory and the theft of a container of antimatter which, if not recovered within twenty-four hours, will explode. The container has been taken to Vatican City by a secret society known as the Illuminati. Landon and Vittoria, the daughter of the physicist who was murdered, travel to Vatican City to investigate the container’s disappearance. Ventresca, a member of the Swiss Guard, who also worked with the previous Pontiff, joins the pair.

Langdon’s initial investigation in Rome uncovers the murders of four cardinals killed in ways that mimic the four elements: earth, wind, water, and fire. He discovers each of the victims have been branded with an ambigram associated with an element. Vittoria is taken hostage during the investigation, and Langdon, still pursing the missing canister, is determined to save his colleague as well. He eventually finds her in St. Peter’s Basilica. While in the process of rescuing her, he hears Ventresca’s panic ridden screams and discovers that Ventresca, too, has been branded by the Illuminati. During this flurry of events, Kohler, the first to discover the murder at the CERN, is believed to be a member of the secret society and is gunned down. As he dies, Kohler gives Langdon a videotape, pleading with him to make it public.

Little time remains as Langdon and Vittoria follow Ventresca into the catacombs to find the canister resting atop the tomb of St. Peter. With the antimatter in hand, they board a helicopter, eager to get the container away from the densely populated area surrounding St. Peter’s Basilica. With only minutes remaining before the antimatter explodes, Landon and Ventresca parachute from the helicopter as the canister explodes harmlessly above them. The spectacle attracts the attention of a crowd gathered in St. Peter’s square that witness the miraculous event and hail Ventresca a hero for his death-defying act. As a result, the cardinals entertain the idea of appointing Ventresca as the new pope.

Langdon regains consciousness and finds himself in the hospital. He takes the videotape from his jacket pocket. He views the contents, shocked by what he finds. The videotape reveals that Ventresca, also a camerlengo, branded himself with the Illuminati insignia, confessing shortly after that his real name is Janus. He orchestrated the chain of events that lead to the catastrophe that nearly destroyed thousands of lives and Vatican City. His involvement in the conspiracy is further exacerbated by the knowledge that he murdered the Pope with the powerful anticoagulant heparin as retaliation for the discovery that the Pope had fathered a child. Langdon flees the hospital and returns to the Vatican.

The link between science and religion is further illustrated by the meeting the Pope had just before the novel begins with Vetra, who was convinced that anti-matter was capable of bridging the gap between science and the church. The Pope supported the idea, revealing that science allowed him to have a son through the process of artificial insemination. Without knowing the full story, Ventresca, assuming the Pope had broken his vow of chastity, devised an intricate plot to rectify the situation. Under the guise of an Illuminati master, Ventresca hired an assassin to kill Vetra and steal the antimatter; the act that instigated the chain of events depicted in the novel. The theft of the antimatter, as well as the valiant act of retrieving it just in time to save the city, was a desperate attempt to unite the struggling Catholic Church. The involvement of the Illuminati was another ploy orchestrated by Ventresca to misdirect Langdon and the Church from his own misdeeds. The Dean of the College of Cardinals, upon learning of Ventresca’s plot, reveals that Ventresca is the son of the recently murdered Pope, having been conceived via artificial insemination with a nun.

Distraught by the guilt of having killed his own father, Ventresca douses himself in oil and lights himself on fire. A crowd of onlookers in St. Peter’s Square witnesses the horrifying scene. Ventresca’s ashes are recovered and placed inside an urn that is placed inside his father’s sarcophagus. Mortati, the former Dean of the College of Cardinals is unanimously elected Pope, while Langdon and Vittoria leave for their hotel. As the novel concludes, the last brand, the Illuminati Diamond, is gifted to Langdon with the caveat he return it to the Vatican in his will.

Dan Brown’s novel, while exploring the dichotomy of science and religion, explores the potential devastation that results from blurring the lines between them. Robert Langdon is the consummate example of the religious skeptic who relies only on what he can see. The Church however, provides a stark example of an organization entrenched in faith and tradition in the most extreme sense. Brown pits these two forces against each other and, in effect, leads the reader on a journey to discover who will blink first. Although Brown uses fiction as a conduit to convey these truisms, its correlation with reality should both remind the reader to approach science and religion with an open mind, and serve as a vivid reminder of the consequences of not doing so.

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Two face, two face, yeah

Black white, left right, yeah

Up down, all night, yeah

Can't escape it ever

Don't forget my name

I don't feel the same

On a trip, no train

And all these angels and demons

Keep shouting and screaming

I'm falling from Eden

So f**k me like a rockstar

Dancing on a cop car

Nothing in the world can stop me now

Fucked up like a rockstar

Ridin' in a cop car

No one in the world can help me now

Everybody said that I'm falling

Took another line I'm calling

I'm so sick of the nonsense

I'ma dive into the mosh pit

I don't really think I'm the problem

I don't really think it's a problem

Me plus me is a problem

One gun shot could solve 'em

Tell my friends I'm sorry though

T-t-t-tell my sins to go

And all these angels and demons

Keep shouting and screaming

I'm falling from Eden

So f**k me like a rockstar

Dancing on a cop car

Nothing in the world can stop me now

Fucked up like a rockstar

Ridin' in a cop car

No one in the world can help me now

And all these angels and demons

Keep shouting and screaming

I'm falling from Eden

So f**k me like a rockstar

Dancing on a cop car

Nothing in the world can stop me now

Fucked up like a rockstar

Ridin' in a cop car

No one in the world can help me now

So f**k me like a rockstar

Dancing on a cop car

Nothing in the world can stop me now

Fucked up like a rockstar

Ridin' in a cop car

No one in the world can help me now

Don't stop driving

Tell 'em

Rockstar

Fuck me like a rockstar