Inferno by Dan Brown

Inferno is famous writer Dan Brown's latest installation of the series of Professor Robert Langdon's adventures.  In previous works, Dan Brown had brought Robert Langdon from Italy to United States, and stirred up the world controversy with the Roman Catholic church.

In this latest episode, Robert Langdon again goes back to his most favourite country, Italy for his adventure.  This time, he picks the epic center of Renaissance - Florence, as the background of the story.  As usual, Dan Brown's capability to put twists and turns into his novel is never failing.  There are plenty of surprises awaiting the readers.  Beside simple surprises, Dan also makes his readers ponder about the boundary and ethnicity of the advancement of science and technology.

A weak point, or a good point about this new novel is that you can also use it as a text book for art students.  Dan spends lengthy pages to explain to the readers about Dante Alighieri, a 13th century Italian poet.

Before reading this novel, my knowledge about Dante was only up to 'heard of him before', but after reading this novel, I got quite some education about the poet, and a glimpse into the history of Florence.
In addition, this novel can also be used as a guide book for Florence.  When I last visited Florence, I had not much clue about all those naked men standing at Piazza Vecchia, other than the most famous Mr David.  Inferno gives you some useful information, telling you who is who.

I must say this book is still a good read, but after reading 3 of his previous works, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, The Lost Symbol, the novelty of his style is a bit worn out, and the lengthy art history may put some off.