If you’ve been following my book reviews, you’ll see I’ve been reviewing a couple of books by the wonderful Dan Brown. These works are part of the Robert Langdon series. In each, Robert takes on issues of national security or even issues that put the human race at risk. As a Harvard professor, Robert is always caught in the middle of his didactic lifestyle and takes on world matters.

In this adventure, Robert takes on overpopulation. Well, he doesn’t. Other people simply drag him into the situation. The guy never gets a break.

***spoilers***

Robert starts off by waking up in a hospital, completely in pain and with absolutely no memory. Only moments later, he’s out of his hospital bed running away with the doctor because someone is still trying to kill him. Robert has something very important, and someone doesn’t want him to utilize it, except that Robert has amnesia and has no idea what’s going on or what he has. Geez, this guy can just wake up and suddenly the world is in danger.

The historical aspect of this novel focuses on Dante (author of The Divine Comedy) and the Black Plague of Europe. Here’s a fun activity you can try. Read this excerpt from the book and think:

“Zobrist asked the following: If you could throw a switch and randomly kill half the population on earth, would you do it?”
“Of course not.”
“Okay. But what if you were told that if you didn’t throw that switch right now, the human race would be extinct in the next hundred years?” She paused. “Would you throw it then? Even if it meant you might murder friends, family, and possibly even yourself?”
“Sienna, I can’t possibly—”
“It’s a hypothetical question,” she said. “Would you kill half the population today in order to save our species from extinction?”

That was fun.

I love this book series because it incorporates many themes very smoothly. There is the obvious adventure theme in each book but Brown also includes history, environmental issues, and the unlikely romance between characters (sarcasm- the romance is very clear). I have brought this up before, and I’ll say it again. The history aspect is what intrigues me the most about this series. These are all obviously fictional pieces, but much of the historical information included is actually true. Fictional writing is interesting because it seems bizarre, but writing becomes ten times more interesting if those bizarre situations are true.

Now go get yourself this beautiful piece of literature. It’s only 609 pages anyway, but before you read it, be sure to check out the rest of the books in this series. It honestly is quite fascinating.

(Also, all humans are in denial.)