A book full of facts well researched or just full of imaginations written in a way to have you convinced?
Recently, after being suggested by a friend to read this book. I went to the bookstore and picked up this 2000 bestselling mystery-thriller novel. Apparently, the book did better after Dan Brown's next novel Da Vinci Code made news all over the world.
PLOT
The plot follows Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, as he tries to stop what seems to be the Illuminati, a legendary secret society, from destroying Vatican City with the newly discovered power of antimatter until almost the end of the book when quite predictably you realise that there is a serious twist in the story. You can read the plot on Wikipedia
The main character in the book is Robert Langdon who basically travels from North America to Europe to land up in the Vatican in a single day as the day unfolds. Robert Langdon, a symbologist, gets a call from the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) to find out that he is on a trail for a secret society known for their ambigrams.
Interesting fact: The eye-catching and impressive ambigrams were designed by an American ambigram artist by the name of John Langdon.
The book talks about Mr. Langdon being transported from Boston, Massachusetts to Geneva, Switzerland in one hour by this plane which is supposedly a prototype of the Boeing X-33 that could travel 15 times faster than the speed of sound (Mach 15)
Interesting fact: The name X-33 is taken from the Lockheed Martin X-33 which was planned to be the next generation, commercially operated re-usable launch vehicle. (Still under testing)
Since the book runs in real time, there is a story going on parallel to that of Mr. Langdon containing other characters of the story which are obviously linked to together in the end. One of such character is supposedly an Arab individual involved in killing a CERN scientist and stealing the antimatter from their lab. The writer decided to not name this person but to call him 'Hassassin' which comes from the Arabic designation 'Hashshashin' used in the middle ages.
Interesting fact: The author claims that the word assassin is derived from the word Hassassin which was used as a designation in the Arabic countries during the middle ages because of this group of skilled executioners who would indulge in the use of the drug 'hashish'. However, this is just one of the suggestions but the writer has published it as if a known fact.
As we go about the story, the book might surprise you when it mentions that World Wide Web was invented at CERN.
Interesting fact: This is completely true. Read more on the World Wide Web
Not too far in the book, you find the first ambigram (have to admit, it is very interesting) for the word 'Illuminati'. From here on, the text provides a lot of facts about this secret society / ancient brotherhood. The term Illuminati was used by the society to mark themselves as 'the enlightened ones'.
Interesting facts: Contrary, to the claims by the book that the society is as old as the 1500s and was started by a group of 'more enlightened man' such as mathematicians, physicist, astronomers who were against the church, it was actually founded in the year 1776 by a man named Adam Weishaupt. Adam himself, was Jesuit (Society of Jesus) taught and the first lay professor of the canon law (body of laws and regulations made by or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members). The mission of the Illuminati was abolition of all monarchical governments and state religions in Europe and its colonies.
Right after revealing some information about the supposedly historic secret society, the author makes a big revelation that Galileo was a part of the same brotherhood but also a Catholic who "wanted to soften the church's position on science by proclaiming that science did not undermine the existence of God but rather reinforced it"
More facts coming soon....
Interesting fact: The eye-catching and impressive ambigrams were designed by an American ambigram artist by the name of John Langdon.
The book talks about Mr. Langdon being transported from Boston, Massachusetts to Geneva, Switzerland in one hour by this plane which is supposedly a prototype of the Boeing X-33 that could travel 15 times faster than the speed of sound (Mach 15)
Interesting fact: The name X-33 is taken from the Lockheed Martin X-33 which was planned to be the next generation, commercially operated re-usable launch vehicle. (Still under testing)
Since the book runs in real time, there is a story going on parallel to that of Mr. Langdon containing other characters of the story which are obviously linked to together in the end. One of such character is supposedly an Arab individual involved in killing a CERN scientist and stealing the antimatter from their lab. The writer decided to not name this person but to call him 'Hassassin' which comes from the Arabic designation 'Hashshashin' used in the middle ages.
Interesting fact: The author claims that the word assassin is derived from the word Hassassin which was used as a designation in the Arabic countries during the middle ages because of this group of skilled executioners who would indulge in the use of the drug 'hashish'. However, this is just one of the suggestions but the writer has published it as if a known fact.
As we go about the story, the book might surprise you when it mentions that World Wide Web was invented at CERN.
Interesting fact: This is completely true. Read more on the World Wide Web
Not too far in the book, you find the first ambigram (have to admit, it is very interesting) for the word 'Illuminati'. From here on, the text provides a lot of facts about this secret society / ancient brotherhood. The term Illuminati was used by the society to mark themselves as 'the enlightened ones'.
Interesting facts: Contrary, to the claims by the book that the society is as old as the 1500s and was started by a group of 'more enlightened man' such as mathematicians, physicist, astronomers who were against the church, it was actually founded in the year 1776 by a man named Adam Weishaupt. Adam himself, was Jesuit (Society of Jesus) taught and the first lay professor of the canon law (body of laws and regulations made by or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members). The mission of the Illuminati was abolition of all monarchical governments and state religions in Europe and its colonies.
Right after revealing some information about the supposedly historic secret society, the author makes a big revelation that Galileo was a part of the same brotherhood but also a Catholic who "wanted to soften the church's position on science by proclaiming that science did not undermine the existence of God but rather reinforced it"
Interesting fact: Since Galileo died in the year 1642, and the Illuminati society was not founded until 1776, there is no way that he could have been a member. However, he did emphasize on Copernicus' idea that the earth revolved around sun and in 1616 took it to the church trying to convince them that the bible does not say that earth is the center of the Universe. Soon, the church asked him not to 'hold or defend' such ideas but he pursued it and was later encouraged by the election of Cardinal Barberini as the Pope in 1623. Barberini was a good friend and an admirer of Galileo. After publishing a book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, he was put under house arrest for the rest of his life (also stated in the book) when he wrote another book which lead to him being called "The father of Modern Physics".
More facts coming soon....
