Inferno by Dan Brown

This has been one of the best books I've read so far. The one thing I like about Dan Brown is his ability to make the reader stick to the pages until the end. His ability to write in such a style such that you feel the story is happening right in front of your eyes. His ability to reveal a suspense in just one line at the end of a chapter is the very reason I finished this book in a single sitting.

As with most Dan Brown books, Inferno starts with Robert Langdon who wakes in a mysterious situation in a hospital, remembering nothing of the past two days, with a killer behind him. The reason? He doesn't know. Where is he? He doesn't know. How did he get there? No idea whatsoever. 

In the following chapters, what reveals is what forms the crux of the book. From describing of the 'secret' organization to the beliefs of a powerful man named Zobrist, this book takes you through some thought-provoking paragraphs. 

The way the author tries to build up a story inter-twining events from The Black Death to Renaissance to present day social challenges such as poverty, depleting resources, and survival of mankind is worth appreciating. 

The main idea of the book is that a character named Zobrist feels that behind the social problems present world is facing, like poverty, depleting resources, etc. there is a single variable.. the population. He comes face to face with the World Health Organization. He believes that the WHO is creating vaccines and drugs to prevent diseases which in turn is increasing the longevity. This is created a burst in population. With such increasing population, it becomes difficult to provide resources to everyone. Mankind needs to progress and create new breakthroughs in areas of bio-engineering. As it happened in the history, after The Black Death in Europe, where majority of population fell dead, after which there was Renaissance, known to be the golden period during which Europe developed its economy and progressed a lot. Zobrist believes there should be another such event which would trigger another Renaissance in the modern world. Zobrist is a biologist. He creates something after which he believes mankind would remember him for his creation.

The series of events which takes place from Langdon being sought by a killer, to the interaction between Zobrist and WHO, to how the events unfold where the 'secret' organization plans to release a video to the entire world, the references to Dante's Inferno, describing the seven stages in hell, each representing a different kind of punishments, the Black Death, the Renaissance, the modern world social challenges... all these inter-twined in a best-seller thriller.. The Inferno.