Dan Brown's "Unputdownables"

After all these years I still find the books to be so damned good! I finally got a copy of Angels & Demons--thank God for mall-wide sales--and I don't need to borrow a friend's copy if I wanna reread it again (and again and again...).

"Unputdownable." That was how one of the critics described one of Dan Brown's bestsellers. I really can't remember which one it was--Angels & Demons or The Da Vinci Code. It's not even a word but somehow it's more than apropos to describe both of those books. Both are sleep-be-damned kinda books, you know. And Dan Brown knows the perfect formula of what to put in a perfect thriller. It wouldn't have mattered whether those copyright theft charges against him were dropped or not by the judge. And that somehow made him more popular and his books more in demand than ever.

Angels & Demons. This was where we first met the incomparable character, Robert Langdon. He needed to decipher the clues before a centuries-old society acts on its vendetta against the Catholic Church. It was a race against time as the Church's leaders go into conclave--while sitting on a timebomb that could erase Vatican from the map in a matter of seconds.

The Da Vinci Code. Another fast-paced conspiracy, but an equally suspenseful chapter, in the life of symbologist Robert Langdon. This time it was a quest for the Holy Grail and what it really is. And so he worked on the clues found in Da Vinci's masterpieces before the cover-up was exposed and the answers fell into the wrong hands.

Dan Brown is a master storyteller. He may have penned other works but nothings beats these two, especially the latter. Although when you seriously think about it, the first book is actually a lot better when it comes to the suspense and drama in it; only that the latter has a(n even) more controversial topic and therefore captured more attention. It makes you wonder. It makes you think. It opens your mind to possibilities other than what you've been taught your whole life. Whether you believe it or not, that's up to you. But whether it's pure fiction or not, we would probably never find out. At least, not in this lifetime.