I have heard it said that if you're a Robert Langdon fan, Inferno is exactly what you'll want, and to a certain point that's true. If you've read Angels and Demons, the Da Vinci Code, and the Lost Symbol, you generally know what you're in for this go around. That being said, I think I had my expectations a little too high with this one. 
 Langdon wakes up without any memory of the adventure in which he finds himself currently embroiled. That spoke in the book in many ways. As readers we were constantly playing catch-up with Langdon. This can be fun, and it offers a unique attempt by Brown to shake up the formula of the Robert Langdon novel. Additionally, I found myself wondering why Langdon was the specialist flown in for this time sensitive mission. He's clearly a very talented symbologist (We as readers are reminded of this often. Yes, Dan Brown, Robert Langdon is a gentleman and a scholar. We forgot. Thanks.). However, I found myself wondering if this was really the best option they had. He seems to know a lot about Dante and the Divine Comedy. However, if I felt the world was riding on someone's knowledge of the Dante cannon, you best believe I'd be calling in the Dante expert. As a reader I never felt there was any indication Langdon was in any way the top Dante scholar. I needed more about why him, especially when we lost out on seeing the Langdon getting called into the fray scene. 
 I was really excited for this adventure. I was excited that we were going back to Europe and the history there. I was excited because Dante offered so many possibilities. I felt like everything was kind of surface level here. Additionally, for all that there were apparently people out to get Langdon the stakes didn't seem all that connected to him. Indeed, the most anxiety on Langdon's part seems to derive from whether or not he will be reunited with his beloved Mickey Mouse watch. 
 I must say the brain flush between these books drives me somewhat nuts. I'm sure they're structured so that a reader can pick up any in the series and not be lost. I started with the Da Vinci Code rather than Angels and Demons back when the Da Vinci Code was the book, and I didn't even know it was part of a series. However, you can allude to these other adventures (more than the quick, vague, is he alluding or isn't he) without spoiling anything or alienating readers new to Langdon's adventures. Meanwhile, the amount of time Robert Langdon spends seeming generally shocked that he is being shot at and plopped right in the middle of a plot larger than a Harvard man just made me want to bang my head. We have been here before Robert. This is not our first rodeo. Give us that at least. 
 All this being said, reading Inferno and the Demonologist so close to each other has ensured I purchased my own copy of the Divine Comedy (the new translation).