The Da Vinci Code

Rating:
Summary: Much More Than A Super Suspense Thriller!!
Review: Once I began this extraordinary book, I could not put it down. "The Da Vinci Code" is so much more than a gripping suspense thriller. Dan Brown takes us beyond the main plot and leads us on a quest for the Holy Grail - a Grail totally unlike anything we have been taught to believe. With his impeccable research, Mr. Brown introduces us to aspects and interpretations of Western history and Christianity that I, for one, had never known existed...or even thought about. I found myself, unwillingly, leaving the novel, and time and time again, going online to research Brown's research - only to find a new world of historic possibilities opening up for me. And my quest for knowledge and the answers to questions that the book poses, paralleled, in a sense, the quest of the book's main characters. What a trip! What a read!

A violent murder is committed in the Louvre Museum. The museum's chief curator, who is also the head of a remarkable secret society that has existed since the death of Christ, is found dead and gruesomely positioned on the floor near The Mona Lisa. In the minutes before he died, this very complex man was able to leave clues for his daughter to follow. The daughter, a brilliant cryptographer, along with a famed US symbologist, follow her father's codes and leads, hoping that he will, through his death, finally tell her what he wanted to confide in her while he lived. The secret society included members such as: Leonardo Da Vinci, Boticelli, Gallileo, Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Jean Cocteau, etc. These folks really Did belong to this society, which Really existed! This is when I first began my online search.

The mystery, or mysteries, take us through England, France and far back in time. We learn about the secret of the Knights Templar, and the symbolism in many of the world's most treasured paintings, as well as architectural symbolism in some of history's most sacred churches. Of course, we also learn who committed the murder and why - although this is almost secondary next to the real epic mystery the novel uncovers.

If there are flaws in the plot, I was too busy reading to discover any. That is probably the sign of a terrific book! The writing is excellent and the characters are a bit on the super-hero/heroine side, but who cares? Is what "The Da Vinci Code" proposes true? Well, the research is correct. The historical events and people explored in the book are real. But no one knows the Truth...nor will we ever, probably. I think that some things are meant to be a mystery. With all the world's diverse religions and each individual's belief in what is Divine - the Truth would have to destroy the beliefs, hopes and lives of many of the world's population. So, perhaps, in the divine scheme of things, there are many more Truths than one. Don't take the book too seriously. Just read it and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: How low have our society reached....
Review: How low have our society reached when we not only shamelessly use sex to sell every products imaginable, but now there are those willing to utilize sex to blasphemize a religion just to make a few bucks? If this doesn't epitomize selling one's soul, nothing would.

As a Christian, I read this book because I felt it as my duty to see why so many people both Christians and non-Christians are flocking to get the book. It seems that the book generated a lot of fans and recieved huge ammounts of media coverage, even by those who hadn't even read the book. There was no way I could just sit by quietly while so many people are making all sorts of judgements and opinions about my God and what He stood for.
I controlled my natural human tendency to place judgement upon the book and its subject matter without first reading the book, thus, I approached it with as much of an open mind as possible. Upon completion of the book, I was astounded. I was amazed at how a writer could claimed the book as a work of fiction, yet used countless claims of facts based upon numerous "reliable" sources. Many inaccuracies of the sources have already been pointed out by the posts of other readers, thus I will not have to repeat them. I find the author to be very contradictory simply in the notion that facts do not result in fiction! Why label a book as fiction when attempting shamelessly to portray the material as supported by facts? Therefore, regardless of how many "theories" Mr. Brown came up with, supported by his discovery of many "factual sources" in the book, obviously he himself did not believe in what he wrote, thus, passing the book off as fiction.

I find it incredibly sad and also aware of how dangerously gullible our society's become when so many will accept a book of fiction as truth due to their attraction to controversy, doubts and desire to rebell and prejudge against something they do not understand or hold dear. I am amazed how this could be accomplished by someone cleverly manipulating to interwove facts and fictions to serve their own ideals and beliefs. I am amazed at how the principle of religious tolerance is a big building block of our great country, yet a book such as this could be published and accepted by so many.

As a Christian I am deeply offended by Mr. Brown's attempt at dragging the core of Christianity through the mud and than hiding his actions by labeling his book as "fiction", yet knowing the potential damage it'll generate. He is fully responsible for spreading false information and leading those who are gullible enough to treat this information as truth and is helping tremendously in the efforts of those trying to take away everything that is sacred about Christianity and the Church.

As a Christian I am deeply offended and can't help wondering how many of those same people who have embraced the book have took the time to read the most accurate Christian text available on earth, the Holy Bible. Just as I would never go and read a book contesting the core believes of any other religion without fully comprehending that religion, I find it appalling how many people would be tempted to believe a work of fiction over the Holy Bible.

My biggest amazement is how someone can get away with treating Christianity this way. I highly doubt anyone would dare challenge another major religion in this way and be able to get away with it. That just embodies the level of forgiveness Christians are blessed with and the reflection of how Jesus Christ still forgave those who sent Him to the Cross. Christians have been persecuted throughout history, and unfortunately, even to this day, surprisingly even in this country. This is evident in the huge outcry of anti-semitism Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" received even before it's release. There is without a question that there are people who are uncomfortable and feel their own ideals threatened by the concept of Christianity and they react with hatred and opposition, the same elements that misleads one to racial prejudice. I pray that God will show them the gift of compassion in their hearts. Christians of all backgrounds, and racial groups applaud the film. Knowing how the history of our great country have been tainted by racial, ethnic and religious intolerence, and how hard we all fought against those intolerances for the sake of liberty and freedom, I highly doubt the diverse Christian community in this country would have embraced the film had there been any form of hate towards our fellow human beings, aside from the fact that the message of hate would be contradictory, hypocritical and a direct attack on the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's how I see Mr. Brown's book to be; a body of contradictory and hypocritical theories, a tragic but a dangerously effective method to desecrate a great religion and increasing the bank account.

Rating:
Summary: Great up until about midway.
Review: This book grabbed my attention from the beginning and by its midpoint, I was trying to veryify the information on the internet. A lot of what is in the book is based on fact, and a lot of it is speculation and then the rest is pure fiction. Still, it's a fun read and a good mystery. The reason for the 3 stars is that I thought Dan Brown chickened out toward the end and took the easy road out. The story is far-fetched in parts and I don't even mind that but he started with a certain premise and then abandoned it. I no longer understand why the priory is holding so dear the location of the grail. Who are they protecting it from????

Rating:
Summary: Code Broken
Review: We can debate the religious subtext of "The Da Vinci Code" ad nauseum (and I'll admit that's what got me interested in reading the book to begin with), but it doesn't change the fact that this book is simply not very good. The characters are thinly drawn and the events and coincidences that bring them together are ridiculously contrived. I could never accept that a man dying from a bullet wound would have the physical ability and presence of mind to set up an elaborate series of clues to reveal a centuries-old conspiracy. Dan Brown asks readers to take many plot-oriented leaps of faith in "The Da Vinci Code". I couldn't do it.

One other plot question: Since so many "experts" seemed to know the true nature of the Holy Grail, why was locating it such a big deal? How can there be a "conspiracy" to protect an ancient secret if everybody's already in on it?

I found "The Da Vinci Code" to be a literary "Blair Witch Project". The backstory was interesting enough, but the plot woven around it fell flat.

Rating:
Summary: The Da Vinci Code
Review: Really fast read. Great airport book. Pick it up, get interested, and have something to read for the next couple of hours. But it's full of NOTHING. There area few tid bits that are fun food for thought, but even those are run over an over and over again like a bad joke. The two main characters are experts on symbols and codes...but you wouldn't know it unless you had been told. Every other line is "It was so easy, I should have seen it before!" Then the bad guy...it sounds like Dan couldn't figure out who he wanted for the bad guy until he was forced to show him. Awful. Most of the book was sitting and listening to information. Lecture lecture lecture. RUN FROM THE BAD GUYS. Lecture lecture lecture. RUN FROM THE BAD GUYS. Lecture lecture lecture. And most every chapter ended like this..."It's time I tell you the trueth." Then you would have to wait four chapters to find out. That's how Dan infuses a book with suspense that wouldn't normaly have any.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: When I first started reading this book I was eager to become immersed in what I had been assured by many was a brilliant novel.

If there is brilliance within these pages, I see no evidence.

The plot itself starts with an intriguing idea, but there is so little in the way of particulars to flesh it out, so it barely gets beyond that initial stage. Much of this impression of scant detail is given by the author's tight fisted grip on information he prefers to keep from the reader in order to set up big revelations later in the book. Yes, mystery is an excellent device, but in this case it was overdone. It just made it apparent that there were so few actual details to be shared that they had to be rationed-doled out one at a time.

Even assuming that the reader has read Angels and Demons and knows the hero, character development is poor. Even given the rather unsurprising surprises the author does eventually reveal, it wouldn't be out of the question for the pages of introspection to be slightly more indicative of the characters' thought processes and emotional state. Granted, I can see the author was attempting to keep us from guessing too much and thereby spoiling his surprises, but part of the joy of reading a novel, even a fast-paced thriller, is getting to know the characters. Without that, we're given no reason to care what happens to them.

Instead of such character development, we get page after page of exposition that seems to have no place within the plot. Disney? The Little Mermaid? These meandering notions have no purpose here. They do not further the plot. They do not shed light on some piece of the narrative. If we're supposed to be overawed by the hero's surpassing intelligence in noticing things in Disney films that imply knowledge of the Grail, perhaps the hero should be more to us than a one-dimensional character sucked into a murder investigation.

The story itself was remarkably poorly written in many ways, but the most glaring was that, in the midst of what should be a moment of unbearable suspense, the action stopped as the narrative went off on a tangent. An interesting tangent perhaps, but still inserted awkwardly in a moment perhaps best left whole. By the time we resume where the action was suspended, it's hard to recapture the original emotion.

The hero, Robert Langdon is a professor and unfortunately resorts to lecture mode often. I often half-expected him to pull a chalkboard out of his pocket, start scribbling on it and say, "You see, Sophie..." When he did resort to doodles on a piece of paper at Teabing's house I laughed out loud.

Many of the facts he regurgitates-either in lectures to others or in the privacy of his own thoughts-seem to be included either for the purpose of proving that the author did, in fact, do research, or for the purpose of padding the novel and adding length. Both of which tactics one would expect from a student writing his/her first paper but not from a published author.

I won't go into the art history here as other reviewers with better credentials in that field have discussed it except to say that Mary Magdalene is not in DaVinci's The Last Supper. It might have made the other rather far-fetched clues a bit more believable if the author had limited himself to things that are actually in the painting. Building clues around familiar pieces of the painting-like he does with the space between Jesus and John (not Mary!) being a V shape- might have given a bit of verisimilitude to the overall story.

I don't truly understand the fervor this book has generated. Most of the ideas it presented have been mentioned elsewhere. There wasn't much new here. I enjoy reading controversial theories, so it isn't the apparent debunking of accepted ideas that bothers me, though a ridiculous percentage of this debunking is just that...ridiculous.

If this had been a well-written book I would likely have forgiven such silliness. I believe wholeheartedly in the willing suspension of disbelief asked of us by authors, but in this case, I didn't see much worth believing. Truthfully, I had to force myself to finish it because there was little there to hold my interest. Before you ask, I finished it because I had truly expected to find something within the book that would prove it was as brilliant as I had heard. I also promised to read it all for the sake of discussion. If you really want to read this, nothing I say will stop you, but do what I did and borrow someone's copy. Save your money for something worth the $24.95.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Take It as Gospel
Review: In the beginning I was intrigued by the premise set down in THE DA VINCI CODE, but my initial interest turned first to annoyance and then by the time I got to the info on Disney I was laughing so hard at the absurdity of the whole novel. First of all, this is a work of fiction, so let's deal with that part. Far from being the taut, fast-paced thriller that the potential reader is lead to believe it is, TDVC is turgid, jerky, and filled with clichés. The characters are characterless and stupid, merely cardboard for the author to push around like pawns on a chessboard. Langford, a Harvard professor, can't distinguish between backwards English and a Semitic language. Sophie, a French police cryptologist, doesn't have the brains to figure out that an armor truck from a Swiss bank might be lo-jacked. These are only two of the many idiotic things the main characters aren't intelligent enough to figure out. The characters ponder clues ad nauseum, which turns a 300-page book into 454 pages. I don't know if the author is writing down to his audience, or if he really thinks that gifted people are idiot savants. Whatever it is, it's exasperating.
Another annoyance is the so-called facts peppered throughout the books, most of which are incorrect. I like to call them fractoids, fractured facts. Venus does not subscribe a perfect pentacle in the sky over an eight-year cycle. This is an occult folklore and does not physically happen. How do we know this? Astronomers have actually looked at Venus over time. If you have astronomy software, you can check it out yourself. Then the author appends the Olympics to this Venus-cycle. Not true. The Olympics had nothing to do with Venus. Zeus, yes. Venus, no. The author thinks the left brain is illogic. Wrong. The right brain is the side that controls the fragmented dream-like images and intuition and the left side of the body. The left brain is the place of logic and mathematics and controls the right side of the body. Latin from which Italian derives sinistra was used by the pagan ancient Romans before the Roman Catholic Church used it. The left became associated with the abnormal, because right-handedness occurs naturally more often than left-handedness. Ancient Greece and Rome were male-dominated cultures so naturally the right would be considered masculine and the left with the female. If the author gets these small things wrong, what else does he get wrong? Everything about Leonardo. Let's take The Madonna on the Rocks. The author thinks Jesus giving John the Baptist his blessing is odd. The angel with the pointing finger is indicating that John precedes Christ and will announce Christ's coming as the Messiah. The Madonna's hand is palm flat and slightly angled, but hardly clawlike. This little vignette is a foreshadowing of St. John recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. In the New Testament, Jesus comes to the river Jordan to be baptized by John. John acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah, the sky opens; the voice of God speaks; the dove (a symbol of the Holy Ghost) comes down. Voila, "This is my son." It also has to do with the Immaculate Conception, which was a very controversial idea at the time. This proves that Brown doesn't understand the iconography of Renaissance paintings. Any of the symbols that Brown, through Langdon, attributes to Mary Magdalene, are actually attributes of Mary, the Mother of God: the rose, the chalice, and the vessel. In fact, if you look at a painting of the Annunciation, where the Archangel Gabriel comes to tell Mary she is to be the Mother of God she is often depicted in a domestic interior with a clear vase nearby and light shining through the vase. This symbolizes Mary, the vase or vessel, which is being penetrated by the light (God). Get it? Neoplatonism, a current philosophy of the time, may have influenced Leonardo, like it did the artist Botticelli (Sandro Fillipi), but Leonardo was an engineer, a science geek. The quotes from Leonardo used by Brown regarding religion only prove this. They do not prove he was a guardian of the feminine divine or a goddess worshipper. Why is Mary Magdalene important? Okay, she could be the right-hand apostle. Women were an important part of the Early Church. Yes, the Christian church changed over time. Even the nature of Jesus was debated. Anyone who reads about the history of Christianity knows this. No, she is not the prostitute in the New Testament. Anyone who actually reads his or her Bible knows this. However, in this book, Mary Magdalene's importance is derived from a man, from Jesus. She is not important independently. She becomes the vessel for Jesus's seed. With all the strong, Pagan independent Goddesses like Athena, Inanna, Ishtar, why are we to be astonished or awestruck at the burial place of human woman whose importance derives solely from being associated with a male? Her significance is only relevant because of his significance. It just doesn't have much punch.
This is a work of fiction. Not a very original one at that. THE DAUGHTER OF GOD came out in 2000. However, because Brown asserts at the beginning of the book that these facts are true, many people will be misled into believing that this work of fiction is true. I would hope that people would read something besides the Starbird books and HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL. Do not take those books or THE DA VINCI CODE as gospel.
Some may find it challenging, others won't. I found it tedious. BTW, I am not a Christian, but as an educated person with a B.A. in the history of art, this book is an affront on so many levels.

Rating:
Summary: Yeah right, like my review will stand out
Review: What a sheer delight it was to read The Da Vinci Code. Having written this first line about the Dan Brown novel, I can almost hear the mental alarm bells ringing in some people's heads. I can't recall another book in recent years that has produced such a furor over so little. I mean, come on people. It's a novel; a potboiler mystery that happens to involve long discussions of ancient and medieval church history. I wasn't sure what to expect in this regard, since the level of history involved would require a specialist to properly evaluate. If it was any other topic, I suspect most readers would just finish the book, say 'I love it' or 'I hated it' and move on with life. But it's about religion, so hence the fury.

First, to the story itself. A Harvard professor is called in by Paris police to examine symbols written on a recently murdered body in the Louvre. Turns out he's also a suspect, and he teams up with a French cryptologist who is also the victim's granddaughter. They then go through a fast paced series of adventures trying to solve the mystery while avoiding, well, everyone. It's mostly a combination of action and puzzle solving, but the puzzle solving is a mystery in itself, since the clues have significance for the characters but not for the readers ('Granddad knew I liked that statue, let's see what he hid underneath it' (not a spoiler, sculpture plays no role in the book)). So Agatha Christie fans beware, you won't solve it yourself, though a careful reading will help you predict certain things. Some clues are there for the reader. Dan Brown is good at misdirection, so pay careful attention to everything.

Some points should be made in reply to other reviews. Character development is almost nonexistent here. This is not a problem, because 95 percent of the story takes place in a very, very short time frame. How much do we expect to learn about someone as they run around all night trying to solve word games and not get arrested?

But of course the largest point critics have made is about the Catholic Church and its portrayal by Brown. In particular, Opus Dei comes in for some very harsh treatment. So the questions are, is this fair and is it relevant? The relevance is obvious once one gets into the book. We learn soon enough that the Church has been covering up a deep secret since the time of Jesus, committing all sorts of crimes to keep it hidden. And this secret is behind the murder. So it's relevant. Is it fair? Though Brown has stated that all art, architecture, documents, and rituals described are accurate, that still leaves plenty of wiggle room to construct some fiction. This is probably why my copy of the book says 'Fiction' on the side, right below the Doubleday logo. Other readers are free to check their copies. As for fact, those who object to saying that the Church kills to promote a point of theology are invited to do a search right here on Amazon for the following words, 'Reformation', 'Inquisition', 'Spanish Inquisition', 'Great Schism', 'Crusade' (later ones for intra-Christian fighting), 'Thirty Years War', 'Giordano Bruno'. These are just the first few that spring to mind, and a clever researcher may think of others. To those who condemn Brown on this point I have two questions. Did you finish the book, or stop in the middle? (This is important). Are you eagerly awaiting the next installment of the Left Behind series, so you can read rapturously about the heinous tribulations awaiting all us hedonistic sinners? The second question may be ignored, as it is rhetorical, but it tends to reinforce the main point. This is fiction. Run with it. The Da Vinci Code is hardly perfect, and it is pretty shallow. It's also a page-turner, half way intelligent, and a lot of fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: Good Stuff
Review: Love it, hate it, agree or not, Dan Brown has forced us to reconsider our own beliefs about history, the Catholic Church and our fundamental need for mythos. I for one do not require a supernatural explanation to understand my need for spirituality, but I do relish a connection to the past. The Da Vinci Code is but one of many viewpoints on history, and considered as such, I find it compelling.

History is not science. We cannot prove or disprove motivations, intentions, conspiracies or the like. We can only speculate and gather what facts are available to ponder the mindset of our subject(s). Dan Brown has presented an old but uncomfortable idea, connected it to historical data, and conveyed it using an enjoyable format.

Solid research, logical sequencing, and a flare for the yarn - I loved it! It reminded me of "Atlantis Continued..." another interesting take on history.

Rating:
Summary: Will make stupid people think they're clever
Review: Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code purports to be an brainy thriller of the same stripe as Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum or Iain Pear's An Instance of the Fingerpost, but it isn't, quite: it's a stupid - very stupid - thriller spliced with rather a lot of meticulous (I'm not sure I'd necessarily stretch to "brainy") research on some cloak and dagger Christian stuff.

The research side is interesting enough, to be sure, and had Dan Brown set out to write and idiot's guide to Christian Symbolism in art and literature (i.e., had he left the thriller element out of it altogether), I'd have been more charitable in my assessment of his book. It is good meaty, controversial stuff. I couldn't give a fig whether it's true or not, to be honest, as long as it gets up the nose of the religious authorities, which apparently it has. Kudos to Mr. Brown for that.

But the thriller? Dear, oh dear. There's not one element of it that passes muster.

Firstly, the characterisation is astoundingly weak - so weak that it completely undermines the unfolding plot. The gating question Dan Brown fails to answer is this: why would a four-by-two, dull-as-ditchwater university beak, actually do any of this?

Next, the dialogue throughout is awful (a large contributor to the woodenness of the characterisation) and about three of the characters seem to "chime" everything rather than saying it. Grrr.

Then the plot, however you look at it, is plain ridiculous. We asked to believe that, among other things (NB the following aren't really spoilers):

* pillar-of-respectability Robert Langdon, a world-renowned Harvard professor of symbolism, before even informally being accused of a crime he manifestly could not have committed, would seek to run from local judicial police (instead of co-operating with their inquiries) to the extent of (among other things) hot-wiring an armoured truck, breaking through police lines in a borrowed Range Rover and fleeing French airspace in an illegally chartered plane.

* the murder victim's grand-daughter Sophie - estranged from said victim for ten years (as a result of witnessing him participate in a bizarre sex cult) and a complete stranger to Langdon, herself an employee of the French Police's cryptology department to boot (convenient, eh wot?) - would be the prime mover in Langdon's decision to do, and his main accomplice in doing, this, thus (one would think) completely obliterating her own career in public service in the process for the sake of a dead man she manifestly thought was a pervert.

* on the run from the French judicial police (as well as a rather nasty bovver boy from Vatican hardliners Opus Dei), said professor would frequently stop and deliver lengthy homilies to said granddaughter about L. Da Vinci, the Priory of Sion, the Merovingian Kings, the Knights Templar and all the other usual suspects of Christian legend.

* The point of the pair's flight from justice is apparently not to prove Langdon's innocence, nor solve the actual murder themselves, but instead to find - on this night, of all nights - documentary proof of the last resting place of the most Holy Grail itself.

* that this, along with all other action in the novel (and there's plenty more, you may rest assured) takes place in the course of one uninterrupted evening. About four lines in the novel suggest that Sophie and Robert may also get it on. What a busy pair!

Now I know fiction is all about the suspension of disbelief, but this is ridiculous. We are introduced to an increasingly ludicrous array of plot-functional characters as the drama goes on, whilst Brown spoon feeds his hysterical theories of Christian cover-ups, secret societies and hidden symbols by way of unsolicited authorial essay, pompous soliloquy (usually delivered, as noted, in the teeth of approaching police and/or bovver boys), or straight-out travelogue. There are pages of The Da Vinci Code that read like Let's Go Paris 2003.

Where the opportunity really knocked was to fold the symbolism Brown has researched into the text of the novel itself. This is what sets apart the likes of Umberto Eco - real skill in the craft of writing. None is in evidence here. There is no figurative structure at all, which is remarkable for a book all about hidden codes, so it is really a straight out holiday page-turner.

Which is why the masses like it, and have bought it in their droves: The Da Vinci Code is a dead easy read, but one can feel the achievement of having read (and understood!) a book described on its cover as "erudite".

Makes me sound like a snob, doesn't it?

So be it.