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Summary: What's the Fuss?
Review: Yes, the storytelling and character development are pedestrian at best, but it seems that those who decry the 'facts' in the book the loudest are those who fear that they may actually be true.
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Summary: The most dreadful rubbish
Review: Honestly! What rubbish this was. It kept me reading only because I wanted to see what incredible (in the proper sense of the word, namely _un_believable) stuff Brown would come up with next. Rather worse written than Ludlum, or Trevanian, or Clancy or...Definitely forgettable.
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Summary: Mothers advice... say something nice
Review: A pot-boiler of the second order.... Plot driven!
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Summary: Dan Browns body ...of work
Review: Mr. Brown is on a quest to defame the Catholic church. It seems to be his holy grail, so to speak. I suppose fact and thoughtful consideration would be too much of a stretch so he has resorted to attacks with little in the way of fact behind them that are meant to inspire paranoia. From the popularity of this book it would appear that much of the public is eating it up. It is oh so fashionable to pile on the Catholic church right now. Why? Even though that nasty business with the Crusades is far behind them, the church has much "splainin" to do with those mounting molestation charges. Mr. Brown has produced a flimsy, mediocre, opportunist, and mercenary novel. He is a genius in the same way that Madonna is a genius. The new-age definition for genius: Anyone who can sniff out a trend, exploit and capitalize on it with little regard for truth, artistic value, or the repercussions of their actions.
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Summary: Nice Piece of Fiction
Review: Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is a nice mystery story that has been read by many. Although many of his "clues" were a bit too obvious for me, it always helps the reader to know a little more than the characters within the story. Brown is effective in his writing style with simultaneous streams of action, moving from one story line to another, finally drawing all the story lines together in a "surprise" ending. But, he obviously wanted to do more... The premise of Da Vinci Code is related to the current trend in New Testament study of examining other "stories" of Jesus led by Elaine Pagels and Bart Ehrman. Non-canonical Gospels (extra-biblical stories of Jesus) are moving to the forefront of biblical studies. Sure, there are lots of stories of Jesus besides those that exist in the New Testament canon, but what is one to do with them. It appears that Brown would have us take the non-biblical traditions of a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene and their resulting children as "the" story of Jesus. While this is disturbing to many orthodox Christians (as evidenced by the reviews by the defensive, distressed found here), Brown doesn't succeed in overthrowing traditional Christianity. Da Vinci Code argues that the four New Testament Gospels were selected by a group within Christianity that chose to ignore or omit other writings about Jesus and early Christianity. This is true. The mere fact that there were other gospels at the time that the New Testament canon does not elevate the value of those non-selected gospels over Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those who selected the New Testament canon appear to have some criteria besides establishing themselves as the power brokers in the Christian church. At least one criterion was use by Christians and Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John appear to surpass other gospels in this regard. Brown would have his reader toss the New Testament in favor of a god-goddess, male-female religion similar to Greco-Roman religions of the first century C.E. His argument seems to be, the church rejected the Mary Magdalene story and a "sexy" Christianity, but not everyone did. Since some continued to practice a fertility Christianity, it must have been the true story of Jesus and those in the New Testament canon were wrong. Unfortunately, for Brown, the best argument he can make is that a gospel of Mary Magdalene should have a credibility equal to the New Testament gospels. He does not develop a case for the outright rejection of the New Testament story. Still, Da Vinci Code is a good read and relates well to what will perhaps be the key topic in biblical studies and theology for the next few years.
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Summary: Interesting research but cheesy writing
Review: Fact or fiction aside, I'm amazed that so many people are raving about this cheesy thriller. Two and three-page chapters with holes in the logic all the way through -- how irritating. I know of course that this is fiction -- why even argue the point? -- but what I honestly could barely tolerate in this book was the great big gaps in logic and sense: for instance, why would the Parisian police determine immediately that Robert murdered Jacques? What would be the motive? Why would they link the murders of the other 3 Sion members to one another, let alone to Robert? Why would Robert trust Sophie to the extent that he does, this slightly madcap stranger forcing him to run from a murder scene? On top of all this, the characters are not developed well (they just happen to be thrown into the same pot of soup) and the dialogue is terrible. What I did appreciate is the background info, but even that can't be trusted. Terrifically overrated -- don't expect much higher thinking from 'The Da Vinci Code' -- extra cheese masquerading as higher thinking.
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Summary: Experience the Thrill & Adventure of Deciphering the Code
Review: With creativity and artistic flair, Dan Brown, weaves into this novel a mystery that is 2,000 years old and actually much much older, in fact, dating back to the Eygptians and beyond. He combines fact and fiction into a labyrinth that leaves the reader spell-bound and a bit disoriented after the reading experience. Hesitant to read this book, I thought, "Da Vinci Code", sounds too complicated to me. However, I was reassured by friends it was a mystery book, not a cipher text. I took the challenge and read it ... This book turns into a nonstop adventure beginning with a murder in the Louvre, in Paris. It culminates with a visit to Isaac Newton's tomb in West Minster Abbey, and another to Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland ... intriguing places that hold the clues to solving the original mystery. Nicole Neveu, the neice of the murdered curator of the Louvre, and Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of Religious symbology, are thrown together through an unusual communication left by the deceased, Jacques Sauniere. Very soon they realize the curator brought them together to reveal to them, "the secret" which solely he possessed. However, to prevent the wrong people from discovering "the secret", he shrouded it in unusual text, obscure verses, symbolism, and a mysterious box, that contained yet another veiled clue, an encrypted "keystone". But the Opus Dei, a controversial devout Catholic sect also wanted to unravel the secret ... The clues to the mystery were hidden in Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings, within ancient symbols from a goddess cult, and within the architecture of the Knights Templar. This is one book taht will keep you on the edge of your seat guessing "what happens next". It will twist and turn your mind, as new clues are revealed. You will experience more depths and layers than any other novel ... ever. It is an artistic masterpiece which questions some fundamental human instincts. Erika Borsos (erikab93)
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Summary: Accurate? Well...
Review: Although the premise is intriguing, author Brown's prologue statement that, with few stated exceptions, all facts are accurate is somewhat misleading. I think that Brown's idea of "accuracy" is somewhat similar to the way Oliver Stone treated "history" in his film "J.F.K." If the reader is less interested in complete accuracy than an interesting story, this is a fine book. The characters are one-dimensional and, at times, the writing seems workmanlike. Nevertheless, the premise keeps the fires of this story stoked until the very last pages.
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Summary: Da Vinci Code Fraud
Review: The book as a whole is well written but on the first page of the book, Mr. Brown implies that all material research is truthful and highly accurate. After researching several of the organizations and researching the Gospel of Mary Magdelene and researching the Da Vinci picture of the Last Supper, I found that Mr. Brown had taken an immense amount of Artistic License with little fact about the actual organizations. Especially if the organizations were related to the Catholic Faith. I also have found after reading several of Mr. Browns books that he seems to have a personal vendetta against the Catholic Church that comes through all of his books that I have read to date. If Mr. Brown had not implied that the research done on this book was truthful and accurate, I would have recommended that anybody read the book as an enjoyable read of fiction. I just can't recommend the book knowing that people will believe what He says about the organizations in the book. I won't get into a debate about the implication that Jesus had descendants or that the Holy Grail are his descendents. If you could stomach the movie "The last temptation of christ", you will probably stomach this book. Just keep in mind that as inaccurate as "The last temptation of Christ" is, so is this book.
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Summary: If you want a book to challenge all you have ever believed.
Review: An amazing read!
I can barely come up with words that would adequately describe what I felt while reading this book. At just about every turn of the page, I gasped in awe. Every time I gasped, my husband would come running and ask me to read aloud what I had just read. I now have a waiting list on people who want to read my book including my mother, husband and best friend. I even got my coworkers, boss and hair stylist in on it.
Even though this book is "fiction", the theories behind modern christianity and all that is related will shake you to the core.
Although it upended everything I was ever taught, it all made perfect sense. If you like to be challenged and like to learn then this is the book for you
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