Rating: 
Summary: Masterpiece Theatre
Review: I have recently developed a habit of reading in front of my computer. I use an online dictionary, I google things I want to learn more about, and I bring up pictures of places, people, or things I am reading about. Reading Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code in front of the computer was a great thrill. I found the book to be just so-so, but the things I learned online were incredible. For example, I took an online tour of Westminster Abbey and was able to view the sepulcher of Sir Isaac Newton. I pulled up images of the Da Vinci works that were used in the novel. I took a tour of the Louvre and saw the pyramids that play such a central role in the book. Unfortunately, I did not learn any new words. It would be mostly unfair to criticize Brown's book for its superficiality. It is a mystery, a thriller; and as an instance of this genre, I found it to be a compelling read. It also led me to other places to read more on the Grail, on Da Vinci, and on the early Church. That's not such a bad thing. But as others have pointed out, the characters in Brown's book are cardboard cutouts and the plot becomes incredulous at times. This plot, in other hands, may have produced a fleshy substantive work that kept me in the book and off the web. Pick up the book, go to the beach, and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: A Thriller By Any Other Name....
Review: Typically, I avoid the blockbuster, popular, 'everyone has read it' kind of books...but The DaVinci Code sucked me in. I suggested it to a relative to read, and when she was done with it, picked it up myself.....and read it over the past two days... There are numerous reviews here, and the editorials tell a lot too...to give more info would really spoil the story...so I will avoid a detailed recap of the synopsis....however: I liked the concept...it has a real hook to it....the idea that the story of Mary Magdalene, Jesus, the Last Supper and the Holy Grail are not all they seem....fascinating. Maybe I'm just a heathen, but I love when 'all the we think we know' is put into question, which is why I loved the first Matrix film so much...it challenges your faith...not only in God, but in yourself. I have not read anything prior by Dan Brown, and probably will not seek anything out to suppliment this experience. While the storyline was fascinating, and the book is compulsively readable....chapters that set up the following chapter neatly, or foreshadow events to come...this sort of 'meant to be read on a flight between Boston and Cleveland' literture doesn't really hold my interest for too long, nor draw me in to pick it up. While the Grishams, Crichtons, and Koontz's of the world top the best-seller list...I tend to stray toward more indepth reading...with occasional exception, such as this. However...if you like that kind of fast-paced, doesn't really require too much attention reading...DaVinci Code will not disappoint. As for it's accuracy.....I cannot comment. Is the Catholic Church withholding the truth about the life of Jesus Christ? As a wise old owl once said (about the amount of licks necessary to get to the center of a lollypop)....'The world may never know'.
Rating:
Summary: 2 stars average (4 entertainment and 0 plausability...)
Review: I finally felt obliged to read it to know first hand what was the fuss about....
Well, what a pity! (OR SORRY MESS!), if given more careful editing and research (and I do not mean research in the most evident "science", "art", "mystic" or "esoteric" departments) the level of it or if you prefer the continuity in future years of his value as a thriller would have been greatly enhanced...
Let me explain, I think fast sales and quick impact has spoiled the chance of writing a lasting masterpiece of FICTION (nothing against fast bucks for the author etc, surely deserved for hiting the raw spot even if without been subtle...), BUT, and that's a BIG BUT!, there are simply two categories of authors from my humble point of vue:
1) those you want to reread or even better grip you in a way that makes you buy other books (next or previously published by the afore mentioned author);
2) those wich when you finish the book let you with a feeling of dissapointment or unfullfilled expectatives, and worse of all: YOU DECIDE IT'S NOT WORTH TO GIVE A SECOND TRY TO THE AUTHOR... (with me it's the second category I guess...)
In a paralelism with music a prefabricated HIT without real backbone or a ONE HIT ONLY fenomenon...
Now, to be specific, I have read far more interesting thrillers in my life without so many, many, many flaws... The fact the action (?) happens in a suposed very short period of time does not explain the gross inconsistencies of the plot, and I mean the BASIC plot...
In my reviews I do not like to spoil the read diclosing too much of the argument but it's very easy to mention the following points without doing so:
1) Absolutly unbelievable disregard of standart police practice/ procedures (somehow I think french and british police members must be laughing mad with this novel... good for them! they deserve a good laugh from time to time...).
2) Incomprensible naivety about flight/landing procedures post 11 September... (or even before that mind...)
3) Plain stupid references to "exotic" countries like Andorra (where people detained in France DO NOT GO TO SERVE SENTENCES like it was some sort of "Ile de Re" (see Edmundo Dantes plight...yes, the "Count of Montecristo" chap!), as if people sentenced in Canada would go to jail in the USA!...),
Incidently (as an andorran citizen) Andorra is a ONU member state with a Constitution and is an INDEPENDENT NATION (and has not whatsoever penal relation with France or Spain for that matter...) Not that many of you could place Andorra in the map or the globe I am afraid...
4)The way characters DO THINGS in this novel...(how to commit 4 murders of VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE in a night (or very short span) in Paris by the same killer...without mobilisation of the whole police/press/media etc.), and here I disregard purposefully the peculiar aspect of the poor choiced assasin/guy wich would have made him noticeably in any crowd... (and yes! he had a particular pitifull childhood...)
5)The use of such silly comments/asumptions as: mainly fake security cameras (a high percentage HE SAYS!), fire escaping emergency doors NOT CONNECTED TO ALARM SYSTEM!, security locks or iron bars wich can NOT BE OPENED FULLY AFTER SERVING HIS PURPOSE!... anyone lightly related with building construction-security matters is at this point laughing as hard as the police members mentioned...
6)And finally the jumbled-mixed cocktail of "light" (meaning NO DEEP) well known things, 1,618 "the divine proportion", the Templars, the Grail, Maria Magdalena, Mitras, Yin-Yan, Egyptian Gods, Lost and Found "ancient" contradictory "gospel", Opus Dei, Vatican IVOR, the inevitable english "sir" AND HIS BUTLER!... Gosh! In my time (when I was fourteen and still read science-fiction) I was bored to death by Fulcanelli's "The Cathedrals Mysteries", or the vastly more popular "The Comeback of the Witch/Druid/Magician" it was "El Retorno de los Brujos" in spanish... such nonsense...
I think on the whole it was A MISSED OPORTUNITY, but PLAIN ENTERTAINMENT IN A VERY LIGHT WAY (compared with it Ian Fleming is nearly Shakespeare...).
Good for a long flight, a boring rainy Sunday, and little else.
(Felt a little cheated when I finished it).
Have fun with it anyway if you are going to read it. PS: And this is NOT in defence of any particular religion, sect, organisation, revisionist past (or not), Pope, or whatever... IT'S JUST FOR THE SAKE OF NOVELS&LITERATURE!
Rating:
Summary: A very so-so read.....
Review: The book starts off interestingly enough, but lapses into a breathlessly conspiratorial style of story-telling that gets pretty tiresome after awhile. Brown's penchant for throwing in explanations of myriad bits of symbology, apparently for entertainment rather than embellishment, eventually proves distracting, too. Furthermore, the plot device of the "evil Church" ruthlessly and violently suppressing information supposedly "dangerous" to its existence is getting pretty over-used these days. (The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi manuscripts have been part of the public domain for a long time now, so I doubt the Church is really too worried about them at this point.) And frankly, I found the trotting out of a mish-mash of various conspiracy theories propounded by numerous esoteric and occult societies of the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries, presented in this novel as purportedly widely-known and accepted history, a bit much. I hope most readers have the good sense to remember that this is fiction and not take this all too seriously...or at least do their homework first! Overall, I thought Umberto Eco did a much better job with this subject matter in Focault's Pendulum. It is a much more subtle, albeit dense, presentation, but in many ways much more entertaining, and has a considerably more eerie and sinister flavor to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Exploiting Christ, and Christianity
Review: Yet another attempt to defile the person of Christ.I threw it out.
Rating: 
Summary: Now I Understand the Brouhaha
Review: Call me cantankerous but when I hear, "You must read this book," or "You'll love this movie," my first thought is "No, I mustn't" or "No, I won't." I have been disappointed too many times by the misleading commercial success of a book or movie to expect much from such recommendations. Major disappointments that come to mind include the movie "Pretty Woman" and any novel written by Nicholas Sparks. Despite my misgivings, on the recommendation of my brother-in-law the intellectual, I cracked open The DaVinci Code with low expectations and immediately found myself caught up in the puzzlement of a gruesome, after-hours crime scene in the very secure Louvre. Having spent 12 years as an earnest Catholic school girl, this book set my brain on fire. A usually passive reader too lazy to look up the occasional unfamiliar word, I found myself racing to Google on claims Dan Brown made regarding classic art, religious history, mystical numbers and such. Years ago, E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime captivated me in a like manner by mixing historical fact with fiction. It is the reader's decision where to draw the line between fiction and fact, and I find it fascinating to have to ponder where that line actually falls while reading a novel. The DaVinci Code is not great literature but it is a great book: the plot unfolds at a rapid-fire pace, the characters are likeable although trite and the points it makes about DaVinci's art and a secret code fascinated.
Rating: 
Summary: A Highly Readable, Interesting Read
Review: Above all other criticism and/or praise, Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code" is inarguably an interesting and exciting read. Although critics do have some merit to the argument that his characters lack the definition of other, more mirthful novels, Brown uses a healthy sampling of wit, intelligence, and anecdotes to keep a reader turning the over 400 pages of this book. To argue that this book is not worth buying because of the historical inaccuracies is MISSING the point of a FICTIONAL novel; it's make-believe! Brown twists the facts to suit his own purposes as a story-teller; doing just that seems to be Brown's call to guard. He does a splendid job keeping this novel moving, and his tempo never wavers. I was fully satisfied with my purchase (once I realized that I couldn't expect an acutely accurate historical nonfiction work from a middle-aged novelist), and I would be confident in saying that you will too.
Rating:
Summary: Would not want my children to inherit this book from me
Review: I purchased this book because I read a review referencing it as a battle between good and evil. It was all evil. This book begins in error and ends in error. I.E.: Brown erroneously states that Jesus was only a great prophet. That Jesus was married to Mary Magdelene. That Mary Magdelene was expecting when Jesus was crucified and gave birth to a daughter, Sarah. Brown gives verbal acceptance regarding the Knights Templar's sexual rituals and referenced those acts as a form of worshipping God. Brown states that the main character is a direct descendent of Jesus. (...)
Rating:
Summary: Open your mind and see the possibilities!!!
Review: With an open mind and willingness to see and accept beyond what is considered the standard way of life, "The Da Vinci Code" has opened new ground. Am I saying ALL of what was written in the book is an absolute 100% fact??? No, but a lot of it does have the ringing of truth to it. You can't help but question all the discrepencies the author has put forth and want to know the truth. I guess it all really depends on how open the person is and how serious they are to find the real truth. But, make no mistake, the clues and discrepencies are all there which leads to the oh so many questions. For example, the questions as to how the church really began and sustained for all those centuries is a major question. Maybe no one really wants those questions answered, but a lot of us do even if you don't like the answers. Once again, open your mind to the possibilities. Also, the origins of the bible's origin have a ton of questions behind them and a truly open minded person will see the truth behind what we, as a society, have been force fed since birth. Just look. Did God really, from heaven, fax us a copy of the one true bible??? No, I guess not, and the author does an excellent job explaining this. Dan Brown has taken all these mysteries and questions and ran with it. "The Da Vinci Code" is a fantastic book. Very deep. Very enlightening. Very thrilling. Very moving. Close minded people may say the book is horrid, evil, heretic... etc, but it isn't. THE BOOK IS AN EYE OPENER IF YOU AREN'T AFRAID TO SEE WHAT IS REALLY THERE. I am reminded a lot of the fantastic book "The Mists of Avalon" and the battle between between christianity and the nature/pagan religion. Take a moment and read "Da Vinci Code" and see if anything at all makes you question what you already believe to be true. If so, then Mr. Brown has done his job.
Rating:
Summary: Getting Caught Up in the Suspense
Review: This book was a real escape from the day to day realities of life. The fact that the entire story takes place in one day was also very interesting. You never had time to rest. I found the book hard to put down once I got started. I was sucked in right from the beginning. I think the book was very cleaver. I would highly recommend it.
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