Rating: 
Summary: Separate The Wheat From The Chaff
Review: Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is more than your ordinary good fictional novel because it is controversially unusual. If you keep in mind that it is fiction interwoven with religious and historical information, you won't be disappointed. Like a previous reviewer suggested, I "separated the wheat from the chaff" and found it to be wonderfully educational and entertaining. I also took a previous reviewer's recommendation who said, if you were drawn to read Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code", you should also read Norman Thomas Remick's "West Point: Thomas Jefferson..." which is also controversially unusual, but "separates the wheat from the chaff" for us, giving us, like Dan Brown's book, both education and enjoyment. Had that been done with "The Da Vinci Code", there would not have been so many disappointing reviews. But, I think the basis of those reviews is simply starting the book with great expectations.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tantalizing and Adventurous Read
Review: I listened to the unabridged version on CD, and it was fantastic. There was never a dull moment, and the mystery of both the murders and the quest were kept just out of reach so that you were always at the edge of your seat wanting more. Whether or not the subject of the book is even fathomable, it stimulates your mind enough to think of the possibilities and the what if's of biblical history. It was a sort of Indiana Jones adventure that was exciting right to the end. Lots of fun, and very enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the real thing...
Review: This book reads more like a bodice-ripper than a tightly crafted novel. If you are interested in history, mystery and religion, read An Instance of the Fingerpost instead. That is a magnificent piece of literature. Da Vinci Code is a poorly written TV miniseries by comparison.
Rating: 
Summary: Holy Grail - Holy Moses!
Review: As this product of "breaking the mold" new generation style of writing has stayed so long on the best seller list, it must have given pleasure to enough holiday makers and switch-offers. It is a good read as entertainment and is full of interesting stuff about the Vatican and Opus Dei that rings true, however further analysis leaves the intelligent reader frustrated by naivity of the details (the mirror writing is so obvious) and other points of fact are inexcusable and should have been checked on the web before publication. There are so many solicisms to list, starting with his idiotic ideas about customs regulations. Then, even before terrorism changed the rules, no car, not even a "Jaguar stretch limo with smoked windows and whitewall tires" would get near to parking on Horse Guards Parade for more that the time it takes to tow it away. If I remember my Westminster Abbey correctly, the Chapter House is entered from the East Cloister and has no possible view of College Garden. Because it comes under the Department of the Environment you have to pay to get in. It has a famous medieval tiled floor, not a stone one, and felt slippers are issued to the public. St Faith's Chapel is off the South Transept, not the Cloisters and his other topographical descriptions are rubbish. There is no brass rubbing permitted except in the Cloisters. These sort of factual mistakes are unforgiveable as they take the reader's mind of the main theme of the book and make one wonder how many similar mistakes are there in the Paris scenario. I made a list of several other minor factual errors before getting bored making it. The idea behind the book is a good one as is the plot. We all know how Church history has been massaged and like to read about it. Perhaps he can now do a sequel about Islam! If Don Brown has made enough money out of this, perhaps next time he can employ a couple of research assistants to keep him on the straight and narrow.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Read
Review: My friend had been raving about this book and said she couldn't put it down and couldn't wait to finish it so I could read it and discuss it with her. So I had great expectations that were quickly dashed. Starts out with a bang, and runs downhill. When I read a thriller, I want to be surprised at each turn, not screaming out the solutions pages before the characters arrive at them. There is not one single surprise here--well, OK, I wasn't positive about Fache's allegiance until near the end. It is just predictable and I wanted something more.
Rating:
Summary: Exciting and Well-Written
Review: Dan Brown is on to something and he has done a very good job of writing an intelligent, thinking-man's action story. In fact, he does so good a job, that many actually come away from this story with the belief that they've also read an analysis on historical documents and events (they have not). The plot revolves around solving a murder in the Louvre that takes the protagonist on a journey around France and London, solving clues and learning about secret religious orders in pursuit of the location of the holy grail. DaVinci Code elevates the concept of action novel to a new level. It will get most readers to think about religions in a new way and it will potentially change the way we look at the impact of religions on the world we live by showing us the possibilities. But let's not get carried away. This is an exciting, well-written novel, and (for page-turning, make you think about new possibilities, well-done thinking person's action), it is on a par with Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, and others. This book came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. Just make sure you don't try to come off like some kind of expert on religion when you're done. Some of the concepts Brown uses to put his story together are highly disputed and not necessarily subject to verification.
Rating:
Summary: Thinking after the thrill
Review: This book mixes fast action and suspense with interesting spiritual, ethical and moral issues without becoming too much of a 'heavyweight' book. The concept that there are interested groups after secrets suppressed for centuries, secrets that can bring down modern-day Christianity with all the possible repercussions forms a solid plot for the action. Once one has read a conventional thriller and knows 'whodunnit' the book is passé. But when it makes you think of other issues and pick up other books to explore some of the concepts raised, the book becomes more than a run-of-the-mill thriller - and this book falls in that category. Another book of fiction of note is Gore Vidal's 'Julian' (about the nephew of Constantine the Great who wanted to revert to the old pagan religions from the newly established Christianity). After finishing "The Da Vinci Code," the question that lingers on is: how much is fact and how much is fiction? For those who are interested in pursuing this, some good books to start with are Bart Ehrman's "Lost Christianities," John Shelby Spong's "Born of A Woman" and "This Hebrew Lord," and Marcus Borg's "The Heart of Christianity."
Rating:
Summary: An extremely readable book.
Review: I was not interested in reading this book, but a friend lent it to me and said it was good. They were correct. It is an extremely readable book, loaded with symbols, puzzles, art, and mystery. The chapters are very short, making it easy to pick up and put down as needed. I was familiar with much of the subject matter beforehand (so much for the real, historic conspiracy!), so many of the revelations were obvious to me - still I am not great with puzzles and though I love art I am no expert, so he did give me a few things I wasn't aware of before. I will have to do some research (to me, this is a good thing) on some of the things mentioned, just to make sure the author wasn't taking artistic license (a bad thing, IMOP. Real things and people should be portrayed as they are/were).
As much as I liked it, it failed to make a perfect score. I felt the ending was a bit trite, and the villain was just a bit too obvious. Also, if he did take license with DaVinci's art I will lower my rating!
Rating: 
Summary: So much buzz for so little.
Review: I'd heard so much about this book from so many people that my expectations were quite high. I was expecting a gripping page-turner that would leap off the pages and knock me on my keister. Instead, I got a rather mediocre work of fiction whose sole claim to fame was that it explored some dubious alternative philosophy about the history of Christ and the Grail mixed in with some cheesy secret society slop and some toying with da Vinci's symbolism. As far as an overview of the whole Grail-Magdalene bit, it does a fair job of summarizing it for those who are too lazy to do their own research (90% of the theories espoused in the book I had heard before). As a work of fiction, however, it is sub-par. It is painfully clear that it was more important to the "author" to convey his pet theories than it was to create believable characters and plot. I was looking forward to finding out why so many people I know had read or were reading this book. Now that I've read it, I still don't know the answer to that question, and I wish I had invested my time in a higher caliber of literature.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining read but not much else
Review: Fiction has gotten more interested in fast and cheap thrills. While "Code" is a good read, it conscientiously brings the reader to turn pages through use of short one-two page chapters and outcomes that are only casually disguised by superfluous reasonings. Regardless of the facts and conspiracy truths, Dan Brown's writing is simple minded and seems to be engendered toward the reader who has only a bare minimum time for sitting down with a book. No thought required, other than remembering what you read in the previous page.
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