The Da Vinci Code

Rating:
Summary: An Exciting Read...but don't take it seriously.
Review: I rarely read fiction. But a friend of mine dropped off this book and asked me for my opinion of it. Probably because as a scientist I have a strong interest in numbers and codes as well as in religion.

I enjoyed the book very much. Not for its possible relation to fact, but because I detected the hand of an author who had his finger solidly on the pulse of the not-too-critical reading public. They just want a good read...all how-many millions of them.

The book kept me leaping from chapter to chapter (they are short, typically four pages long), wondering how the heros were going to escape from their latest predicament. I thought the escapes were clever and imaginative, but then I am not a hardened detective story reader.

My deepest quandry was not in how seriously to take the basic theme of the story: that Jesus had recovered from the cruxification and had descendents with Mary Magdelane in France. I would say that the probability is in the low sub-sub-digits, much less than 1%. What Dan Brown has done is to confuse what few historical facts I have in my posession with his well-thought-out revisionist thoughts. In a few years, maybe even tomorrow, I will have trouble separating my spare knowledge of the facts from his pregnant presentation of imaginative events. That aspect I don't like.

It is for this very reason that I do not watch so-called TV and movie docum-dramas of events in recent history. I have lived through all the wars since 1940. I have watched controversial political figures come and go. These "facts" are still in my head, although fading. When an imaginative "artist", Oliver Stone, for example, replays history but imposes his personal twist on the "facts", I am at a loss whether to be entertained or ill-informed. So I have made it my deliberate policy not to watch docu-dramas.

The same with this book. Read as entertainment, it moves as fast and is more exciting than a James Bond movie, because you can skip through the parts that do not interest you. But beware of cluttering your mind with unproven, even if plausible, theories. Before long they may sit in your mind as established facts. For that reason, you may deliberately choose not to read it.

But being forewarned is thus forearmed. If you read this book and you will be able to participate in the innumerable stimulating discussions it has engendered. I am enjoying that activity now.

Jesus is by far the most influential person who has trod the planet Earth, judging by the establishment that even today thrives based on his memory. Well-intentioned men, and some not so well-intentioned, have written revisionist themes about his life since its beginning. It is very easy to perceive what Jesus taught, but very difficult to follow his teachings. This book does not help this aspect at all, but at least it turns a spotlight back on the absorbing and intriguing mystery that is Jesus.

Rating:
Summary: This kept my attention
Review: A friend of mine told me about this book and how amazing it was. I do not read. I made my way through college skimming books, reading a few chapters and reading their summaries online. This is the only book I have ever read every word of. It's amazing.

The story leaves you wanting more. I found myself staying up late just to see what happened next. It also was very thought provoking for me. I am a devout Catholic and it really opened my mind to new possibilities. There is so much out there that I have never been exposed to and this book helped me to realize that. I am going to read as much as I can now about the topic.

You seriously need to buy this book. You will not be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Starts strongly, but...
Review: Brown is only the latest of a number of popular fiction writers who have mined the legends of the grail and Knights Templar for plot ideas. What distinguishes this book is the promise- never fully realized- of the revelation of a great secret (and great improprieties) hidden by the modern-day Roman Church. Perhaps part of the interest is rooted in the current scandals of a different nature involving the Church.

While Brown starts strongly enough- a murder in the Lourve, a hidden secrets, a visitng American academic suddenly caught up in a vast centuries-old conspiracy- the book soon becomes little more than a so-so detective novel with all the usual gambits and tricks. Yes, there's a fair bit of facinating grail lore mixed in, but it's been done better by others.

This is not a bad book; it's good vacation or airplane reading, and for the first half you'll find yourself caught up in the story and facinated by the bits of the legend that Brown doles out in drips and drabs. But then the plot sort of slows down and the suprises become fewer as the turns and twists become more obvious. The climax of the mystery is pretty unsatisfying, the characters are never fleshed out much, and by the end of the book you don't care much one way or another what becomes of them.

If you're looking for a really masterful, brilliantly written book built on the Templar legend, you can't do better than Umberto Eco's "Focault's Pendulum". If you're interested in some more fanciful and full of conspiracies there's always the books of Robert Anton Wilson.

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Summary: DAVINCI CODE and MURDER IN KEY WEST my favs for this year.
Review: Between Dan Brown's ultra-complex religious puzzler DA VINCI CODE and my copy of Freeman's MURDER IN KEY WEST, I feel I've gotten more than a year's worth of primo reading material in the past two months--and we're not even through Christmas yet! DA VINCI CODE is a great 'what's next' mystery, with enough twists, turns, and iconoclasm to satisfy any whodunnit reader and irritate any priest without a sense of humor. Immensely entertaining and thought-provoking.

Also recommended: Freeman's MURDER IN KEY WEST.

Alan Duffy, NYC Attorney.

Rating:
Summary: Intrigued by Da Vinci Code? Don't be. Please.
Review: The idea wasn't bad. But the writing is horrendous. And the dialogue - dear God.

If you're looking for a real intellectual thriller, don't despair: Umberto Eco, Arturo Perez-Reverte and Sebastien Japrisot provide some of the very best, and they actually do research. Nikos Kazantzakis' "Last Temptation of Christ" is brilliant for those interested in alternative theories of Jesus. And Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" is an old classic that Dan Brown should have glanced over once or twice.

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Summary: Fascinating, quick read!
Review: This book made me question some of the core aspects of Christianity. While it is a book of fiction, it does get you thinking. While I don't recommend that anyone read this book as fact, it is a good starting point to consider a different point of view. Dan Brown is a fantastic writer who combines suspense with historical fiction in a seamless manner. It's definitely a page-turner, with new surprises in every chapter. I read the book in 2 sittings, only because I had to leave the house to run errands!

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Summary: DaVinci a repeat of Angles and Demons
Review: This book was a bit of a disappointment after all of the hype. I had read Brown's previous book, Angels and Demons, first -and found the DaVinci Code to be almost entirely the same in terms of plot, character, pace, twists, and ending. The only difference between the books is the religious, historical topic at the center of the plot. Otherwise, same book, different secret society. I found it very hard to finish because of this. I got bored halfway through, and I guessed the plot twists and endings too easily (because I had been through his writing once before).

The historical and artistic ideas in this book are interesting, but the writing is extremely shallow. Read it if you want a good page-turner, not a great work of character development or literature. And I would recommend only reading one of his books, because the second is sure to be a repeat and a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Take this Lightly
Review: I spent a lot of time last semester in a class hearing one of my favorite professors (a brilliant, highly respected medievalist) making fun of this novel. He had read The Da Vinci Code out of curiosity, and Dan Brown's "scholarship" became his joke of the semester. Anyway, I had to read it so that I could be in on the joke. I did enjoy The Da Vinci Code somewhat, but I certainly don't think this is anything to take too seriously.

The book was written as Brown's way of advocating an imaginative reinterpretation of history (which several people have made before). I don't really have any problem with this reinterpretation. It's certainly compelling and interesting to read about. He certainly has the right to write it. If you do much research on the subject, though, you'll find that it's oftly improbable, and you'll find that Brown warped a few facts and ignored others. My main problem with the book is that Brown is audacious enough to predict how these ideas would change Christianity and the world, and his predictions show ignorance, particularly of Christian theology. The ideas here aren't all that revolutionary, and even if they were true, they wouldn't change anything. Just some examples are Brown's ideas on women's role and on God's gender that are already in the Bible (though they've often been misinterpreted) and Brown's ideas about Christ's divinity which don't follow logically from his arguments about Mary Magdalene and Jesus.

I did enjoy the novel, though. It is compelling and entertaining, but DON'T think this is great literature (my professor was right about it), and don't take these ideas too seriously.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating, yet disappointing
Review: I picked this book up at the airport after having many friends tell me to read it.

The book was very captivating and a good mystery, but I was offended by some of the references to the Catholic Church. Although Dan Brown researched parts of this book, other sections were inaccurate and led to the downfall at the end of the book. If you do some research on the internet regarding this book, and read some reviews from newspapers, you will come to find out that the book isn't as exciting as originally thought.

Rating:
Summary: A Winner! Fun and Fast Reading!
Review: The Da Vinci Code is by far the most interesting book I've read in a while. It's good enough just as an intellectual mystery novel, but it's the controversial theory that makes it truly intriguing. It brings up many points about faith while presenting quite a shocking view of Christianity. It is easy to view this as an anti-Christianity novel, but I see it as more pro-truth. Brown does not seem to be calling for denouncement of the religion but rather for the seeking of truth about it, something I'm sure Christ would be all for.

If you're looking for a book that will challenge both your mind and your soul, look to The Da Vinci Code. It will make you look more closely at life itself. Two other quick, fun recommended Amazon purchases are: [e-mail] by Tom Grimes, The Losers Club by Richard Perez. Happy reading everyone! Happy Holidays!