Rating: 
Summary: Big Gaps in the Premise
Review: I would have enjoyed "DaVinci" a lot more if the basic premise had a leg to stand on. It was disappointing, especially since I really liked "Angels and Demons".Brown's protagonist, Robert Langdon, takes it as historic fact that Constantine the Great invented Christianity as we know it. According to Langdon and his friend, Sir Leigh Teabing, Constantine decreed that Christianity would become the official religion of the Roman Empire at the Council of Nicea, and he decided which of the gospels would become canon and which were to be destroyed. The marriage of Jesus to Mary Magdalene, and the existence of their child, was to be suppressed--by force, if necessary. However, as any thirty-second search on the web will tell you, Constantine only *legalized* Christianity. It was *Theodosius* who made Christianity the official religion of the empire about 65 years later. In between them came Constantine's nephew, Julian the Apostate, who tried to dismantle Christianity during his brief reign. Julian was convinced that it was his destiny to restore paganism to primacy. Would he not have used Jesus' marriage to Mary Magdalene as part of his campaign to discredit the "myth" of the chaste, holy Jesus? In addition, the bishops of Rome did not exert primacy over western Christendom until more than one hundred years after Constantine's death. The Eastern patriarchs *never* accepted the authority of the bishops in Rome. A monolithic Roman church, able to squash all dissent, simply didn't exist until maybe the time of Charlemagne, around A.D. 800. In short, there were too many people, too many places, and too many years that the "secret" of Jesus' marriage to Mary Magdalene could have been preserved and spread for Brown's theory to work. Suspension of disbelief requires throwing out basic facts of Western history that any intelligent person should have learned in high school. I realize that Brown didn't set out to write a history, but the book would have been more enjoyable if Brown had done some basic research. Even if he'd just made Theodosius the originator of the conspiracy, instead of Constantine, the plot would have been more plausible! Finally, Brown's attacks on Christianity in general, and the Roman Catholic church in particular, go beyond what's required to advance the plot. The book comes off as a thinly-veiled device to present pagan goddess worship as more spiritually pure and historically accurate than what's been preserved in the Bible and other first century sources. But maybe that's why it's selling so well.
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Summary: The Epitome of Suspense Fiction
Review: There are so many reviews already written on this #1 bestseller, there's no point in further summarizing the plot. It should be enough to know that Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" has already inspired a TV documentary on the possibility that the book's premise is true. Not many works of fiction accomplish that. My general thoughts are that, simply put, this is the best thriller I've ever read. This is the book I want to write when I grow up. The action begins almost immediately, and never lets up. There are no weak spots. No points at which one loses interest or wishes the author wouldn't go off on some tangent in search of "literary excellence." This is straight, old-fashioned story tellin'. And what a tale. Critics can claim that the book is too "commercial" and formulaic, but while that may be true, it is the quintessential example. The book is neither character nor plot driven; it's premise driven, and though the devices employed by Brown to transfer the enormous body of research to the reader become less than transparent, the concept is so intriguing that the book works. It more than works. He makes believable an otherwise preposterous and controversial supposition: that the Holy Grail is a highly guarded collection of documents proving that there are living ancestors to the offspring of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdelene. My single complaint is one that can't be fixed. One gets so swept up in this history lesson and Grail quest that a letdown is inevitable. Neither Brown nor his protagonist know the definitive truth or location of the Grail, and therefore, despite the growing feeling that you're about to learn some fantastic universal truth, you're left at book's end with the rather depressing realization that you've simply read a good book, and nothing more. I generally avoid the New York Times best seller list. Not because those books aren't good, but because it's often a mystery why those select few have been filtered out of the pack and afforded full support and attention by the industry, media, and reading public to the detriment of the thousands of worthy midlist writers left behind. This is one book that in my opinion deserves its place at the top. And Brown deserves every penny for his effort. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of BIG ICE and WAKE UP DEAD.
Rating: 
Summary: entertaining, but the facts are not so clearcut
Review: This is the second fiction book in a row I've read in which Opus Dei and their practice of mortification of the flesh through a cilice has played a role (Tom Flynn's Galactic Rapture is the other). Dan Brown has taken the claims of Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln's Holy Blood, Holy Grail and made them into a murder mystery novel, full of codes, enigmatic verse, and tales of the Priory of Sion, Knights Templar, and the bloodline of Jesus. It's an entertaining quick read which may also stimulate further research into some of these claims. (For the record, I think the notion that Jesus was married is somewhat plausible, but not substantiated; the stories of the Priory of Sion being carriers of Jesus' bloodline almost certainly false; the stories of an ancient time of peaceful pagan goddess worship are probably bogus--Brown seems to be relying on Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade, a work of pseudohistory.)
Rating:
Summary: The Da Vinci Code
Review: I could not put this book down. What a great many things to think about! There are a lot of interesting theories presented. I would recommend this book!
Rating:
Summary: Engaging.
Review: Few books keep you as interested in continuing to read as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Without question, this is one of the most engaging books I have ever read. After reading through the first fifty or so pages, I decided to start over with a highligher in order to mark points of interest worth researching on my own. One comment from a reader's eye: I found it amazing how Brown was able to keep the story moving in such a short time span. Simply put: this is an outstanding novel.
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Summary: eye-opener for many
Review: Yes, it's a work of fiction, but, much like some of the classics, this highly controversial book can be a reason for some people to take up lessons from - well- Torquemada. Christianity's early leaders quickly recognized how to wield the power that they held and as a result we had bonfires, crusades, and ultimately Hitler. Dan Brown skillfully shows that the horrors of Christianity can only be attributed to men. Men were so eager to have all the power that they even controlled physical love, most particularly love for the Woman. In this country, "carnal" love it's still a "sin" and a source for scandals. Christianity effectively stifled science, individualism, respect for other cultures, but prominently fostered xenophobia, homophobia, hypocrisy and cynicism.
Luckily for us all, the church has less power these days, otherwise Dan Brown would have been burned at the stake and his books burned as well (maybe we would all be tortured for reading them too and forced to denounce the book). I invite all the reasonable human beings to rejoice about this fact and explore myriads of other historical enigmas that are often, just like Da Vinci's clues, are hidden in plain site.
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Summary: recommended
Review: This book was recommended to my by my good friend, John Casablancas, the singer of The Strokes.
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Summary: Excellent Book! Fast and Fun!
Review: This is my first Dan Brown book and I must admit, I was a little leery reading this book because of the book's popularity. Sometimes popular does not always mean better. However, 'The Da Vinci Code' is the exception. You do not need an extensive background in art or religion to enjoy this book. Mr. Brown covers those areas in detail in an easy understandable format. If you come from a religious background you may (or may not) accept the writings in the book. Please keep an open mind.
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Summary: A Historically Flawed Thesis by Another Conspiracy Theorist.
Review: Perhaps one of the factors that has contributed to this book's appeal is that many modern day readers are more than a little anxious to free themselves of Jesus, and Dan Brown appears to be leading the crusade. The underlying premise of the book is that by identifying subtle messages hidden in the art of Leonardo DaVinci, one can uncover the shocking truth about Christ and a devious plot devised by the Catholic Church to call Jesus "Divine" and thereby prevent the true worship of the "Divine Feminine." Although a gifted artist and inventive genius, you have to keep in mind that Leonardo Davinci was a tormented, emotionally unstable, and reclusive man who distrusted society in general. The illigitimate son of an Italian notary and rumored homosexual, he was twice brought up on charges of sodomy by local communities, and very often at odds with the hierarchy because of incompleted projects and his unusual experiments on human corpses. (Even if some hidden message in his art revealed DaVinci's anger with the hierarchy of that period, you'd have to ask yourself if it had any true religious significance.) Second, I am still trying to understand why Brown was so shocked to discover so many cups on the table in Leonardo's painting of the Last Supper, or why this fact led him to the conclusion that Mary Magdalene was the Holy Grail. Leonardo rightfully shows that a typical Jewish Passover meal has a lot of cups, and that the Holy Grail was probably of modest design with no markings to distinguish it from any of the other cups on the table. Nothing more. Third, Brown's claim that historical searches for the Holy Grail were actually the efforts of secret societies to locate the sacred bones of Mary Magdalene was silly -- but his attempt to read goddess propoganda into Disney cartoons was even sillier. Fourth, the Council at Nicea did not suddenly conspire to teach that Jesus was divine -- but to find suitable words to describe that mystery. The apostles preached the message of Jesus as God from the beginning of Christian history,("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"). Even in the writings of Pliny, a Roman persecutor of Christians, you will find further evidence, "..they worshipped Christ as if he was a god." Finally, when I read Brown's statement that the Catholic Church burned over five million women as witches, and that the arches in Gothic Cathedral architecture represent the private parts of a goddess, I wanted to stop -- but read on to the book's very weak and predictable ending. I am at a loss to understand why anyone with a reasonable grip on reality would find this book remotely fascinating.
Rating: 
Summary: An Umberto Eco wanna-be
Review: Brown has a long way to go until he reaches the class of Eco. If you have read any of Eco's books and expect a similar nail biter, this is not it. If you have never read Eco and like historical thrillers, you will probably enjoy the book, as long as you do expect historical facts.
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