Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: Don't read, just think Review: Think about reading something worthwhile, that is. This book is the most amateurish fodder that I have read in years. . If your preference is to fast food for the brain, maybe you will enjoy this MacThriller.
Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: Intriguing plot ... disappointing novel Review: Very disappointing political/religious thriller based on a controversial and intriguing hypothesis. A predictable plot line with just a few surprising turns had me to the point of dropping the book altogether several times. Very weak support for some of the, potentially, juicier claims and total ignorance of the inner workings of the Roman Catholic Church. For anyone interested in the subject I would much rather recommend "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" which - despite its sensationalistic treatment of the matter - does indeed raise some interesting questions.
Rating: ![2 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-2-0.gif) Summary: Not as good as I thought.... Review: The plot is really tiresome. Very disappointed.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: Pure rot... Review: Dan Brown is laughing all the way to bank. I find it remarkable that so many who have read this book are stumbling all over themselves to believe every word. The author has taken snatches of history, outlandish theories and spun a tale that reads as truth. Anyone who knows art history and Christian history will see this book for what it is - pure garbage. Read it , laugh out loud and then chuck it in the waste pail.
Rating: ![1 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-1-0.gif) Summary: How did this cliche ridden tripe ever get published? Review: There must a million fourth-graders out there writing better sentences that this: "As he stood up, Langdon was beginning suspect it was going to be..." - wait for it everybody - "a very long night." Cue: End of Chapter. Dark and stormy, too no doubt. Why are uni-dimensional-characters-in-a-spot always suspicious of the nocturnal dimensions? I guess if they knew the date and their latitude they could work out the actual length of the night for themselves, and so could we... And why don't readers ever find them in the middle of suspecting it, or even just a little after they have completed suspecting it? Did that sentence make you just want to keep on reading? Yeah, but something else... Does his editorial review team at Doubleday have no shame in allowing that miscarriage of a sentence to see the light of day? And that's just the worst of a thousand other bland and featureless cliches. This book should have been an ironically humorous footnote in Eco's Templar book, Foucault's Pendulum. In fact I think it was - the bit about vanity publishers for any text that mentions the Templars and the Holy Grail. And the "cryptology" is risible. You want to read about codes, try Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Or The Times crossword. Can anyone tell me what any of the characters actually look like other than the, sigh, albino? There is just no description and absolutely zero development of these flat cut-out characters; its all plot, plot, plot. I assume that Dan Brown (or his editorial team) had anticipated us imagining Harrison Ford as Langdon and Julia Roberts as Sophie, and so didn't bother any further with that tedious stuff. Oh, what a silly plot this book has. It really is nothing more than a MacGuffin movie, say Frantic, mixed with Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Exceptionally unimaginitive. I had just finished Vernon God Little when I started on this. What a contrast! There no code in this review and none intended. Vernon was a dance in language by a unique and humorous voice. Da Vinci was B-grade movie outline dashed of by a hack writer. The one star is for correct spelling - thanks for that, editorial team!
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: The ultimate Puzzle Book! Fantastic! Review: In his book, "The Da Vinci Code", Dan Brown has integrated many levels of mystery and puzzle solving, intertwined with suspense and murder. Add the secrecy, spanning hundreds of years, that surrounds various individuals and groups, and you have a magnificent page-turner of a book. The 454-page book is comprised of a prologue, 105 chapters, and an epilogue. The chapters are short and usually end with a compelling urge to continue reading the next, and the next, and the next, etc. "The Da Vinci Code" is a fast read because you won't want to put it down. Da Vinci -- what a clever fellow!
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Electric Stuff Review: A marvel of a book that perfectly blends the art of entertainment with wonderous, albeit theoretic, conclusions. I've read past reviews about this book being outlandish and completely out of line and all I have to say to those commentaries is: Get A Life! Well schooled in history, especially ancient history, I have only come to one factual conclusion in my life - that history is imperfect. Brown said it well himself, and I paraphrase, 'history is regurgitated fables that contstantly replay themselves.' If this is true, if history is indeed imperfect and merely blurred sketches of real truth, then isn't it safe to say that nothing is pristine - nothing is void of error? There are many instances where Brown might take some poetic license, but when he discusses the issue of women - he's dead on. His pagan and Native American (or tribal) research and how they respected women as great contributors to that perfect balance, (ying/yang), is well documented in many respected historical texts. I'm afraid that some of our devout Christian readers would like to 'turn the other cheek' when it comes to women's suffering and how it relates to the Church, but the truth is the Church very much fostered centuries of the feminine banishment from civilization (i.e: Salem). Being a man of faith myself, I personally cannot be swayed from believing in a higher power, however, I welcome all challenges knowing that I am only human and admittedly no squat when it comes to this immense universe we all share. Logically, it makes sense that we all came from 'some' kind of higher source, but acting like I definitely know what that source is just underlines how human I truly am. So for all you Bible beaters out there take notice, the Bible was written by man, man himself is imperfect (the Good Book would be the first to admit to that!), so the question begs - isn't the Bible somewhat imperfect? And if so, how is Brown any more misguided? I mean, he is a man - who wrote a book.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: AMAZING Review: i might be 12 but this book had me in awe. the fact that Dan Brown could come up with such a plot baffles me. The aspect of Mary Magdalene and the Priory of Sion gives the book unexpected twists of excitement. Read this book and i gaurentee you love it.
Rating: ![3 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-3-0.gif) Summary: Entertaining read, but no wows from this reader. Review: The pacing of the story is great. The author certainly manages to grab your interest at the end of every chapter, forcing you to continue reading to satisfy your curiosity. So I was never bored. But I was expecting brilliance and instead I found that the mystery and the puzzles were just ok. The characters were mediocre. Even though some may find the religious topic thought provoking, this book doesn't require deep thinking. I read this book very quickly. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't heard all the rave reviews. Entertaining read, but no wows from this reader.
Rating: ![5 stars](http://www.reviewfocus.com/images/stars-5-0.gif) Summary: Page-turner! Review: I was already digging the book before I got to the really good bits around page 230 - then I had to stay up an extra two hours to read the next 120 pages or so because I was mesmerized. The claims made in the book are a dagger in the back of Christian doctrine, and a condemnation of the Catholic church basically, and I expect there's many a review of this book giving it 0 stars, simply because people are angry that their faith is being questioned by someone else, God forbid. *buh-duh-bump* Anyway, don't listen to those reviewers. If you can keep an open mind about the whole thing, whether you believe the information contained within to be fact or fiction, you're going to greatly enjoy this book.
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