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Summary: It's Fiction, after all.....
Review: I keep telling people: it's a work of fiction. Gladly, the author never claims to be anything else but fiction. He confuses a lot of historical elements and passes them for facts by using the lecture style of the character. For example, all he says about the Gospels is completely inaccurate: he gives the impression that the 4 Gospels known to all and all others were written at the same time and then the "church" selectively chose the four. History doesn't agree. We have no proof. He even claims that Jesus wrote "Q." This document, "Q" is hypothetical (it's mostly a scholarly construct). As for the "Da Vinci" stuff, I am not learned enough to respond. For crying out loud: let's keep in mind that IT IS ONLY FICTION, poorly written, but still fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: As a reader of at least one book every week, I found this book to be one of the best that I have read in a long time. It was so packed with information and new ideas that I had to take rest breaks to take it all in! Definitely worth the time to read and re-read it.
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Summary: Disappointing
Review: Probably the expectations were too high. The book came with rave reviews as being an intelligent religious thriller. It's probably intelligent, if you are seven years old. It starts off pretty well but then it is downhill all the way. Gaping holes in the plot, puerile puzzles, twists and cliches dampen any enthusiasm you may have. The characters are boring. Brown's enthusiasm in explaining concepts like the golden ratio is like that of a child who's just got a new toy and can't wait to show it off. While Brown insists on referring to his male characters by their last names, why he prefers to use the name Sophie and not Nevue is puzzling. All in all, you'd be better off re-reading Foucault's Pendulum.
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Summary: Why This Book Is Unique And Memorable
Review: I took "The Da Vinci Code" to be what it was intended to be by the author, namely, a fictional mystery story that utilizes a huge amount of historical, religious, and cultural research. If you do the same, you'll find it to be a great read. Dan Brown did a wonderful job of giving the reader an education that is, at the same time, fun and interesting by brilliantly presenting true history, religion, and cultural information within the framework of a fictional mystery story. The only other book I have seen that does that is Norman Thomas Remick's "West Point...Thomas Jefferson" which also quite brilliantly presents true history and philosophy within the framework of a HarryPotter-like fantasy. Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is truly a unique and memorable book. If you are a lover of books and learning, I recommend that you do not miss reading this book (nor Remick's, either).
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much For Me
Review: Many unexpected twists, turns, and curves made The DaVinci Code interesting at first, but as these surprises continued relentlessly, I grew tired. With mysteries, I as the reader, at least like a chance to try to figure out "who dunnit" -- but even the most astute could not have in this plot, I believe. I also had trouble with discerning fact and fiction, and that bothered me - especially considering the substance of the plot. Disclaimers on a lead-in page of the book lead one to believe that information regarding secret societies and their practices are factual. But the obvious question then becomes, "If they are secret, how do we or the author know about them?" The end was a little too soppy for me, also. Starting out, it was a real page-turner, and all in all, it was not a bad read, although putting it down became easier from the middle on. Generally speaking, it was all just a little too much for my taste.
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Summary: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Review: THE GOOD: The Da Vinci Code has already become a classic, sporting one of the most intricate and engrossing plots ever put to page. The story unfolds over a 24 hour period, and what a story it is! From Paris to London, the main characters are in a race against the French authorities, secret societies, and powerful religious organizations, all to break the codes revealing one of the most explosive secrets in history. It's difficult to praise such a novel without giving away pieces of the mystery, just note that if mystery is indeed what you crave, then Dan Brown's best seller will not dissapoint. The ideas presented in the novel have caused me to research the validity of some of the claims, and has provided me with a list of dozens of non-fiction books that continue the story through the theories put forth by scholars from all over the world. The secret disussed in it's pages are that powerful. THE BAD: My two bits of criticism are directed at the lack of charisma posessed by the characters in the book, and that you sometimes get the feeling that you are reading an ode to Dan Brown's education and research instead of a novel. In a book so plot oriented, it must be hard to provide really interesting characters. And that's exactly one of it's shortfalls. THE UGLY: The reactions of the characters to certain situations is rather ridiculous at times. And after discovering that much of the content/ideas came from non-fiction books already written leaves me questioning the authors creativity a bit. CONCLUSION: Buy this book. It is destined to be a classic, and will be discussed for years to come. I could fill 400+ pages of my own just reviewing this book. It opens up so many doors, leaves so many questions lingering, and provides you with an extremely entertaining read that will leave you breathless. Highly, highly recommended.
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Summary: Read This Book!
Review: Dan Brown had me from the first page. From the murder in the Louvre through all the twists and turns of this story, I could not put the book down. After reading The Da Vinci Code, I found myself compelled to read another of his novels, Angels and Demons, as well as a couple of the books referenced in the novel. The amount of research he put into this is remarkable, no matter what opinions the reader may have on his subject. The legend of the Grail has haunted us for centuries. If you're on the quest, buy this book.
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Summary: Nearly One Sitting
Review: The DaVinci Code was a page turner, I must say. I read it in nearly one sitting, and enjoyed it a lot. It's a good read, and a simple one. There were some complicated puzzles, some fascinating theories, and interesting facts. I'm hoping that Fibonacci sequences and the number PHI will be topics of conversation, when and if I get a chance to discuss this book with anyone. Also, I ran and got my book on Italian Renaissance Art when I read Brown's description of Leonardo's The Last Supper, and sure enough, he describes it accurately. It makes me want to find out more about Leonardo DaVinci, that's for sure. Since there are many reviews discussing the nature of the mystery, I won't bring that up other than to say Interesting. The Chalice as metaphor. I enjoyed the little plot twist at the end, dealing with the heroine's family, quite a bit. That having been said, I must qualify my enthusiasm.
As much fun as this was to read, I was wondering about halfway through the book, "Well, wonder what difficulty they'll be running into now, and how they'll get out of it" in a ho-hum-who-really-cares way. There were just so MANY times the pair had to deal with entrapments, chases, thefts, guns, and the like. And, there was one place that is such a glaring flaw, I must mention it. At one point in the story, Langdon, Sophie, and Sir Leigh come across a clue written in mirror writing. This clue stumps them for quite a long time. Tell me, how is it that an expert on symbology, who has revealed time and time again his expertise in the life of Leonardo DaVinci, can miss so broadly and for so long, a clue written in mirror writing? How can a cryptology expert, whose grandfather's passion was Leonardo, not see the "(reverse) handwriting on the wall" and know it for what it is IMMEDIATELY? Also, a historian whose passion has been the Holy Grail, who knows everything about Leonardo that the hero and heroine know, is completely at a loss. Dan Brown only makes it worse by including a picture of what the clue looked like, within the text. Leonardo's penchant for writing his notebooks in mirror writing is well known to anyone who has ever read a Time Magazine article about the man. How then, can it be mistaken for the scrit of some ancient, lost culture, by people who specialize in the man's life? This part of the plot made me laugh out loud, and my respect for the story was somewhat disrupted. In the middle of a pretty good, intelligent story, it really stood out. Bottom line: mostly enjoyable, with one laughable, glaring, really STUPID plot error. Borrow it from your library if you see it on the "new book" shelf.
Rating:
Summary: Written like a bad soap opera
Review: It was absolutely dreadful trying to read this book. It came with a strong recommendation, but anyone who can call what Dan Brown does "writing" should never be trusted again. The novel is full of clichés and is so dumbed down I felt like I was reading the script for some third-rate, low budget soap opera. It blows my mind (as well as scares me) that people are giving this book good reviews. His "historical facts" are skewed, his prose is indistinguishable from heap of manure, and his story reeks of every bad detective novel or miniseries ever created. I'd recommend 1,000 other books before I'd recommend this one... unless of course the person who's asking is about 9 years old or with a reading level as such. Pass it up, there are better ways to torture yourself...
Rating: 
Summary: If you like mysteries, you'll love this
Review: I must admit, this is the first review I've ever written. What prompted me to do so was reading the other reviews on Amazon about The DaVinci Code, I'm referring to the bad reviews specifically. It seems some of these reviewers take their reading so seriously that they forget there is a difference between FICTION and NON-FICTION. They are upset that Brown doesn't get all his "facts straight." Just for the record, here is the dictionary definition of the word FICTION: An imaginative creation or a pretense that does not represent actuality but has been invented. Perhaps Brown isn't 100% accurate in all his descriptions of the Holy Grail and the history of the Catholic Church, etc, etc. So what? The truth is, he does a masterful job in suspending belief in the readers mind so that you can't help but get wrapped up in his tale. Isn't that what a good fiction is supposed to do?
The only fault I find with the book is that Brown's characters are too "cookie cutter," and his plot is too "tight." In other words, too much formula. But even that can be forgiven. The bottom line is, it is a page-turner. And just for the record, if you ever studied any of the many non-fiction books out there about the alternate history of Jesus' life and the Holy Grail, you'd find that Brown has enough facts straight in The DaVinci Code to not only make the book believable, but to open the eyes of those readers who aren't so anal retentive to insist that he get every fact straight.
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