Rating: 
Summary: BUY IT
Review: Very skillfully written book ! You can feel the suspense in every page. Locations and some institutions are real. You can go and visit every place depicted in the book. There are not many characters so it is easy to remember who was who. Very surprising ending. I strongly recommend to read "Angels and Demons" and then "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" before you read this book. For instance, at the early pages of this book, author cites someone called Vittoria for a few times. Actually this is a character included in Angels and Demons. So the best is to reas Angels and Demons first which also stars Robert Landgdon as this book does.
Rating:
Summary: An On-The-Edge-of-Your-Seat Must Read
Review: Breathtaking, thrilling, brilliant, original and thought provoking. Mr. Brown's entire premise is interwoven with such precision and authenticity that when you turn the final page, whatever you thought you knew about Christ, the Bible, religion and history will be irrevocably changed for the good.
Olive Gallagher
Author of "A Simple Path to The Good Life"
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Believe the Hype
Review: This could have been a really great read. The premise is fascinating-- a centuries old mystery and conspiracy come to light in the modern world. Unfortunately, the writing is so disappointing. The writer never met a cliche he didnt like. The characters are wooden (the reluctant professor, the feminine but strong young woman, the evil conspirator, etc). In addition, the writer, so confident of his own cleverness, uses the same puzzles over and over again. There is some interesting word play, as the characters solve a puzzle left for them by the enigmatic dead man. But the writer makes use of the same puzzles in repitition until the reader is skimming pages quickly to get to the next new revelation.
In some senses this book is a page turner-- because the premise is engaging, the reader does want to know the answers. Its just that the ride along the way is so annoying, and the characterizations are so rushed.
One final problem with this book is the number of art history errors it contains! For example, a Da Vinci painting which dramatically "bends" around the body of one character is actually painted on wood! A good researcher would never have made this mistake. There are legions of these little errors, which art historians have gleefully pointed out in many newspaper articles since this book's publication.
Rating: 
Summary: An Exciting Thriller with Substance.
Review: Here's a book that lives up to its hype. THE DA VINCI CODE is a wonderful work which engages the readers attention from the first page until its fascinating conclusion.Dan Brown spins an exciting tale of murder, conspiracy and secrecy amidst the backdrop of religion and theology. The book has generated much discussion in Catholic and Christian circles as it interweaves a tale of murder with the 2,000 year old secrets of the church. Mr. Brown's gives great attention to detail in his exposition of various religious theories, yet never strays from the inherent suspense of the story.
Rating:
Summary: remember to floss
Review: One reviewer called DVC fun mental candy. It may very well be that. Just remember, folks, that too much mental candy will give you brain cavities. This is really low level fiction. Yes the conspiracy gimic would be intriguing if it wasn't so ridiculous and presented so ineptly. The characters are so mournfully routine and shallow, it's almost a vaudeville act. I've read better prose, in a Carolyn Keene novel. The dialogue is clunky, the cliff hanger suspense annoying and artless. Somebody might be able to take this thing and rework it into something that passes as good fiction, maybe call it "The Da Vinci Code Revisited." Sorry to say that only one out of four dentists could recommend this one and certainly no brain surgeons.
Rating:
Summary: Not usually one for hype
Review: Not usually one for all the hype, I avoided this book for months. That is, until a friend gave me a copy. Perhaps it was because I was initially pessimistic; perhaps it was because I don't like to follow the crowd; but for whatever reason I actually ended up liking this book. Some of the "facts" Brown presents are fascinating and you can easily spend hours looking up the ideas on the Internet. But aside from that the book is fast-paced and well, yes, it is a page turner (most chapter are only a page or two long, so you're forced to turn the page). Still, it was much more enjoyable that I anticipated and worth a shot. Whether or not you "believe" everything Brown tells you is up to you. Just don't take anything too seriously and enjoy it. Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD
Rating:
Summary: Hello It's a NOVEL Meaning--FICTION!! But One Great Book!!!
Review: To those people out there looking for "Truth" in this work. All I have to say is...IT'S A NOVEL! A WORK OF FICTION!! Yes there are many truisms written in this work and yes there is controversy in this work. But let's not forget. It is NOT a Historical document. It was written to entertain you!!!! How many people out there read Tom Clancy Novels think that the stories actually happened? Probably only the people giving The Da Vinci Code 1 star. Works of fiction can't be true or false. They are either entertaining or not. The Da Vinci Code is a very intriguing novel. The suspense keeps you turning page after page. The protagonist and antagonist characters are rock solid and the story is riveting. I wouldn't be suprised to see this one made into a major motion picture in the next year or two.
Rating:
Summary: The Da Vinci Code
Review: One of the best, if not the best, books I have ever read. It is intelligent and extremely thought provoking. Unlike other typical thrillers, this one adds historical content to make the plot truly intriguing. A great read!
Rating: 
Summary: Do the Means Justify the End?
Review: If you find a book fascinating in the beginning and riveting in the middle but disappointing in its ending, is it a good book or a not-so-good book? I dunno, but like most people who have read "The DaVinci Code," I couldn't put the book down. Until the last part of the book that is, when I couldn't put it down because I couldn't pick it up. The hills are alive with the sound of people plunking money down for this book. Inspired by this, I, too, plunked. While I found the prose in "The DaVinci Code" hardly Emersonian and the characters cardboard cut-outs, throughout most of the book you HAVE to know what is going to happen next. Sometimes, unfortunately, I knew what was going to happen next before it happened because I had figured out the often rather puerile cryptic clues before the combined talents of the lead characters, who happen to be the world's greatest symbologist and one of France's best cryptologists. So much for character credibility. What bothered me most about this book was that although there was a cursory "Fact" page at the beginning stating a few items of non-fiction upon which the book is based, I couldn't differentiate what was fact, factoid, and fantasy, apart from what was obviously fiction. I thought Dan Brown could have added an author's afterword at the end to help the reader in this regard. I suppose I could read "De-Coding Da Vinci: The Facts Behind the Fiction of the Da Vinci Code" when it's released. But having put "The DaVinci Code" down a final time, I don't think I care anymore. "The DaVinci Code" is definitely a page-turner. You are driven to climb peak after peak of suspense. But the final descent is into a valley of disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Wafer thin
Review: In school I was told that every book should at least have one round character for it to be interesting. In The Da Vinci Code, all the characters are as flat and unappealing as roadkill. No character development whatsoever is present, and the motivations of both protagonists and antagonists are wafer thin (pun intended). What's worse, although the plot starts off sort of promising, it soon starts te develop along the lines of the Hollywood Assembly Line. The fact that each and every character turns out to be connected one way or another is not only not credible, but annoying as well. The same goes for the (little) cliffhangers at the end of every chapter. The pieces of the plot fit together to easily to make this book a captivating read - all the interesting facts on religion and Da Vinci notwithstanding, and the way the plot is resolved at the end of the book left me feeling cheated. For me, the letdown started approximately two-third trough the book, in a scene where the identity of The Teacher is revealed because of Dan Brown trying to hard not to. To add insult to injury, near the end of the book Mr. Brown, evidently feeling the need to show to the reader just how clever he has been, once more returns to this scene to explain what "really happened". If you're looking for an easy to digest holiday read for those hung over mornings on the beach, and you're easy to please, maybe The Da Vinci Code does fit your bill.
| 
