Rating: 
Summary: Fun Conspiracy Yarn
Review: Don't take this book too seriously, it was a great Indiana Jones sort of read that takes you through France and Great Britian in a race to reach the Holy Grail. The fun is in all the little revelations about art, science and religion that Dan Brown offers up. Although I feel he may have taken some literary license with the facts, I still enjoyed this book much more than what the average pop fiction novel has to offer.Read it for fun and not for the facts - a great summer page-turner.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Fictional Thrill Ride but Unsupportable History
Review: Brown's noval is a barn-burner -- you will not be able to put it down, and I'm not kidding. That said, there is a difference between historical fiction (which this is not) and fiction that employs a semblance of history as a fictional artifice. Most of the stuff here that is presented as historical fact was debunked by major-league historians in the 1980s. The ancient Priorie de Sion, for example, was utterly subsumed by the Jesuits in the 1600s and never resurrected until the late 19th century. Les Dossiers Secrets was proven to be a recent forgery by the Bibliotheque Nationale about five years ago. The Knights Templar were persecuted and ultimately eliminated because they were using their unparalleled banking network to essentially blackmail the cash-poor monarchs of Europe who wanted their wars financed. Greed, not religion, prompted their end. So, the novel is terrific, but be wary of confusing it with a historical relevation based in fact.
Rating: 
Summary: Klunky
Review: I'm only about 50 chapters into the novel. but that's enough to say that the style is very klunky, and dotted with questionable assertons. Brown is not a smooth stylist. Minor point: Bishops here are always addressed as "Bishop," rather than "Your Excellency." Brown refers to "the Bishop of Philadelphia." For quite a few years, Philly has had a Cardinal Archbishop. On the positive side, the story is fair, and maintains some suspense. But the underlying thesis cannot be taken seriously.
The evidence is too thin. Brown sacrifices some credibility when he has his Brit expert say that Constantine codified the canon of the Bible. Nope. In general, Brown makes some ludicrous simplistic statements for dramatic effect. I would recommend the book as a imaginative, sensationistic thriller, but with qualifications.
Rating: 
Summary: The Biggest Mystery ...
Review: .... Is how this book got on the best-seller list. The writing is wooden, the characters one-dimensional, the dialogue unspeakable. If you like expository writing, The Da Vinci Code is for you -- the characters talk like textbooks. A major theme is that the Grail is not a literal cup but an embodiment of feminine power, but Brown misses an anagram for "grail" -- "a girl"!
Rating:
Summary: When's the movie?
Review: Anyone familiar with the non-fiction books 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' or 'The Woman with the Alabaster Jar' or 'The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ' or Nag Hammadi/Elaine Pagel and current Da Vinci bios and 'speculation' will know the themes here. The non-fiction books don't lend themselves to a movie script, so this book fills that hole. The Merovingian angle is getting a lot of visibiity lately including 'The Matrix Reloaded'. As mentioned here by other reviwers it's fiction. Go attack the source material and those authors if you don't like the premise and underlying mythos. One comment: Robert Anton Wilson had a better sense of humor in 'The Illuminati' and Sir Frazier, Robert Graves and Jesse Weston came first. When's the movie? In the right hands the movie will be great.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, Interesting Summer Read
Review: This was the first Dan Brown book that I've read and it reminded me a lot of early Crichton where an exciting story is written over a base of research into an unusual and/or interesting field. In this case, the factual basis deals in the interrelation between art, symbology and religion over the span of history. It comes together in an intriguing conspiracy theory about the Christian church that reaches back all the way to its origin. NOTE: I'm not certifying the validity of any of the facts asserted in the book - I wish that the author had included a full preface or afterword with more information on where fact and fiction meet in this case. The book reads like an entertaining screenplay - the story unfolds immediately and is paced very well, characters are well-defined, and the dialogue is believable and natural. All in all, it's very hard to put down until you're finished. One final word of caution to the reader - if you're a devout Christian, this may not be the book for you. The underlying conspiracy is out-and-out heresy and the description of how the Catholic church has always been fundamentally intertwined with elements of paganism may make some uncomfortable. For my two cents, I felt that these topics were treated without prejudice and I would recommend that anyone who is upset by the assertions further in the book research them on their own. Top-notch quick Summer reading. I'm sure that this one is on a fast-track at some movie studio right now.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent read that will keep you thinking!!
Review: Whether you believe the premise of this book or not doesn't really matter. You will not be able to stop thinking about it for a while. I was sucked into the book in the first 20 pages and couldn't wait to keep reading more. I was able to guess what was going to happen quite a bit, but that didn't really diminish the suspense all that much. There were several times when I was totally surprised and that made up for anything else. I have also found myself searching the internet and looking for the things that are in this book that are supposedly real. You can believe me when I say that there are several things in here that are definitely true!! I have found many references on the internet to whole groups and such that believe the same thing that this fictional book is based around. Definitely worth a read!!
Rating:
Summary: An irresponsible book
Review: I am writing from the perspective of a scholar whose field covers several of the issues Mr. Brown touches on in his novel. I wish to say first that where my field intersects with the "information" presented as an integral part of the novel, there is not a single "fact" presented by Mr. Brown that is to my knowledge verifiably true; many of these "facts" are verifiably false. In particular, Mr. Brown's presentation of what he calls the "sacred feminine" or the "goddess" is extraordinarily misleading; his connection of this concept to Mary Magdalene is, from the perspectives of history and scholarly comparative religion, bizarre. I say this book is irresponsible most of all because, as many of the reviews here (including the Amazon.com review!) show, most readers of this novel will believe Mr. Brown when he writes that his book is as accurate as he can make it. I would perhaps not be so unhappy had Mr. Brown not made what I consider his most irresponsible decision, to put the vast majority of these views in the mouth and mind of a character who is a world-renowned "Professor of Symbology," a field the vast majority of readers are unlikely to know does not exist. By using this character as he does, Mr. Brown simultaneously adds a false veneer of academic authority (something he demonstrates himself to be very concerned about, since his character constantly cites authorities who, he does not bother to mention, are rejected by real scholars) and insults the real scholars who devote their lives to helping people like Mr. Brown's readers learn the sometimes unexciting *truth* about these things.
Rating:
Summary: May take some discipline to finish, but well worth it.
Review: The flow of the story was a bit choppy and occasionally drained my interest to continue. However, I managed to finish and I must say that the pace picks up around the last 150 pages. It's a great lesson in symbols and code breaking intertwined with art and biblical history involving secret societies. Overall, it is intellectually worthwhile and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: An Author Who Profits from Public Ignorance
Review: What concerns any conscientious observer is that Dan Brown has deliberately chosen sacred subjects -- such as the Divinity of Christ and the history of Christianity -- in order to entice the ignorant into purchasing a book. Sure, its pure fiction, as one of his reviewers reminds us, but it is the worst kind of fiction; the kind that fuels fires of anger and resentment against a 2,000 year old faith, and plants seeds of doubt and despair in the minds and hearts of the uneducated and the unenlightened. In a country where authors and publishers will print almost anything to earn a dime, and so few people around who still place any value on religious or historical knowledge, finding this book on the best sellers list is another example of just how low the American public's opinion of good literature has fallen. Gifted writers like Brown have the unbelievable power to shift our perspectives, expand our horizons, stir our imagination and make us better. This book, on the other hand, is nothing more than a clever manipulation and a terrible waste of talent.
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