Rating: 
Summary: A Code Worth Cracking Open
Review: The #1 job of a novelist is to keep the reader turning pages, and Dan Brown succeeds with The Da Vinci Code. Brown builds a story that races from one plot twist to another with breathless action: the over-used moniker "page-turner" applies in this case. The plot is tight and lean, showcasing Brown's greatest strength: his ability to feed the reader new nuggets of information every few pages, while stringing along a number of other mysterious threads. This gives the reader a sense of constant discovery, while building anticipation for answers to come. I have a few quibbles with the book, and they really are quibbles more than anything. First, Brown seems to have a penchant for beginning his sentences (especially in action sequences) with participial phrases: "Turning now and scanning the room, Sophie's eyes...", "Walking toward the bare wooden wall, Sophie...", "Feeling around the edge of the panels, Sophie..." "Heart pounding, she placed her finger..." And so on. Like salt, a little bit of this technique adds flavor; also like salt, too much ensures you can't taste anything else. A hundred pages in, I found myself starting to count the occurrences. I think his editor could have been a bit more ruthless in this department. Second, Brown manages to interrupt his own sparkling narrative flow on a number of occasions. Many times, his characters reflect back on some past event: the dreaded flashback. Again, no big whoop when used here and there, but Brown does border on overuse. At other times, Brown interrupts the narrative for lengthy author intrusions. That's probably my biggest complaint, come to think of it: Brown pushes too far to explore his basic premise. Before the book has ended, he has told you everything from iambic pentameter to Disney movies to Swiss banking is an admirably subversive attempt to keep paganism alive in today's society. (Read the book and you'll understand.) Well, Gee, Dan. Sometimes an architect uses circles in her designs for aesthetic reasons, and not because she's trying to make people worship the pagan sun symbol. In instances like these (as well as instances where hotly-debated issues of New Testament scholarship are cited as fact: Mary Magdalene's role in the early church, the existence of the "Q" document, and so on), the reader might rightly feel the characters are speaking more for Dan Brown than for themselves--and sounding a wee bit shrill in the process. But hey, it's Dan Brown's book, and he controls its universe. It's his prerogative to explore whatever issues he wants, however he wants. Whatever misgivings you may have about the content (and most Evangelical Christians and Catholics with have major misgivings), you can't fault the guy on his craft: he knows how to put together a damned good read.
Rating:
Summary: Conspiracy fans take note
Review: I just recently saw "The Adoration of the Magi" in the Uffizi in Florence, so this book really resonates for me. It makes me want to go back and take a fresh look at Botticelli's art, at the Mona Lisa, medieval architecture, and the Bible. I rarely put much credence in elaborately constructed conspiracies, but there is much to fascinate in this novel. The only people I've ever known who were Masons, Rosicrucians, members of various Catholic subcultures, and so forth always struck me as supremely silly people with too much time on their hands. Maybe I ought to take a closer look at them too!
Rating:
Summary: Nothing You Read Is True.
Review: I picked up this book thinking it would be a simplistic and unfulfilling mystery. I was surprised to find it a clever and very well thought out page-turner. The first 100 or so pages are a little slow, but after that it is hard to put the book down. Unlike some books (I'm looking your way Eco), this book doesn't have to pretend about how smart it is. Is everything in the book true? Of course not, but the book does suggest a dozen or more areas which readers can divert to if interested. I think the greatest power a book has is to inspire more reading, and this book does that perfectly.
Rating: 
Summary: And addictive and shocking thriller!
Review: I heard how this book was taking the reading world by storm, so I knew it had to put it at the top of my summer reading list. I had also just finished a European History survey class during the school year, so the fact that this book was based on historical European facts also sparked my interest.
After I started the book, I simply could not put it down! Not only that, but I would find myself talking about it to my friends and family. Either some have heard of it before, and are going to read it based on my reccomendation, or have already read it, and interesting conversations ensued.
Whenever Langston would go on one of his historical tangents (which, by the way, were always interesting and thematically significant, not simply a bragging showing of knowledge) I was always able to corroborate facts in the book with what I learned in my history courses, and personally expanded on these facts, which made the book even more enjoyable. However, no enjoyment would be taken away by going into the story with little or no knowledge of history.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read
Review: Crisply written; grips you immediately. Reads very quickly. If you are Catholic, be prepared to have your mind opened...
Rating: 
Summary: Heavy Dose of Masonic Dogma
Review: Most readers found this book entertaining. I did too. I started it and even stayed up one night for several hours reading when I should have been sleeping. A couple of glaring plot defects came through, though. 1. How did the young lady have a laser cut key which existed at least 20 years ago? I thought laser cut keys were a fairly recent development, and, 2. How did the butler meet the 'Teacher' without immediately recognising him? BUT the obvious heavy dosage of Masonic (and several other religious persuasions) dogma is dealt out with a sledge hammer. The book seems to assert that there is a huge library of documents that 'prove' that Jesus was only human, married Mary Magdaline, and moved to France, to sire several children. He asserts that the Holy Bible is a product of the tinkering of the power-hungry church officials who want only to maintain their domination and control over the minds of their poor subjects. With several other facts he has missed, he has missed the fact that the Bible was pretty much 'solidified' before the Catholic Church became the power structure that it is today. His assertion that the extra-Biblical documents 'prove' that Jesus was merely a man constitue a gratuitous assertion, which can be gratuitously denied. Proof of the pudding lies in the facts that the Apostles (most of them) went to the death for their faith, as did hundreds more in the first century. I doubt that many people would die agonizing deaths for a lie. There is also the disturbing fact of a complex mathematical code found in the New Testament writings by a Harvard Mathematician which are nearly impossible for a human writer to duplicate. To me this code shows the finger of God in the writings. Bottom Line: fun book, good story, but watch out for the propaganda.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction vs. Non-ficition
Review: Dan Brown has done an impressive job researching the material for the book. He perfectly merges his own story with some of history's most fascinating and yet little known facts: secret societies such as Priory of Sion, symbolism in art, history of paganism, architectural descriptions of museums and churches; everything for an art or history buff's delight. Many fiction books turn into magnificent dust collectors once read. Somehow, few books convey the unique style of entertaining and teaching, simultaneously, and I must say this one could be among the best. "The Da Vinci Code" is a real suspense page-turner that you would most likely go back to again and again for reference. I'm having some trouble deciding where in my library I should shelve the book. I wonder if the folks at the Lib. of Cong. have developed a special classification for a fiction-reference book =) Well done, Mr. Brown!
Rating:
Summary: Great story outweighs poor writing style
Review: First, let me say that for the last four days I couldn't wait to get back to The Da Vinci Code and I stayed up much too late the last night to savor the final pages of fun. Sadly however, it wasn't the quality of writing that kept me turning the pages. There were plenty of art history, religious, symbolic and cultural tidbits woven into the plot - actually they were the plot - to make this a fascinating, fun read. About halfway into the book I began to wonder if they were really factual but by that time I didn't really care. My recollection of such things as the layout at the Louvre, my close inspection of a reproduction of the Last Supper to see the references for myself and believable descriptions of historical facts and symbols provided enough realism to satisfy me. Afterall, it's just a novel. I just kept thinking of what a better book this could have been if there hadn't been so many trite passages. The characters' italicized ruminations to drive home certain plot points got really old, very quickly. The story didn't need the manufactured cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter, especially when many of the chapters were only 2-3 pages long. Despite those faults, I recommend this book for a welcome diversion from our real world.
Rating:
Summary: Great read but an over-stated thesis
Review: This book is definitely absorbing. I read it in two days. Not only is it a quick read, but it peaked my interest in biblical history such that I've spent the days since finishing the book looking into various areas of history that Brown discusses. Although this is suffcient to earn five stars from me, it is hard to accept the more general claims that Brown makes in this book. He provides many interesting vignettes regarding how christianity absorbed various pagan symbols and rituals, but his over-arching claim that Christianity ushered in the modern era of misogyny is simply nonsense. Just a basic familiarity with Homer reveals that women were treated as chattel thousands of years before Christ or Nicea. Just about every major ancient ruler was male, and their myths invariably centered on males. While Christianity/Judaism may have been the first religion without an explicitly female goddess figure, that fact hardly distinguishes a misogynist world from a world of equality. Anyone accepting Mr. Brown's thesis must explain why the modern concept of female equality arose solely in nations with christian histories. Non-christian cultures have a horrible record regarding their female citizens. That certain African cultures retain female goddess symbols must be small consolation to the actual flesh and blood women who live there as distinctly second-class citizens.
Rating:
Summary: Remember to breathe!
Review: I was so hooked into this book I almost literally had to remind myself to breathe! What a challenge to figure out what is going to happen ahead of time. Please, PLEASE, to all those "lookers"....DO NOT READ THE ENDING FIRST....You'll spoil it!
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