Rating: 
Summary: Grabs you on Page 1
Review: I really liked this book. I couldn't put it down. I thought this was one of the best stories I've read for quite some time (ok the plot stretches a little thin at the end, but ...).
I'm really looking forward to Dan Brown's next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Too predictible
Review: The premise of the book is intriguing and the history presented made it a real page turner. The big disappointment for me was figuring out the final cryptex code well before the book's noted symbiologist, historian, and crytologist.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmorizing in its detail!
Review: In the same vein as Clive Cussler, Dan Brown has found a way to make history and suspense intertwine. Yet where Cussler often uses legend, Brown uses mostly facts. This book is not only a good old fashioned pager turner that you won't be able to put down, but it is worth buying just for the information on PHI, known since the Enlightenment at "The Divine Proportion". Read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: I find recently hard to find books that are "hard to put down", but The Da Vinci Code was the embodiment of that phrase. This book is a masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: Pretty marginal work- 2 1/2 stars
Review: In reality, this book was just Angels and Demons, with the onl difference being that the Holy Grail was substituted for the Illuminati. I'll give Brown a 5 star rating for having the courage and the creativeness to plug in very constroversial topics into a murder/conspiracy setting. It takes a lot of guts to have book presented to the general public in which you clearly get the author's opinion as to the divinity of Christ and whether he married and reproduced. So kudos to Brown for the guts and for the ingenuity to translate this "theory" into a fictionalized setting such that the general public finds it more plausible. If I was a real conspiracy nut, I would guess that Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci code was a "testing of the waters" as to public reception, and keep the concept of New World Order (Angels and Demons), and blood decendant of Jesus (Da Vinci Code), moderately acceptable in the public mind. In any event, Brown is clearly not an eloquent writer. Rather, his appeal lies in the simplicity of his message and the simplicity of the conveyance of his message. The research could have been a little deeper, and frankly it was way too transparent as to how this was going to turn out. I guess overall if you are looking for something intellectual and think you are getting an intellectual thriller---you're not. If you are looking for fun and something new--I would give this a 4 or 5 star rating--I just had a different expectation level when I bought the book
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: I purchased this book after reading a great review. I'm glad I did. This is a biblical/archeology type mystery with lots of
information about secret societies and the art world. It was hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Another winner!
Review: This book was wonderful. Once again I was stuck to the pages; having difficulty putting it down. I am amazed at how much research this author puts into his books; it makes them more cerebral than other murder mystery books. I loved Angels and Demons and was thrilled when this book came out.
Rating:
Summary: Fun but flawed
Review: This is truly a page-turner: I finished it in one day. The action hurtles along relentlessly, with fascinating detail as well as (largely) erudite commentary. It's so much fun that it seems churlish to complain, but there were enough errors, inaccuracies, improbabilities, and contrivances large and small to create a nagging feeling of sloppiness and manipulation. Call me a nitpicker, but I'm sick and tired of having people state a word as Latin when it is Greek (the opposite is rarer): a scholar such as Brown should know better. Referring to a sports car as an Astin Martin (at least twice) when it should be Aston Martin reveals sloppy research and editing. No Briton would ever say "downtown London": this is one of many similar slip-ups in tone. The Seine's waters should be "turbid", not "turgid". And the author falls into the usual trap of Western-centered blindness when he totally ignores the 1000-year history of Byzantium, the real mediaeval Roman Empire, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is in good company there: there was even a successful book called "How the Irish Saved Civilization"--as if Byzantium (not to mention the Arabs) never existed. Enough of the sloppiness. Let's move on to improbability and contrivance. Would a real conspirator use a hulking albino monk as the assassin? Why not have him carry a 10-foot sign "I am a killer", or have it tatooed on his forehead? And how does the hulking albino monk end up from a French port, where he kills someone, to a prison in Andorra, a tiny landlocked principality in the Pyrenees? The way the conspiracy works is ingenious but contrived and unsatisfying. The Louvre curator and his granddaughter use English in their elaborate riddles for the convenience of the English-speaking readers, and the reasons given are contrived. This is just a small sampling of many things that strain credibility. Character development is not a strong suit of the author by any means. All characters are one-dimensional, simply means to the end of carrying the plot forward, or sounding boards for the outpourings of symbology, dubious history, etc. Some, such as the Capitaine of the Judicial Police or Sir Leigh are out-and-out caricatures. Finally, there is enough mystical and secret society claptrap here to choke a horse. Maybe I expected too much. Even Umberto Eco ("The Name of the Rose", "Foucault's Pendulum"), who ploughed very similar ground wonderfully well, does not succeed on every level. And Dan Brown is no Umberto Eco. So, why did I give this book three stars? Because it is a cracking good yarn, entertaining, a real page-turner; and because it contains lots of provocative explanations about the use of symbols, the presumed suppression of the "sacred fiminine" by the early Christian church, the origins of Christian misogyny, the nature of the Bible, and the uneasy but interesting relationship between Christianity and paganism. A nicely written adventure story that makes one think is worth the price. If it could also be meticulously researched and edited, with effortless erudition, flawless prose and excellent character development, it would be a truly fine thing. That's why I like Patrick O'Brian. But that's another story.
Rating:
Summary: the DaVinci Code
Review: This novel is vastly overwritten and the author has an agenda. He gives the impression that this work is well researched and his facts about the Catholic Church and the beginnings of Catholicism are true. They are not. Too bad he didn't stick with the very clever games he has his characters play. That's intriguing.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the worst books I have ever read
Review: The plot of this looked so intriguing and had the potential to be an entertaining, educational thriller. What it emerged as ,however, was a sophomoric waste of time. I found myself angered at the predictable, ridiculous plot and the thin characters. Without exaggeration, this book would be great for a junior high student looking for an adverturous novel. As a well read adult, I was appalled that this poorly written garbage would ever get published.
If I could count the number of times a hidden code was magically deciphered through a simple "Oh my God, I've got it!" it would outnumber my digits. I am apalled that people are not only buying this [...] but enjoying it. Funny thing is, I bought it with the intent of reading a mindless, entertaining novel. What I got was a waste of time and money. [...]
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