Rating: 
Summary: C + lots of hype, little substance
Review: I purchased this book after hearing rave reviews on NPR (Todd Mundt (SP?) Show). I was pretty disappointed. It's really discouraging what passes for good fiction nowadays. This last winter I read Edith Warton, Eveylyn Waugh, Chaim Potok and Imre Kertesz, really wonderful writing that touches on the human experience. The Da Vinci Code, and much of the top selling fiction, seems to me to be only a step or two above romance novels in the drug store. As a previous reviewer has said, the Da VInci code is a good beach read. Just make sure you borrow a copy. I wouldn't spend money on it.
Rating: 
Summary: A surprising read
Review: The DaVinci Code is a fairly good thriller but it is astonishingly similar to one I read not long ago titled Daughter of God. I suppose great minds think alike. . .
Rating: 
Summary: Devout Believers Beware
Review: I was at first very intrigued and taken by the book's cryptographic orientation and the writer's style, UNTIL I began to realize that it is really all about undermining one's Christian-oriented worldview and belief system and replacing it with today's move toward Mother Earth/Goddess worship and New Age attitudes and beliefs. About halfway through the book, you'll discover that the author begins to have his characters discuss basic doctrines of Christianity and how the world has been deceived into believing them for the past 2000 years. Then the reader is subtly introduced to pagan beliefs that have indeed been around for thousands of years and how they are present, all around us, even within the church. The problem lies in that the reader is left with the impression that they should begin to doubt their own beliefs and take everything the writer says "on faith", without doing any research for themselves to see if there is any merit to the new twist given to the Christian story. The book's own storyline hinges on believing that Christians have been wildly deceived and that there is in fact no basis for that worldview. If you read this book and begin to doubt if what you've been taught is true, please research for yourself just how much substantiation is available for the validity of the Bible--trust that it can stand up to scrutiny even worse than that proposed in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Truth or Fiction???
Review: Dan Brown has the keen ability to mix facts along side fiction blurring "reality". His story is so convincing that one wonders if this all really did happen?? Although, one's suspicion is quickly dismissed by a quick re-reading of the preface where he makes the disclosure that the facts are all true however the tale is fiction. Theologically his "fictious" story makes sense... he builds his story within the framework of often dismissed theories regarding the "Holy Grail" and the "feminine" aspect of God. His facts are all well-researched and documented. I was fascinated by the story and look forward to reading his other novels as well as taking a second look at DaVinci's works. This book is definitely a keeper!
Rating:
Summary: Dedicate a whole weekend to reading this book because.....
Review: once you start reading it you wont be able to put it down. The only negative thing that this book has on its readers is that it interferes with your everyday life!! Im dead serious, i had dreams about the book thats how much I loved it. Brown is an amazing writer, he has a wealth of knowledge about everything under the sun (btw that was not a pegan refrence). Unlike many writers of history, Brown actually creates a great mix of history and fiction, so much that you dont know when the lines are being crossed, and that i loved. I am trying to be very carefull in reviewing this book because it is filled with so many plot twist that any little hint thrown at you might reveal more than you wanted to know. I found it puzzling that this book was an intellectual thriller with some some great and unexpected plot twists that involved a great mix of history, art, codes, religion, betrayals, and the list goes on and on, yet some twists that Brown wanted to make suprising were already figured out way before he revealed them to the reader. I felt that he failed to keep up with his own writing at times and got lost and didnt know how to recover. Even so my mind was stimulated to a great extent, i learned a wealth about ancient religion and rituals. All these groups throughout history are in search for the Holy Grail yet i dont find the significance in aquiering it, it seems kind of sad to me that these groups have spent their whole existence searching for the Grail not knowing if it exists or not, it just seems like a waist of time when their is so much more that could be done with the money and time spent searching for it to help society. Im getting carried away here, but i was honestly moved by the book, like i said it stimulated my mind the way so many few books do, so for that reason amongst the hundreds of others i recommend this book to anyone with the slightest inkling of intelligence to read this book, you will not be disapointed!!!
Rating:
Summary: Mind Blowing
Review: This book completely blew my mind. It is not often that I read a novel that had me immediately, after reading the last page, running to my computer to research the secret societies, symbols and other topics of this book. I found it very intriguing and exciting. It is definitely a book that makes you think and I wouldn't consider it a light fast read, although not being able to put it down myself, it didn't take me long to finish it. Definitely one of those books that you wish could last another 300 pages. A MUST READ!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Subliterate heresy
Review: I never think of myself as a Christian until my Christian sensibilities are affronted. You do not have to believe in Christian theology to feel as if this book is like a large, cold mackerel in the face of religious dignity and tolerance. How dare this man suggest that Jesus Christ fathered a child with Mary Magdalene. You don't have to be a biblical scholar to realize that this totally misses the point. Christ wouldn't have clambered up on that cross as a man if he'd been fooling around in the dust like a man. But that's only part of my objection to this amateurish, insulting book. Less like a mackerel and more like a cold and pasty blancmange is the prose style. Inept is a word that would come to mind if I had the slightest belief that the author was even attempting competence. Instead, this is a machine driven book, a book with rubber stamp characters against a cardboard backdrop, a book where each fatuous, barely-conceived character is given a comic book name. And then there's the plotting, which is like a yowling cat in the backyard for hundreds of pages. As if you don't see what's going to happen way, way off. As if you can't identify certain plot points without the author's importunate "clues." Don't buy this one for a vacation--you'll be done with it long before the trip is over. Remember: mackerel, blancmange, yowling cat. That says it all.
Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: Having read the glowing review in the New York Times (Jane Maslin wrote "Wow"), I had high expectations of this book. It was a huge disappointment ("D'oh"). The quality of the writing is mediocre. Sentences are cliched, characterization verges on caricature, and the structure sticks to the tired conventions of substandard thrillers. I was struck by the dumbing down of the sentences. It is pitched at unimaginative readers of, say, the seventh grade. In fact, the average seventh grader is better served by reading Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. While there is an interesting plot filled with intriguing, esoteric detail, the dialogue is very obvious and uninspired. This strikes a fatal blow to the characters of a very dialogue-driven book. The characters are incredibly one-dimensional; motivations are clear and they face no serious moral conflicts. Most of the book consists of three characters solving word puzzles in Paris and London (in the form of bad verse), interrupted by an aggressive bull-like French policeman and a homicidal albino. The adversaries are physically coded, and the heroes are learned, attractive, PC and very dull. On the positive side, there is a fairly engaging chase and plenty of information relating to secret societies and the art world. However, these features do not rescue what is ultimately a very conventional, lukewarm thriller that - through the sheer muscle of its publisher and helpful reviewers - has undeservedly been inflicted on the reading public. I felt quite cheated.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Just brilliant, a very fast read. A book that after you finish it you will keep thinking about. Would make a great movie. I'm recomending it to everyone I know.
Rating:
Summary: The Left-brain vs the Right-brain
Review: For those who will understand this, the Da Vinci Code is a prodigious work of unparalleled imagination, machination and ultimately irony. It is the final assault of the left-brained against the citadel of the right brain. The irony is that Brown uses the right-brain's most valuable asset (and therefore its most vulnerable) to gain entrance to the Holy of Holies and wreak havoc. The Da Vinci Code is the Twenty-first Century embodiment of the two-edged sword. Or is it Excalibur revisited?
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