The Da Vinci Code

Rating:
Summary: A Hollywood Thriller
Review: Top marks for being a good read and low marks for accuracy. If the book didn't try to assert that the historical and art references are in fact real, it'd be a more honest work. Any potential reader just needs to remember the the entire book is fiction and a mystery not a theological treatise

Rating:
Summary: If you are a stickler for solid research, you'll LOVE this!
Review: I love to read fiction, but what I really love is a great read that educates you along the way! Why not have double duty?

I've been reading much of the non-fiction "Historical Jesus" material that is out there (Marcus Borg, Elaine Pagels etc...) and I took several Christian Theology classes at the small Methodist college I attended in the 80s so this book smacked right into my world! I LOVED it.

I "read" the Da Vinci Code by listening to the unabridged CDs. I used this as motivation to stay on the treadmill! It worked! I'm a stickler for logic strong research. If I read (or hear) something that sounds incorrect I'll spend plenty of time researching this to found out if it's true. After working out for 60 to 70 minutes while listening to Da Vinci Code, I would settle into a comfy chair and hit "Google" to fact check Dan Browns work. Wow! This guy did his research!

I love Sci-Fi but I can't always take the leap of logic needed to enjoy it completely (love Allis for entertainment but the poor research and logic drive me nuts). If you are a stickler for accuracy you will absolutely LOVE this piece of fiction!

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good thriller with some fantasy thrown in
Review: I gladly added this book to my extensive library of science fiction, science fiction/high-tech, and cyberpunk books such as "Foundation", "Ringworld", "Altered Carbon", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Prey", "Neuromancer", "Cryptonomicon", "Darkeye: Cyber Hunter" and so forth. All are good reads and highly recommended, even if they are not currently Top Five Bestsellers.

Rating:
Summary: awesome book
Review: I absolutely loved this book. Goddess worship being banished by the Christian church has rarely received any sort of mainstream attention. It is time for everyone to acknowledge how the church degraded the status of women and it is still incredibly prevalent in today's androcentric culture. The facts are solid. And I would like to say that contrary to the Art Historian's comments below, the Di Vinci preliminary sketches he is referring to are in debate as to whether Di Vinci made those sketches himself, or whether a student of his did. Much of the evidence points to the fact that those sketches were not made by Di Vinci - and that would explain why they are labeled John instead of Mary. The sketches of "John/Mary" also look very masculine - nothing like what the image looks like in the Last Supper. Check out these two articles:
[kfki website]
"This sheet is one of the most remarkable drawings to have been connected with Leonardo. The composition is strongly reminiscent of the Last Supper. One thing there is total agreement about, however, is that the stiff figures were not drawn by Leonardo. But it is possible that he produced preliminary sketches of some of them and that they were drawn by a student. Whatever the case, the mirror writing is a sign that Leonardo used this piece of paper."

[metmuseum website]
"Yet even among drawings of the 1490s, the crudely executed, but definitely left-handed, Last Supper composition sketch in red chalk in Venice (inscribed in Leonardo's right-to-left script) has occasioned fierce debate regarding its authenticity.37 While autograph drawings by Leonardo reveal left-handed parallel hatching (see the discussion below), it does not follow that all drawings with this type of parallel hatching are by Leonardo. Significant in any evaluation is the quality of execution. A number of surviving drawings that are executed in a Leonardesque style and that exhibit the hallmark of Leonardo's left-handedness-the lower right to upper left strokes-are demonstrably not by the master. These range from precise copies by enthusiastic pupils, to later imitations, to downright forgeries. It is known, for example, that Francesco Melzi reinforced drawings by Leonardo that were growing faint because of the physical properties of their medium, especially the studies in red chalk on reddish ocher prepared paper in which the contrasts between drawn form and colored ground are slight."

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Journey
Review: I'm not a big conspiracy theorist and I'm sure that Brown takes some liberties with his source material (this is a novel after all) but all in all I was fascinated with this book. I read it from start to finish in 2-1/2 days and just couldn't put it down!

Rating:
Summary: conspiracy du jour
Review: Did you know that Lincoln's secretarys name was Kennedy and that Kennedy's secretarys name was Lincoln? A strange and then intriguing fact brought to my attention some 40 years ago by an interesting girl in my 7th grade gym class. What does it mean, you ask? Absolutely nothing.

Dan Brown attempts to make something out of nothing here by stringing together coincidence, half-baked "theories" and outright fabrication. I'm sure in his clever, mercenary hands the Lincoln/Kennedy co-winky-dink could have our constitution and democratic process hanging by a thread.

The writing is woefully mediocre, the characters are cartoonish, one dimensional and not very bright. The ending is anti-climactic and not in a good way.

Read it if you must as I did for my book group, but keep in mind that grain of homely table salt.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful: no doubt Brown stretches some truths though
Review: Wonderful from beginning to end. Not only a good story, but I learned a lot of fascinating things. The other critics are no doubt right that Brown stretches some truths to make the novel work but...Altogether I thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it highly.
I'm going to the store to buy Brown's other books.

Rating:
Summary: If you liked this, read Waiting for Godot
Review: Waiting for Godot (by Samuel Beckett) is considered by most scholars to be the greatest play of the 20th century.

It's also a taut thriller with fascinating insights into Christian tradition. It's the perfect follow-up to Da Vinci Code.

Rating:
Summary: Average, at best
Review: This book was average, at best. It was so hyped- I was prepared to read a great mystery. It failed on three counts: 1) the suspense: The mystery thread of the book was sophomoric at best. I was solving the codes well before the "symbologist" and "code breaker" were cluing in... it was obvious where the book was going- no suspense. 2) The writing: sophomoric as well. Dan's writing style is very simple- I guess to reach a broader audience? For those who read a lot and appreciate good writing, reading this book was slightly painful. 3) The "religious" aspect: regardless of what you believe, his "facts" and the way he presents them are so flimsy and vague. I would question anyone who said this book changed their life or made them question their faith. Really? Come on now... anyone that reads this book with any discernment can see through his facts that stretch miles to link up to equally vague facts. Chalk it up to fiction.

I only give this book two stars because it appears this guy did some research and if nothing else, will prompt the reader to do a little research of their own. Don't waste your time and money. Or at least buy it used if you must.

Rating:
Summary: This is thought provoking fun
Review: In "The Da Vinci Code" Dan Brown borrows from and liberally interprets historical events to create a thriller that makes the reader think. In many novels, there comes a point where you can pinpoint the final outcome, but in this novel, Dan Brown has create a series of twists and turns that keep the reader guessing at what is going to happen next and what the outcome is going to be.

While keeping the readers guessing about what is going to happen in the text, Brown has also created a novel that can make you think about how events and people in the past have affected our lives today. While this book doesn't answer the question, "Why should I study history?" (which I don't believe is the intent of the novel) it does provide some areas of question that makes the reader want to find out more about some aspects of history, that might or might not have been glossed over to promote a specific point of view.

By far, in terms of new novels I have read lately, this is one of the most fun that has also made me think. The style of writing is not an academic style of writing, but it is also not written down to the level of the non educated either. It is a well written novel that you can read for fun or to really make the wheels of your mind turn.