The Da Vinci Code

Rating:
Summary: Cheesy Farce Fiction
Review: When I first picked up The DaVinci Code, I'll admit I was curious. Almost immediately the reader is catapulted into an intense Parisian murder scene at the Louvre. I was into it, really into it, I actually devoted up to six hours of a saturday to read this book. However, I found myself shaking my head more and more saying, "no, this is ridiculous." And then there just came a point when I said no to the whole idea of it. The distortion of facts about DaVinci and his paintings is just TOO much. Not only does the book become a complete farce, but the writing deteriorates at a rapid pace as well. The whole thriller starts unraveling with laughable coincidence that springs up from places where you would most obviously expect.
The person I really felt bad for after putting this book down was the man who had been defamed with no way to save himself, that would be Leonardo DaVinci. Readers would be wiser to pick up an actual art history book that truthfully follows this master painter.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad for a non-science fiction...
Review: Normally, I don't like thrillers and such, but I have to honestly admit that I found this book more than OK. I found no problem with it, even though I tend to like science fiction and cyberpunk books such as "Foundation", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "Childhood's End", "Neuromancer", "Cryptonomicon", "Darkeye: Cyber Hunter", etc

Rating:
Summary: How Can Anyone Take This Book Seriously?
Review: Put succinctly, here are the major problems with The Da Vinci Code:

It attacks the Catholic Church and her beliefs about Jesus Christ, the Bible, and Church authority.
It claims to be completely accurate and based in fact, but it is not.
It rewrites and misrepresents Church and secular history.
It promotes a radical feminist, neo-gnostic agenda.
It propagates a relativistic, indifferent attitude towards truth and religion.

For a thorough dissection of the errors found in DA VINCI CODE, navigate to: http://www.envoymagazine.com/planetenvoy/Review-DaVinci-Part1.htm

Rating:
Summary: Junk Food For The Brain
Review: No less than four of my friends recommended this book to me, knowing that I am quite an enthusiast of esoteric religions and conspiracy theories. Not being a big fan of fiction, I figured I'd give this book a shot anyway, due to the fact that it came so highly recommended. For all the chest beating about how "well researched" this book is, it seems as if the "historical" information is quite fabricated and contrived. The characters have a surreal, almost cartoonish quality about them, and give the reader almost no human qualities to identify with (A muscular albino religious fanatic assassin? Give me a break!) The "suspense, murder mystery" theme is so contrived and predictable I found myself almost laughing any time there was a 'chase' or 'murder' scene. I'm certain that a fifteen year old could have written a more interesting book for a Creative Writing class, as the writing here is sub par and amateurish. This book is yet another piece of "Wonder Bread" literature- i.e. a lot of people like it, but it isn't very nutritious.

Rating:
Summary: entertaining, but pure fiction
Review: Dan Brown has written an entertaining book. Good fiction requires a foundation of fact. However, many premise concepts of this book are far from accurate. I am not writing this review to simply defend traditional Christian views of Christ. However, every reader should be aware that Brown is simply writing for entertainment. He changes well known facts about art history, in particular, Leonardo Da Vinci's life and work. He also changes well documented history of the formation of the Catholic church, the canonization of the Bible, and 4th century concepts of Jesus' divinity. It is obvious why he did this...to be polemic. It (obviously) sells books! He follows historical fact as far as it serves his story's purposes. But, when he needed to spice up the story or maintain plot he freely changed historical facts to fiction. If nothing else, my hope is that The Da Vinci Code will spark curiosity in all of these readers so that they will do their own research. Then they can discover more about the real history that Brown has sprinkled into his fiction.

Rating:
Summary: I'm glad millions people are reading, but....
Review: ..Why call a Yugo a Mercedes ?

My biggest question is why the massive praise for Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" ? (or Angels and Demons ?) I read them both, and they are nothing more or less than a typical, mediocre "summer beach novel" that contains extensive lessons (can you say boring ?) on Catholicism...from the actual religious functions to the museums, art and the architectures that hold the art, and how the architectures that hold the art came about, and the architecs who built them, when they built them and what drew them to architecture in the first place, and how the art wound up in that particular architecture. etc. WHEW ! I don't even consider this man a good writer, but he's one heck of a teacher who's obsessed with Catholicism and it's culture. Sure, he throws in a few bad guys...a little science.....a few gruesome murders...a secret society here and there, but his his paper-thin, cliched and utterly ridiculous stories are nothing but padding so he can write about his vast knowledge of all things Catholic (and expensive Catholic art). He never "puts you there" with his many long winded descriptions of his settings, he simply comes across as a teacher who's telling you what he learned or saw, and this becomes extremely boring and irritating to me. Before you deny this, think ! Consider the shallow and cliched stories of these two books, which possess one of the most monumentally cliched lead characters I've ever encountered .....now, consider the major lessons on Catholicism you were dealt....and how they make up the bulk of the book. Am I wrong ? If the reader finds this type of novel fun, thrilling, intelligent or informative, then that's great. But, I don't like all the media exclaiming "masterpiece," "absolutely stunning," "the best of the best" "genius," etc., when this author is basically on par with James Patterson. Yep, that's right. I would much rather read a non-fictional book from Brown on his knowledge of art and architecture, than to ever suffer through another of his fictional, supposed thrillers, which he LOVES to saturate with facts in order to sucker the reader into believing they are reading something "special".

Rating:
Summary: One of the best I've ever read!
Review: Dan Brown is more than an excellent writer, who fully develops his characters' personalities, which by the way is not boring!
Nor is his detailed descriptions of historical information. If you are bored by this or any of his other books, you either already know everything there is to know, are unimaginative and unwilling to learn about new ideas. Enjoy the book for what is it - a fascinating murder mystery in a unique setting that includes both fact and fiction. I recommend all Dan Brown's books as I learned some wonderfully interesting technology, political ideology, and even computer programming from them. The excitement never stops and once you've started it you'll have to read all the way to end non-stop!!

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Poorly Written
Review: This book is for the weak minded, easily entertained lot. I found it boring, contrived, at times cheesy/hokey, and very poorly written. Everything needs to be explained to the point where the text loses its momentum. The villains are laughable, the way the main characters figure things out is so damn contrived that I found myself laughing out loud. People who are getting mad about how it goes against the Catholic Church and all this other nonsense, I have one thing to say to them: Don't bother! It's a waste of breath! This book is so bad that it really doesn't challenge your religion at all!
I honestly hated it, and find it sad to see that it is such a monster best-seller

Rating:
Summary: Completely engrossing when you need a distraction
Review: I picked this up at a time when I depressed and grieving. It was engrossing from the first page and gave me exactly the escape for which I was thirsting. I disagree with previous reviewers: I think it is well-researched. There is an afterward, and alternative histories of Mary Magdalene's life have abounded for years. Dan Brown wasn't the first to give life to them, just one of the first to end up on the best seller list.

I admit, as a former catholic school teacher, it did make me question exactly what the early Church had covered up. And that's exactly why it's so fascinating: could it be true? Could anyone ever prove it indefinitely? These questions are wrapped up in a tight plot that entertains as well as enlightens.

I recommend this book to folks who want or need to escape from the world for a little while. And if it inspires anyone else to read a more academic book about the early Church, or DaVinci, or art history, or the holy Grail, than all the better. For that reason alone, I think high schoolers would enjoy this book as well as adults.

One note regarding the review about the inaccurate portrayal of Leonardo's LAST SUPPER. In The DaVinci Code, I thought the protagonist, the Harvard symbologist, made it clear that DaVinci was a bit of a prankster. Thus, it's entirely plausible that he would accurately label the apostle to the right of Jesus as John, but also, keep the painting obtuse enough to also be plausibly Mary Magdalene. After all, in DaVinci's time, who would get away with portraying Mary Magdalene that way (which begs the question, would it be easy to get away with it now? ).

Rating:
Summary: a real stinker
Review: What boring characters these are, running and jumping like little automatons through a nonstop but lame series of chases. Utterly devoid of suspense or good storytelling.