The Da Vinci Code

Rating:
Summary: No Thrill from this supposed Thriller. : (
Review: The book is what I would categorize as an *easy read*. I sailed thru it in no time. So many had told me the ending was a "shocker". I agree, it was a shocker, only because I was shocked that I had figured the whole thing out by the middle of the book. I felt the plot sophomoric. I found the history interesting and the interpretations fun, but in the long run I would not recommend the book to anyone who likes a good mystery that is tough to figure out, cuz this ain't it! I will agree that it is an engaging book and it is difficult to put down once you begin, but in the end it was a let down.

Rating:
Summary: The Great Da Vinci Swindle
Review: You've got to be kidding me - *THIS* book has sold over 6 million copies and become an international sensation? That a book this badly written, characterised and plotted can be a runaway best seller is bad enough. That the ludicrous conspiracy theory it peddles, in between all the cliches, terrible dialogue and hackneyed chase scenes, is actually being given creedence by some readers is much, much worse.

This is an astonishingly stupid, stupid, stupid book.

Other reviewers have already outlined Brown's flaws as an author, but what bothers me most is the way favourable reviewers (including some professionals) keep talking about his "impeccable research". Did we read the same novel? Anyone who is familiar with "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" would recognise that about 80% of the (ahem) "information" Langdon drones on and on and on about has been lifted directly from that classic piece of lowbrow, pulp, pseudo-historical conspiracy.

In fact, on the first page of Chapter 60 Brown effectively gives the reader his whole bibliography: Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh's "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", Picknett and Prince's "The Templar Revelation", and Margaret Starbird's "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar" and "The Goddess in the Gospels". These four books - widely ridiculed and utterly discredited pieces of paperback speculation of no academic standing whatsoever - represents the bulk of Brown's "impeccable historical research". That he is able to convince people that the pastiche of nonsense he extracts from these crackpot books is credible says something about our culture's historical illiteracy.

And about its chronic lack of informed critical thinking. An intelligent 12 year old would be able to dispose of much of Brown's "impeccable research" given access to an internet connection or a decent encyclopaedia.

Brown has one characters lecture about the suppressed gospels found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls - a 15 second search on Google could tell you that *NO* gospels or Christian writings of any kind were found in the Qumran material.

Brown says the Council of Nicea set the canon of the New Testament. A few minutes browsing reveals that the canon was *not even discussed* at that Council and that an official canon was not set until the Council of Trent 1300 years later.

Brown says that the Witch Craze was orchestrated by "the Vatican" and resulted in "five million" women being burnt by "the Inquisition". In fact, the Witch Craze was a largely *Protestant* phenomenon, the numbers killed over a 300 year period are around 20-50,000 and 20% of them were men.

And so it goes on. Virtually everything Brown presents as "fact" in this stupid novel is either wrong, completely wrong or wildly and unbelieveably wrong. Many of those who have criticised this book have been Catholics - which is understandable, considering how their Church is presented in the book. But this book is not just offensive to believers (I'm an atheist), it's an insult to anyone with a knowledge of medieval history and the history of early Christianity. Or anyone with a brain.

I'm with the others who have recommened Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" instead - it's smart, well written, amusing and well researched. And, unlike "The Da Vinci Code" it laughs at stupid conspiracy theories. Brown's terrible novel shows why they deserve to be ridiculed.

One star because you can't give them no stars. Terrible.

Rating:
Summary: This is what all the fuss is about???
Review: I guess people either love this book or hate it. Count me in the latter group. It starts out very promising, but quickly goes awry after the two main characters leave the museum. I agree with the reviewer who said it was a big slam on Christianity and the Catholic church. But, religion aside, it's not a very well written book. The characters are one dimensional. The plot is ridiculous. The end of each chapter left us dangling like a daytime soap opera. I agree with one reviewer who wrote that is reads like a movie script turned into a book. I could guess the ending by the middle of the book. I kept hoping the characters would get caught to avoid another chase scene, and end the book! When two "specialists" with advanced degrees couldn't figure out that the backwords writing was just that and not another language, I was ready to give up reading. And, while the book describes some interesting theories, it also quickly leaps beyond the facts into complete conjecture. The problem is that many people believe that all of the information in this book is factual and based on "extensive research". Just look at the complimentary reviews. That's the big danger in this book--peole who are ignorant and/or gullible about Christianity and its history are falling for this. Again, even if you take the religious aspect out, it's still not a very good suspense/thriller when you can guess the ending so early on in the book.

Rating:
Summary: YUK!
Review: I'll be blunt: If you liked this book you are an idiot. You know nothing about good writing OR about the Bible. I made it 2/3 of the way through before I tossed the book against the wall. The charactors are made of wood, got sick of the cliche bad guys and cliche cops, and got relly tired of all the facts being distorted or just plain wrong. What a waste of time.. The more I hoped it was going somewhere, the more nowhere it went..

Rating:
Summary: Tedious and disappointing!
Review: I kept hoping this book would get better as it went on and that was the only reason I kept turning the pages. Brown uses the technique of explaining background to the reader by having the protagonist lecture about his specialty, and boy, does he go on! I felt as though I was listening to a monotonous, late-evening, cable tv, college course. Good thing for this character that the clever granddaughter showed up, who knew her grandfather so well that she could solve the riddles, yet oddly enough, was totally ignorant of the Grail legend.

There were four major chase scenes, which became more predictable and sillier as they went on. Sort of like a Bond movie, without the fun or flair. Maybe Brown really wanted to write a screenplay but couldn't pull it off, so turned it into a novel?

The subplot of swindling the Vatican seemed mildly interesting but never did make sense. In fact, when the antagonist started to "explain all", the reasoning got murkier.

I think this book - given the great hype around it - was the real swindle.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing book, cleverly written
Review: An amazing work of fiction. I have to admit that I rarely read narrative prose, but the love of a good murder mystery is my "guilty secret." I enjoy the puzzle that this type of fiction poses for the reader, and the more literate the author, the cleverer his design, the more I enjoy the experience. This one was a rare treat. Not only does the author present a stylishly crafted crime novel, he also creates a series of cryptic word puzzles based on history that engages of the reader's own knowledge base. Since I also enjoy history, he definitely had me riveted. I read the book from cover to cover in a few short hours in one sitting. While some of the characters were a little two dimensional, and I had already solved the identity of the "villain" well before the end, the author's competent style and the secondary story buried in the Da Vinci code itself, so thoroughly captivated me that I was not disappointed in the least. Furthermore, I'm going right out and find out more about the Knights Templar and Mary Magdalene! An amazing book.

Rating:
Summary: Naive and quite boring...
Review: I am not sure why it is so popular... probably just because some pseudo-scientific remarks regarding Catholic Faith. I could stand only half of it. If you are looking for a good suspense book, you will be better off with Frederick Forsyth.

Rating:
Summary: thouroughly engaging, but very controvercial
Review: i really enjoyed the da vinci code. it really makes one reflect on hidden meanings, and "what lies beneath." although there were a few controvercial ideas, i would just like to say to all of the people out there who are having hissy fits over this book: dan brown did not write this book and say "these are the facts, this is true." he simply did a lot of research and developed a wonderful conspiracy theory on the work of da vinci. he never claimed that it was all true. though most of his research is based on facts that he foud, the conclusions he drew from it are not necesarilily concrete and he NEVER claimed that they were. i would encourage all of the people out there to calm down, and realize that it is a well written book, you might not think it's true, but he's not saying it is. it is a fictional book based on extensive research. dan brown is not trying to undermine the Christain religion, i myself am a fervent Christian and i simply read the book with an open mind, enjoyed it beyond belief and placed it on my permanent list of best books i have ever read, and moved on. i suggest u do the same. u are taking a stance against somthing that never claimed to be true. do somthing better with ur time, and enjoy this wonderful book, i gurentee u won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book of inaccuaricies
Review: This book is a book that every catholic should read, scrutinize and analyze down to the last syllable NOT b/c it is a great book but b/c the blatant inaccuracies/misrepresentations that exist throughout the book which are so bluntly aimed at denegrating the teachings of the Church and of Christ. Every Catholic should be INFORMED (and this book DEPENDS on the reader NOT being informed)of the true history, tradition and teachings of the church, and this book is an excellent book to help point out some of the aspects that Catholics SHOULD be informed about. The book's misinformation and misrepresentation of various teachings of the church to the author's own end, including those about the important role of women (which obviously were not in his interest or in the interest of others to admit), the author appears to be totally obsessed (and that is the ONLY word that can be used) with female worship. The book was described by the New York Times as a thriller which does not say much about the correspondent's level of reading. For a thriller it is poor. You know who killed who from the Chapter 1. The rest of the story is not thrilling at all..... you know everything that is going to happen. you can predict it. It is just a graphic discharge of spite towards the catholic church including Opus Dei. Of course, had the murderer been exposed at the end there would have been NO space for the author to express all his distorted feelings towards the catholic church. Furthermore it is interesting how EVERY person with any form of faith and dedication to the catholic church is portrayed as evil.

The lack of knowledge of the author is explicit.e.g. In the description of the Madonna of the Rocks - He wrongly calls St. John the Baptist Jesus and vice versa. If he has any doubts of who J. the Baptist is he should look up most of the art c1500-1600 where he is always portrayed with a long stick and a cross at the top. The "John the Baptist" painting by Da Vinci himself shows him like so. When I showed the actual painting to people and read how the author describes it, proved to be excellent humor. The interpretation of the Last supper is likewise absurd. Christ and John (who the author calls Mary) would have had to have VERY wide hips in order to be touching as described.

One piece of advice to the author, In presuming such authority you have only revealed YOUR GROSS ignorance of many aspects covered by the book.... Before you write, BE informed and make sure that your references ARE credible. The intelligence of an author can be discerned by his/her capacity not only to use the material he/she has available that agrees with his agenda, but his/her capacity to analyze critically every aspect of his/her data be it for or against and to present it in a balance manner to make the reader think - which this book certainly does not.

Rating:
Summary: Don't let the phony negative reviews fool you
Review: The success of this book is evident in all the phony reviews placed here by extremist fundamental christers who probably haven't read the book at all. I just read an article about extreme fundamentalists being encouraged to leave negative reviews about works thier church leadership deemed worthy of censorship. They fill their reviews with the same dribble near word for word found in their extremist political spam and radio shows. For example: "I've never written a negative review on Amazon before, but I felt I had to alert readers to, as it were, "the facts of the case."" That sounds like a 10 year old faking a letter to Penthouse magazine. And, "The basis of his claims come from second rate New Agey conspiracy theorists and Crunchy Granola Goddess Worshippers." Do good readers really speak that way? Not likely. I've noticed a great many books on Amazon suffer from these bogus reviews that all seem like they are written by the same person. Or more likely, written by many people who all listen to the same lemming hour radio show.
It's a good fun read and the research is great. If only 90% of this is true (proveable) it's a great investment of your time. Still, reading won't unravel your world or bring the end of life as we know it. But you might feel a lot more aware of our world and how it got this way.

Good luck!