Rating: 
Summary: An Intellectuals Guilty (Almost) Pleasure
Review: One thing is absolutely certain Dan Brown can write!! Whether or not his plot is completely feasible or his research can be supported his prose is artful and all of his characters, even those that play minor roles, are well developed. While I personally believe that a millennia old secret society would have a better system than to rely on the security of the secret identities of its four top members, this premise leads to an enlightening and suspenseful tale. Having previously researched in depth the role the church played in the subjugation of women I know that much of Brown's evidence is legitimate. However, his casting of all pagan's as egalitarian is a stretch, misogyny was evident long before monotheism. And he has woven the fact together with his fiction so well that it is impossible to see where one begins and one ends if any of his evidence is in fact his own brainchild. While a bibliography can be found at www.danbrown.com, I would have appreciated a clear outline of what was supported and what was fantasy. In that regard it is a torment to the intellectual mind. Paul Michael does an excellent job as the reader of the book. His voices are specific, and his interpretation of Silas is particularly heart wrenching. Worth a read or a listen.
Rating: 
Summary: It's OK reading if you're stuck at an airport...
Review: Which is why I bought this book. It does have a strong start, and at first, I thought that it was going to be very good. But, the self-conscious writing style, the short chapters (which give the book a newspaper feel), the annoying habit the author has of obviously withholding information, and the awkward dialogue combine to make this a very tedious read. In fact, I lost interest about halfway through.....just about the time my plane was ready to board.If you're curious about this book, wait for the paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: DaVinci Code is Divine
Review: I can't tell potential readers anything more about the story than other reviewers have covered here, but I do want people to know they need to take a trip to see the places mentioned in the book. Use DaVinci Code as a travel guide. Seeing the Monna Lisa, the floors in the Louvre, the frescoes, and the churches makes the book mean so much more. So many more truths are out there.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable and Heretical Trash
Review: The Da Vinci Code is quite honestly the worst book I have ever had the misfortune of reading. Dan Brown's success results only from his discussion of the Holy Grail and an interpretation of that mystery which most people have never heard. That is where the merit of this novel ends. It is bascially a cookie-cutter novel in the mold of a Michael Crichton or Nelson DeMille novel without the former's frighteningly believeable scenarios or the latter's character depth. Mr Brown's writing is about on par with Danielle Steele; he tries to manufacture suspense when none is necessary, and key plot points are disapointingly predicatable.
The complete lack of style would not have bothered me had it not been for his argument for moral relativism. When I say this work is heretical I am not referring to his treatment of Mary Magdalene. Personally I dont think what he has to say about her is too theologically important. What bothers me is that he makes the same argument Kevin Lomax makes in Devil's Advocate, an argument that denies the existence of right and wrong. By having people take part in pagan rituals, and then anouncing they are practicing the correct form of christianity suppressed by the catholic church, he reveals his disgustingly relativistic outlook. Brown is just one more whiner blaming the catholic church for all of the world's problems and is unable to get even his own facts straight(see the review "Constantine spoke English"). His argument that the church has suppressed "Goddess" worship for two thousand years is ludicrous. Has he ever heard of the cult of the Virgin? It is no mistake that their is no mention of Notre Dame in his description of Paris. The most famous Cathedral in the world being named after a woman is a serious blow to his argument. Keep in mind that the reverence catholics held for Mary is one of the key complaints many protestant groups voiced before splitting from the church.
Rating:
Summary: A vicious and worthless book
Review: This proves again that insulting and falsifying Christianity is big business, and that asnti-Christianity is one form of politically-acceptable bigotry. Funny, no-one writes books insulting Islam for some reason. Christianity doesn't need me to defend it, but I'm offended that this book is being passed off as some sort of insight into history and theology when it is neither. It is garbage for the gulliable, or more precisely, for the half-educated and those who passed through school and university after history and theology ceased being taught there. To quote another reviewer: "Same old lies. Hardly any of this background is original. Most of it is derived from the fantasy-disguised-as-history work 'Holy blood, Holy Grail,' and the rest is cobbled from other bits of well-worn and risible muggests of esoteric and Gnostic conspiracy theories." The Catholic Church is shown as brutal, repressive and murderous. I am not a Catholic, so I have no particular reason to take offense, except that all this untruth should be offensive to anyone, and I feel angry on behalf of the many good Catholics I know. Its attitude to Catholicism and Christianity is simply vicious bigotry. Among the ludicrous historical errors presented as part of the factual back-ground are the alleged facts that the Divinity of Christ was invented by the Roman Emperor Constantine, and voted on at the Council of Nicea. There is a claim the Church killed five million accused witches during the medieval period. This is also utterly, ludicrously false. This is a frankly degenerate work - it is not even well-written as a suspense thriller - aiming to exploit the gulliability of the modern half-educated and its success is a depressing comment on the state of our civilization.
Rating:
Summary: did Emperor Constantine speak English
Review: As a matter of fact the only good thing about this book is that I got it free. Its ridiculous inaccurance and lack of cultural reference is overcome only by the predictability of the plot.
As a reader I would feel offended by somebody who would so badly mistreat my thinking capacity.
Two good examples:
Does Mr. Brown know the correct spelling of the English name for Leonardo's famous portrait? It is MONNA ( double N) hardly rearranging into his poorly chosen AMON, on the other hand not without a hilarious effect since MONA ( single N) indicates the female genitals in the Venitian dialect
Does Mr. Brown actually considers that Emperor Constantine knew and spoke English so as to give the name of SUN - DAY to the seventh day of the week, honouring the abandoned cult of the sun, as he states in his novel? Amazing, since the name of that day in all latin languages is derived from Dies Dominicus, day of the lord ( domenica, dimanche, dominga) and even more amazing an English speaking Roman Emperor.
In my opinion Mr. Brown should do a lot more reading than writing, for histoy's sake.
maria russo
Rating:
Summary: Plot bad, Expose IMPORTANT
Review: I could not put the book down though I almost NEVER read mysteries or thrillers, they're all so predictable. Important information is posessed by some unsupecting schlub, strange people try to kill you but righteousness triumphs in the end, and oh yeah, you HAVE to fall in love and get the girl . Yawn. This book was a tad too pulp in plot for my taste.
However, this book exposed me to informnation I've never given much thought to. I found it mindblowing. No wonder we think sex is dirty and women have been kept down throughout the ages. I was raised a catholic and I don't doubt what Mr. Brown says the Church did to condolidate it's power. I've always thought religion (particularly Judeo-Christianity) was a means of social control. You'll burn in hell if you do thus and so..
I'm sure there are better books on this subject, less pulpy and more informative but this one was my first introduction into the history of western religion and my interest has now been stimulated.
Rating:
Summary: a book for the masses
Review: Although every once in a while THE DA VINCI CODE proves to be intriguing and presents some interesting religious and political issues, the misinformation and juvenile style of writing is taxing, to say the least. I have not studied the Priory of Sion or Opus Dei extensively, but the obnoxious 'FACT' page at the beginning of the book poses the question of just how and why Dan Brown is privy to all of these secrets of the Catholic church, and the alleged sexual rituals of Sion, among other things. If he would cite his sources when he occasionally stumbled upon a fact or two and used some other form of notation when he let his imagination get the best of him, the book would be slightly more credible.
In addition to the questionable credibility of the CODE, it was embarrassing to read Brown's attempt at dialouge, particularly when he was discussing advanced symbolism with his college students as well as the college inmates. I cringed as Brown's writing was immediately reduced to that of a small child, as every revelation Langdon the symbologist came to was greeted by astonishment by his various "classes". The situation was similar as Langdon and Teabing, the wealthy protector of the seekers of the holy grail, informed Sophie, Langdon's accomplice, about the grail, and I found it difficult to maintain my composure during these particularly painful passages.
It is interesting that out of all the books on the market, the public has chosen to embrace this one.
Rating: 
Summary: I can see the movie already
Review: If you like John Grisham novels, then you'll like Da Vinci Code. It moves at breakneck speed and keeps you in suspense, and it really is a good ride, but then like Grisham novels, it sorta falls apart at the end. The unlikely turn of events in the last part of the book will leave many groaning, especially when you find out who the bad guy is and his motivations. If you think really hard about it, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But it's breezy, light reading, so just suspend your disbelief for a while and enjoy what is essentially the book version of a hollywood thriller.
Rating:
Summary: POORLY WRITTEN AND TEDIOUS
Review: The premise that the established Church has made every effort to bury the truth about the humanity of Christ is interesting and I admire Brown's imagination (or erudition). Unfortunately, The Da Vinci Code is not a well written novel. The short "cliff hanger" chapters were tedious and the characters were one dimensional (and unbelievable.) The book did motivate me to learn more about the history of Christianity and for that I am grateful.
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