Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Fact Based Account of Religious History
Review: From the first page to the last, this book is packed with documented facts everyone needs to know about. This book attempts to, with superb detail, let the world know the truth about our Christian religious history.
Dan brings to the reader an exciting passage of experience into the realms of the esoteric.
A must read for anyone in search of the truth!
Rating:
Summary: A one day read
Review: I read this book in one day! It was so good, I couldn't put it down. It is thrilling, informative and really makes you think. Ultra-conservative catholics may be offended but I applaud anyone who questions the norm. Dan Brown has done an outstanding job. I borrowed this book to read it, but i want to own it now! I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who has a thirst for higher knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: I would recommend this book to anyone who questioned the catholic faith. It reveals a lot of different ideas that seem pretty concrete. I couldn't put the book down! I loved it! It was a well-written mystery that had many twists and turns that added to the excitement of the book. Nothing was predictable. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Good & Bad, Fact or Fiction, Pros & Cons
Review: Having just finished The Da Vinci Code, I'm left with many questions. The least of which are related to the quote "religious mysteries" shared in this book. I'm in a quandary as to whether this is a superb novel or a mediocre one. Quite an unusual sensation.
Fact vs. Fiction---If one is observant, Brown clearly states the facts before the story begins and we do lose sight of that early on. The novel becomes engrossing--beginning at paragraph one! This author giftedly weaves snippets of fact and an abundance of fiction, so intricately, so subtly, that the reader cannot separate the two...that is, for the majority of the book. The truth is: Brown does make us wonder but those meanderings are based more on the fictional content as opposed to the facts.
Good & Bad---Brown is extraordinary--intelligent, diverse, original, gifted. So good is he that this book does read like a non-fiction thriller..for the most part. I honestly started to question...is it possible, is this true?? That ability is, in part, the 'good' of Brown's talent for certainly it was his intention--or one of them. His use of classic artists & their masterpieces and a myriad of historical figures is remarkable & unparalleled. This is Brown's gift to you & is, indeed, very much appreciated by this reviewer. But woe, there is a downside. Brown holds the reader spellbound...until 3/4 of the way through...when suddenly, it's like a ghost writer of opposite manner appears, takes over Brown's pen & rushes to complete the novel. Lost is the power, lost is the intensity. The remainder of the novel is more soap opera or 'thumbing my nose at you all!' A genuine let-down conclusion from a truly gifted man who could've offered much better.
Pros & Con---Pros: 1. It's a best seller & obviously, few are ignoring this novel so it is a must read.
2. Well worth the purchase price 75% of the time.
3. Brown's ability to make us second guess our faith, even if momentarily.
4. Brown's creativity abounding.
5. Factual information is, at times, completely shocking & always educational.
6. This book is truly unique!
Cons: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4. There is no character development to speak of. Almost none whatsoever. Are the lead characters drawn to each other for more than the solving of an overplayed, overproduced mystery?? Who cares? We never really got to know them. Do the villains pay their dues? Not a care about that either because everything hinges on WHAT & WHERE IS THE HOLY GRAIL?? Lack of character development is akin to poor actors in a great film. (which is virtually an impossible feat) Thus, terming this novel "great" is, unfortunately, impossible too.
5. The ending is all too weak, somewhat disjointed & lacks the feigned reality that the novel held initially. After a startling beginning to midpoint, Brown lets us Down!
6. Brown seems to hold some type of grudge against the Catholic Church. The overriding theme of the novel is basically to promote a mental revolution against Christ & Catholicism. Rather sad because we're not certain exactly what Brown IS promoting.
Rating: 
Summary: code of conduct
Review: "The Da Vinci Code simply appeals to a culture that's increasingly skeptical of claims to religious truth," says Phillip Jenkins, professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University. "...a fundamental suspicion of traditional claims to authority, where they conflict with contemporary ideas and standards especially over sex and gender."Brown has written a permission slip, so to speak, for a wannabe libertine society. His assertions of accurate research and scholarship are suspect and in many cases preposterous. His claims concerning Leonardo's artwork are laughable. No serious art historian believes this stuff. He seems to have gleaned most of his information from sensational publications and from websites of disgruntled Catholics. Many of his ideas are out-right fabrication. I am not a Catholic apologist. I'm not even a Catholic and many wouldn't even consider me a Christian. If after reading this silly book, you find yourself wondering as to the truthfullness of the claims, do a little research on your own. You will probably find that even more entertaining than Brown's vastly inferior mystery novel
Rating: 
Summary: Great characters
Review: With "DaVinci Code," Brown does a magnificent job of creating driving the story with a riveting plot. Character development is of secondary importance here, but it doesn't matter. The twists and turns of the story will draw you in...to a point where you don't care who's riding along with you. If you're into writers like Brown, Yann Martel, Mitch Albom, etc., then there's a new writer you should check out: GREG IPPOLITO. His most recent novel, "Zero Station," is a politically charged page-turner that pits its main Gen X character (John Saylor) against his Baby Boomer parents, teachers, etc., during the winter of 1991 -- in the heart of the Persian Gulf War. Right now, Ippolito is still a relative unknown (a friend turned me onto his work)...but this is a must-read. You can check him out and read an excerpt at: http://www.zero-station.net Don't miss it.
Rating:
Summary: Da Truth
Review: If you are looking to kill a few hours and have your B.S. detector set relatively low, you may enjoy this book. Mr. Brown has made an attempt to popularize some very stale and discounted conspiracy drivel in a creaky, formulaic throw-away mystery. I can see other authors trying to capitalize on The Code's success by resurrecting Lincoln, JFK and even Bermuda triangle conspiracy ideas that have received some past interest in print. I am not a Catholic, but I think that Mr. Brown owes the church an apology. The irony here is that Brown uses deception to make some kind of case about what he believes are the lies of the church. His agenda is obvious in the tedious preaching of the unbelievably one dimensional characters. The least he could do is donate some of the profits to a Catholic charity, maybe the Mother Teresa foundation.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: The "Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown is an amazing novel that left me sitting back in my chair, amazed and dazed about what I just read. Brown's extensive research on western society and the Catholic Church's history shows numerous times throughout his novel. He touches on people's knowledge and dares to write about and change history as we know it. In reading this book, I was unable to put it down but when I did, it was for practical reasons such as sleeping or school. Throughout the book, I found myself going on-line looking up Da Vinci works such as "Madonna on the Rocks" or "The Last Supper" to see if what Brown was writing about was true. Although, in the middle of the book, the suspense slowed and became a little dry, the desire to know what becomes of the characters keeps you motivated to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Innaccurate & manipulative research
Review: I think the Da Vinci Code is a historical stretch at best (understatement of the century!)... It opens with the grisly murder of the Louvre's curator inside the museum. The crime entangles hero Robert Langdon, a tweedy professor of symbolism from Harvard, and the victim's granddaughter, cryptologist Sophie Nevue. Together with crippled millionaire historian Leigh Teabing, they flee Paris for London one step ahead of the police and a mad albino Opus Dei priest/assassin named Silas who will stop at nothing to prevent them from finding the "Grail." But despite the frenetic pacing, at no point is action allowed to interfere with a good lecture. Before the story comes full circle back to the Louvre, readers face a barrage of codes, puzzles, mysteries, and conspiracies.... all riddled with factual error.... Short historical backdrop:
With the exception of the Nicolaites (1st century), the heretical Christian sect with rather loose morals mentioned in the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse), the first fights of the early Catholic Church were to defend the sanctity of the human body and the humanity of Christ. Thus, the Gnostics (1st to 3rd century), led by Basilides, Valentinus, Bardesanes, Tatian, and Marcion, taught that Christ was an eon, an intermediary of God with matter, and that physical existence was an evil to be escaped from by knowledge. Marcion's followers, for example, refused baptism to anyone who was married. Manicheism (3rd century), founded by Manes, taught that matter or the physical world was the cause of all evil. In one of the most extreme examples of the levels to which heterodox Catholics took this abhorrence of physical existence and sex, Origin, an earlier Christian writer, castrated himself. Note that his conduct was not approved by the orthodox Catholic Church. Against these heresies and excesses, Catholic bishops like St. Irenaeus and St. Augustine argued that matter or the physical world was NOT intrinsically evil and that Christ was in fact truly God AND man... spiritual and PHYSICAL. Given this backdrop, it is nothing short of absurd to suggest that the early Catholic Church attempted to suppress the "sacred feminine" and the sacredness of sex, while the Gnostics sought to preserve it. The Gnostics, like Marcion, were the ones who refused to baptize people who married and had sex. They were certainly not the champions of Mother Nature and the material world. He claims that goddess worship universally dominated pre-Christian paganism with the hieros gamos (sacred marriage) as its central rite. His enthusiasm for fertility rites in this book is clearly enthusiasm for sexuality, not procreation. The Da Vinci Code's etymology is also wrong at several points. Astonishingly, Brown claims that Jews in Solomon's Temple adored Yahweh and his feminine counterpart, the Shekinah, via the services of sacred prostitutes-possibly a twisted version of the Temple's corruption after Solomon (1 Kings 14:24 and 2 Kings 23:4-15). Moreover, he says that the Tetragrammaton YHWH derives from "Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jeh and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Ovah." YHWH did not in fact derive from Jehovah, but rather the other way round. In fact, Jehovah is the combination of the tetragrammaton JHWH (currently YHWH, but "J" also substituted for "Y" in the Middle Ages) and the vowels of the Hebrew word Adonai (Lord). "Jehovah" derived from "YHWH." When the Protestants translated the Bible into English, they didn't realize that the vowels inserted into the Hebrew text were the vowels of the Hebrew word for "Lord," not the vowels of the Hebrew word for "I am who am." (Sorry Jehovah Witnesses, but that's just a historical/archaeological fact). Until the 1500s, the word Jehovah didn't even exist! So.... no.... it is not a combination of an ancient male divinity Jeh and a female divinity Ovah... but nice try ;) Similarly, the Da Vinci Code's derivation of the word "pagan" is suspect. Yes, it is true that one translation of the Latin word "paganus" is "country dwellers," those who were last to convert to Catholicism. But another translation of the Latin word "paganus" is "civilian," those who did not enlist in God's army to fight against the Devil. Given the large number of Catholics who fled to the country to escape persecution and the number of Catholic desert hermits, the more plausible derivation of the word pagan, it seems to me, is "civilian," one who was too weak or cowardly to enlist in God's army. This military aspect of the Catholic Church is borne out by St. Paul's epistles urging his fellow Catholics to don spiritual armour and by the sacrament of Confirmation in which a seal (spiritual mark) was placed on the Catholic marking them a soldier of Christ just like a seal was placed on the Roman soldier marking him a soldier of the Roman emperor (remember how Crowe cuts out his "mark" in the movie Gladiator?). Even the Da Vinci Code's description and implications of the "Last Supper" is wrong. St. John (according to the Da Vinci Code this was really St. Mary Magdalene) is dressed in red and green, not red and blue like Our Lord. The Da Vinci Code argues that they wear the same colours because they're male and female, yin and yang. Also, the hand with the knife belongs to St. Peter, it isn't a hand without a body attached to it; St. Peter has his wrist bent on his side with the knife in it. Finally, the scene is not the Consecration ("This is my body"), which occurred after the meal, but the announcement of the betrayal. St. Peter is leaning over to St. John telling him to ask the Lord who the betrayer is. The list of inaccuracies in this book goes on and on... and much more detailed reviews have been done by many, particularly Christian scholars who have analysed his claims. These can be found at the following websites: http://www.crisismagazine.com/september2003/feature1.htm
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/newsletter/2003/nov7.html Urgh! How can critics condone this book as an in-depth and well researched best-seller given the elementary mistakes and inaccuracies? (New York Daily News book reviewer trumpeted, "His research is impeccable.") It's only 'pull' factor is the age-old and much attempted tactic of shock through implications weaved into a mysterious fictional story that claims to be intertwined with well-researched historical facts. On the contrary, I would say this book contains highly erroneous research and its 'fictional' story is highly manipulative. Now that is factual.
Rating:
Summary: Da Vinci Code was fantastic
Review: I loved Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. It was such a compelling story and the book was hard to put down.
I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good read.
|
