Rating: 
Summary: Fast paced pap
Review: Well! Dan Brown sure has written a successful book, hasn't he? Best seller for many weeks. This book is eye candy. Discerning readers among you, you know what I mean. I read it in a day.
But don't kid yourself. This book isn't researched, or in any way accurate in the details. It's a plot spun, interestingly enough, around little kernels of sketchy 'information'. Just FORGET about Constantine's role in the canonization of Scripture! Dan Brown should be ashamed of himself for suggesting he's done good research. Now if you want to read a better source for all of this, I suggest books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail or The Woman with the Alabaster Jar, or better, The Feminine Face of God.
Rating: 
Summary: Still Thinking about it--weeks later!!
Review: This is the best book I've read since Angela's Ashes. I totally recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!!!!
Review: This was the best book I have read in years. For those that fall for the myths that only the Bible is true and fact, would be outraged by what is told in this story, but this only is because of the narrowminds. There is more out there that we don't understand and are not told in church. The mystery of this novel gave me insight to so much more that I yearned to research more. I loved it and will look forward to more like this.
Rating:
Summary: shockingly reckless pap
Review: The casual reader will probably find the Da Vinci code spellbinding, mainly due to the bombastic nature of the conspiracy. The first page of the book anointes the historical details underpinning the conspiracy as matters of established "fact". The cardboard characterizations, pedantic action, self-effacing expository and flat prose of the book take a back seat as long as the reader is under the belief that Dan Brown is in the know and you are not, that he has researched what he is writing about, as any credible author would, and that the historical details enumerated are indeed "established facts". As long as the reader is under the spell of the books factual imperviousness, the conspiracy at the center of the book will be enough to beguile you into overlooking the books otherwise considerable shortcomings. So here is the rub - Dan Brown didn't do any real research for this book. Zip. None. Zero. The "facts" presented are so far from being historically accurate as to be ludicrous, reckless and downright duplicitous. Brown goes out of his way to avoid facts so well established by both sides of the isle as to effectively pull a gigantic "gotcha" on the reader. The story is only interesting and engaging if you are under the belief it's based in historical facts, as Brown brazenly attempts to do. Take that away and it becomes simply a waste of time - a porous work of fiction lightly masking the authors puzzling agenda. Among the numerous and mind numbingly inaccurate details are his parallels of Mithrailism to Christian cornerstones like the resurrection, when in fact Mithraic Scholars attest there is no Mithraic resurrection or even death. He completely ignores the resurrection as the driving central belief of the early Christian church. He totally misstates Constantine's role in the Council of Nicea, ignoring the fact Constantine had no role whatsoever in the Canonization of the Bible. Brown can't even get simple details correct like the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were discovered in 1947, not the 50's and no Gospels were contained in the scrolls contrary to Browns "facts". Readers who leave intact the veneer of "fact" the story needs to weave it's spell will most likely find the book engaging. Once the reader realizes the joke is on him, he or she will have difficulty finishing the book. The upside however, is the book may spurn readers to do their own research and teach them to be wary of demagogues cloaked in scholarship. In fact, Brown inspired me to think of a new word - fugenda: a fuge like state involving the blatant omission or revision of facts to satisfy a personal agenda.
Rating:
Summary: The Sort of Edutainment
Review: ...clearly designed to sell to the loads of suckers for whom WC Fields felt were not entitled to an even break. So, when art and history scholars complain about blatant misrepresentations of facts, Brown's defenders rebut with the perfect marketing spin: all the controversy is on account of Christians being offended because the tenets of their faith are shaken to the core and that, clearly the Church does want to suppress the "secret" marriage and progeny of Jesus and Mary Magdalegne, squelch the "divine feminine," etc. If, after reading this book, one feels that Brown has provided him a swell education along with a great story, he is among the many who are, in my opinion, said (allegedly by PT Barnum, but actually by David Hannum in connection with a genuine conspiracy) to have been "born every minute." On the other hand, if Brown's claims actually inspire the reader to do some fact checking and genuine learning, then Brown will have indeed rendered good service. Also rendering good service are those who advise the prospective reader to borrow instead of buy the book. If you should decide to read this, and, having begun, find yourself solving codes, riddles, mysteries, etc. before the brilliant Harvard symbologist does, and that your BS meter pegs out frequently, then don't imagine that the book will get better. It won't. (Lest you be confused by the "facts," there aren't any that are both actually true and never revealed before.) On the other hand, if you think you're being "edutained" by Brown, then you should find no end of other interesting material starting with the gnostic gospels themselves through loads of other stuff that continues to be produced "every minute."
Rating: 
Summary: Potboiler Beach Reading
Review: Easy to read, like most books of its type. Wildly innaccurate. For details about Jesus' relationship with Mary Magdalene, I much preferred THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JESUS CHRIST by Neil Elliott.
Rating: 
Summary: More junk for the gullible minded!
Review: There is No doubt the book is written well and in a manor they could cause one to become interested in the subject matter; but the information in the book is false. Let me give one example. Brown contends that the cannon of the scripture was put into existence in the 5th century AD., but the fact is, Tartillian, a Lawyer and Early church father, listed the cannon in total in the second century A.D. The truth is most early Church fathers were in agreement, this book takes a small minority opinion that was considered a hearsay at the time and makes it the dominate belief at the time. That is horrible scholarship. Most of Browns theories are not from the early church traditions, as I just sated he took a semi early heresy; but he gathered most of his information from the middle ages, when the knights Templars came up with he holy blood line BS. Really this is a rehash of a rehash, holy blood holy grail also did the same thing 20 years ago. It would be better if people sake the truth. One good way would be to read the new testament, The Apostle Paul's epistles totally blow Brown out of the water; Read the Lost Shipwreck of Paul for a great Historical book. Read Da Vinci if you must but look at is as fiction and entertainment; Read the new testament if you want the TRUTH.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining novel or a secret truth revealed?
Review: From the moment I started reading this book, I found it hard to get away from it. The storyline is beyond any suspense novel I have read. The story leads off with the murder of the Louvre Museum's chief curator. His death unfolds a turn of events that leads us through a path of intrigue as the story of a private society overshadows his own death. In the end, his very own daughter must place together the clues he left as she follows the path of her father's codes to discover that this society had a rather impressive list of members throughout history to include Da Vinci and Isaac Newton amongst other historical geniuses. Now comes the twister that has engulfed the world. Is this book a fictional tale for entertainment or is there some truth to a secret society that historians have refused to acknowledge?
Rating:
Summary: Oops--I believed all the hype!
Review: Well, I finally gave in and read this book for one of my book clubs, and was extremely disappointed. It was a ridiculous Hollywood script from beginning to end! The only reason I gave it two stars is because it did ignite one of the most interesting discussions I've had in a book club. But in the end, we all agreed that the book came nowhere near to living up to the hype!
Rating: 
Summary: Very impressive to say the least
Review: I was truly intrigued and entertained by not only Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code", but other books by him such as "Angels and Demons", "Digital Fortress", "Deception Point", as well as books by other authors such as "Cryptonomicon", "Snow Crash", and "Darkeye". All would make up a great addition to any true reader's library.
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