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Summary: Great look into the bible
Review: Either you love or hate this book. I am a "religious" person and I love the facts brought out in this book. It gave me a new look on things and is causing me to do my our study. This book had a great story that keeps you turning the page. This author is great! He holds on to you until the last chapter. MUST BUY!
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Summary: Da Vinci Code
Review: One of the best page-turning thrillers I've ever read! It really moves. Can't wait for the movie!
Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: Bottom line is, this book was a great read, I enjoyed it immensely and whether or not it is a truthful portrayal of Opus Dei or Mary Magdalene isn't really important. It's just a book, take it as it is and enjoy it for what it is.
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Summary: Some interesting knowledge within...
Review: You can learn a few things about the illuminati within these pages.Bottom line: This book is just another round being fired at the Catholic Church in order to subvert it and to weaken it's power against the new world order.
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Summary: No Masterpiece (very minor spoilers)
Review: I decided to see what all the hype was about + read The Da Vinci Code. It's a little hard to understand why this became such a mega-bestseller and cultural phenom. Dan Brown gives us a by-the-numbers thriller. It jazzes things up with a lot of puzzle clues the reader can try to solve with the characters - and some are clever enough. He also adds in some semi-interesting socio-historical perspectives on religion and art. Combined with the easy reading style of the prose, that can explain some level of interest. But then there are the downsides to the novel, and there are many. The quality of the writing is really bad in many places. The dialogue resembles nothing actual people would say. Typical "conversation":
#1: "[supposedly shocking revelation]"
#2: "Are you trying to tell me that [supposedly shocking revelation]???"
#3: "Yes, I am saying [supposedly shocking revelation]" It goes on and on like that, and it gets irritating, as does the ham-handed way Brown tries to hold off on revealing information until it's (supposedly) more dramatic. The book takes itself VERY seriously, without a trace of wit or style. Rather than say "this could symbolize that", the characters always have to say "when one looks at it symbologically". ("Symbologist", and its permutations, seems to be a presumtuous word the book enjoys using ad nauseum to inflate its own importance.) One of the "big secrets" - about what one character saw another doing ten years ago - is a yawner of an anticlimax. The main protagonists register absolute zero on the personality meter. Absolute zero also describes the amount of heat they generate, though of course they end up together. Brown also plays fast and loose with real life stuff. Did you ever have a college professor who always declared that his one, overarching theory explained absolutely everything? That's what goes on here. Brown throws in enough real-life people, groups, events, art etc to make his fictional work sound legit, but mixes it with pure fiction - maybe hoping you won't be able to tell the difference. [One real laugher: Isaac Newton is repeatedly mentioned in the plot. In real life, Newton was deeply anti-social, devoutly Christian and almost certainly died a virgin. His biographer, James Gleick, describes the physicist's attitude towards sex as "morbid distaste." The Da Vinci Code posits Newton as part of a pagan group that worships the "sacred feminine" - another phrase Brown beats to death - and engages in ritual sex. Yeah, right.] It's not the worst thing I've ever read, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.
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Summary: Amazing!
Review: Hype or no hype, this is one of the best books I have read in years. Do not believe the poor reviews- this is a real page turner. Brown flawlessly weaves fact and fiction to create a masterpiece. Read it in two days- worth every penny.
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Summary: the da vinci flop
Review: i admit i got caught up in the hype and read this solely based on other people's reactions. my final take on this piece is that, while entertaining, it's just another cheesy mystery novel. a large part of this book is focused on an alternate history involving jesus christ and mary magdalene but, while interesting, i can't take anything in this book as fact in the same way i won't let the movie pearl harbor grant any awareness about what really happened on dec 7 1941. the author went as far as stating that opus dei and the priory of sion were real organizations on the first page of the first chapter.. perhaps leading the reader to think that their role in the novel is indicative of their role in the real world. wondering if opus dei really existed i googled them to discover, wow, they really do exist. i mean "wow" as in "why did the author choose to defame a real catholic organization." he depicts opus dei followers as corporal mortifiers, racketeers, fanatics and even murderers. whether or not this is really true doesn't vindicate the author because since this is a novel and not an academic work there is no ethical responsibility to portray the truth. so in reading the user is coerced to understand the opus dei characters in the exact way the author characterizes them in the novel (specifically "silas"). we see the same issues in movies where viewers are led to believe something about history (or the real world) when in fact the story being told is a work of fiction (ala apollo 13, saving private ryan, braveheart and my favorite example, pearl harbor which was sold as a movie about 12/7/41 but actually had almost nothing to do with it). da vinci code is a novel, i know! i know! but it seems to me that people would rather get their facts from fictionalized stories than actual facts. i remember when pearl harbor came out everyone was commenting on how much they learned about wwii and the japanese invasion and all the while i could barely keep myself from puking all over these history students. so my rant has a point, you'll be surprised... in that i got the same reaction from people about this novel. "oh it's so fascinating, i didn't know that da vinci did all those things, that opus dei was a bad religious organization and that there is a secret grail society blah blah blah..." as i mentioned earlier, while this is "interesting" i think the interest merits further investigation and until then can be categorized as "entertainment" and nothing else. so what drove me down this long path, you're asking yourself. well my first quest for the truth involved a visit to opus dei's website whereupon i discovered a link to a public statement in reaction to this novel. reading this statement affirmed my belief that you can't take anything at face value. i even feel sorry for them b/c this novel is so popular and they are getting a bad rap because of it. so my final analysis of this book is what my high school english teacher calls a "tv book." that is, a piece of literature that has no more value than to entertain ... which is why i think alot of people like this book. just don't mistake it for being "informative."
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Summary: Extremely interesting, but a cookie cutter plot
Review: I am an art major, and had just completed art history on the the Renaissance when I got this book from the library. My friends had told me wonderful things about it, and I was excited to read it. I did indeed find it fascinating, but not for the story line. In fact, the detective story was cookie cutter, and I found that I could predict things several chapters before they actually happened. No, the intruiging part for me was the immaculate research on Da Vinci and the secret society and the concept of the holy grail that Dan Brown did. It was the first time I had been exposed to these ideas, and found them impecably interesting. It was like taking a history class in a book, where learning is made more interesting. I'm not sure that I believe everything that he wrote is true, but it is certainly another way to look at certain events, and it is something to keep in mind. I am eager to learn more on the subject.
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Summary: An Interesting Thriller, but!
Review: Having just finished this book on tape, I have to say I enjoyed the story, its fast pace, and the unsuspecting turns the story frequently took. I wanted the story to be longer and entertain me further. The story centers around two people, experts in their respective fields, and their quest for the "truth" about the Holy Grail. I rate this book near the top of the list of adventure/thriller books I have read. Having said what I enjoyed about the story, now let me say that this "version" is but one of many theories about the early history of Christianity. What is written in the book is well written Fiction, not fact! The theories and conspiracies about the Priory of Sion, the Knights Templar, and the Holy Grail will continue to be just that because what is proven is history and all else is fiction, fable, or vivid imagination. The other thing that detracted from my enjoying the story as a mystery was that I saw several of the surprises well before their being revealed to the reader/listener. They were just too obvious with the revealing of the teacher being the most expected thing in the book. I realize that the subject of this book is one that enflames proponents of both sides of the history of Christianity, as is shone in the number of reviews and the votes on the reviews. I hope my objective approach is understood by all.
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Summary: A Thriller And A Little More
Review: It is a page turner and very smartly written. The research is excellent and opens a whole tract of thought about religion and women. In fact, not being trained in Christian culture and history all that well, it was difficult for me to distinguish genuine historical facts from Dan Brown's fiction many times, which made it all the more interesting. Of course, many of the ideas and research may have been taken from other body of work, but that does not take from the novel in any way. My only gripe is that, from the very beginning, it became clear that the author had Hollywood in mind for this work. The chapters are organized in scenes, and the pace is fast and furious, as in many of the current block busters. In the second half of the book, the endless turn of events, and how the heros always managed to extract themselves from all kinds of impossible situations became a little too much. A highly entertaining and somewhat thought provoking book, well written and well worth it.
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