Rating: 
Summary: A Great Page Turner
Review: The Da Vinci Code is truly a good page turner. Here are the Good Points about the book:
Excellent description of all things Euro.
Storyline and conspiracy theories make you question, even if it's only for a second, Catholicisim.
It will make you look up all things Da Vinci on the the net.
Bad Points:
The explanation of subjects to an expert in that field already.
The guessing games some characters play with one another when time is limited.
The inevtiable sexual tension.
I don't want to reveal too much so as to ruin it to those who have yet to read it.
Overall, I thought the book was great. You simply can't put it down. Dan Brown did a great job of addicting me to all things Da Vinci. Just remember though. It's a novel but only to a certain extent.
Rating:
Summary: Great as a FICTION novel
Review: As a work of FICTION, this novel is a true page-turner! But the author mixes fact with fiction a little too well, and I'm afraid a lot of people who read this book will have been misled into believing the core "sercrets" of this book are true. As other reviewers have mentioned, take this book with a grain of salt and enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: THE DA VINCI CODE
Review: A thriller beautifully entwined with murder, religion, love, politics, mystery, and history. In Dan Brown's¡§The Da Vinci Code,¡¨there are endless surprises and exciting twists with the turn of each page. The storyline keeps the readers glued to this unpredictable bestseller. The adventure begins with the brutal murder of Monsieur Sauniere, the curator of the Louvre. With his last breath, he had positioned himself in a pose that imitate da Vinci¡¦s sketch of the ¡§Vitruvian Man" and was found in front of the renowned painting of the ¡§Mona Lisa.¡¨ Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is entangled in the mess with Sophie Neveu, a talented French cryptologist. Together, the pair find several baffling codes and hidden messages at the murder scene which direct Robert and Sophie into the search for the Holy Grail, where the proof of Jesus Christ¡¦s bloodline can be found. The couple then delves into the veiled mysteries of two millennium-old secret societies - the Priory of Sion, whose members included Botticelli, Newton and even Leonardo da Vinci - and Opus Dei, a religious Catholic society. Both societies have their special reasons for not wanting the breathtaking historical secrets of the Holy Grail of Jesus to be discovered. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the codes in the art of da Vinci, the powerful truth might be lost forever. What made the book more exhilarating is its¡§fact¡¨page. It states that the Priory of Sion is a real organization founded in 1099 and the Opus Dei was a controversial society that practices¡§brainwashing, coercion, and a dangerous practice known as¡¥corporal mortification'¡¨and they had just constructed a $43 million national headquarter in New York City. In conclusion, the story is layered with suspense and careful planning by the author. Every chapter seems like a piece of a puzzle and through Dan Brown's cleverness, all pieces fit perfectly.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent page-turning thriller
Review: This was my first Dan Brown experience, and I am now a certified fan! "The Da Vinci Code" is a thoroughly engrossing, fascinating read. I could not put it down! The interweaving of historical facts and fiction in the context of art and religion is very well done and provides an enlightening reading experience for those of us less familiar with the history of Christianity and Catholicism. Thoroughly entertaining, highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: misleading info...good fiction
Review: Yes there are some facts in this book. But also lots of misleading misinformation too. At some points it was really hard to tell the difference Mary Magdalene is in fact a saint in the Catholic Church and he fails to even mention that. In fact he goes to length to say the Church degraded her. And the Catholic church does honor Mary the Virgin Mother. He gets some things half correct and other things are correct.Still other things way off base. What I find disturbing is that unless you know history, theology and other subjects well you could start believing the stuff that is not true. I think his preface or "FACT", as he put it ,set the most misleading tone.Yes he did have a very subtle yet NOT perfectly clear disclaimer. You have to read between the lines and do research to figure out what he made up and what was based on fact. If you want to read a really good thriller of this type of genre read Paul L. Maier Skeleton in God's Closet or More then a Skeleton it was one man against the World....Now Paul Maier really knows his subject he is a historian and theologian. Maier is one of the top 25 educators in the country.I believe that Dan Brown's wife is a historian and Mr. Brown is an english teacher or professor.
Dan Brown's book is very good but too misleading to give him more stars. I think that if he wrote a clearer disclaimer and clearly seperated the fact from the fiction I would give him at least 4 stars...He lost the two stars because I think he did not separate facts from fiction enough and that is the danger of writing this type of fiction that has some facts in it. As a thriller this is really interesting really good but do not believe everything you read.
It is an interesting story. And I did have a hard time putting it down. As a piece of fiction I do like this story. But only as a piece of fiction. When you read this please take it with a grain of salt.
I don't have the abridged version I have the origional. Maybe the abridged version takes care of the above problems I have with this story.
Rating:
Summary: I am a new Dan Brown fan after reading this book
Review: I loved "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown. This is the first time that I have read one of his books and he has made me a fan already. I enjoyed the book from the first page to the last. I must say that the more I read, the more I wanted to read. I enjoy books with action and mystery and this definately is a favorite. I am sure that I will be reading this book over and over again in the future. If you haven't read it yet, you must!!
Rating: 
Summary: Good but overrated
Review: This is a good FICTION/MYSTERY, but all the hype it has recieved really baffles me. This is a fun read, but you probably won't have any profound realizations in reading this (unless you have never heard any of the history or theory surrounding the christian church). This is not a book I will read again, but if you want a book which will absorb you, without making you think too much (and will just be FUN) then this one is great.
Rating: 
Summary: Trite and Formulaic
Review: Given that Dan Brown weaves his thriller throughout with obscure "facts" and surprising architectural references, I can understand the misguided hype and enthusiasm that it has generated. However, if one pauses long enough to consider the basic structure of this book without the smoke and mirrors, it is very poorly written and favors the formulaic in the extreme. The characters jump through incredibly convenient plot twists and coincidences which miraculously appear just when the author can't throw in another "unbelievable but true" fact. The prose is cumbersome and stilted with characters - or should i say caricatures - repeating themselves and others ad nauseum (just in case the reader started the book somewhere in the middle). In fact, chapter after chapter conveniently ends with a - gasp! - cliffhanger just so Brown doesn't have to work on his craft and actually drive any character growth. That supposedly "stunning ending" is a foregone conclusion if you've managed to see past Brown's magic tricks or, better yet, made it to the end of the book without rending your hair and gouging out your eyes. The premise may be interesting but the execution is deplorable. It is beyond me to understand how this book got even one positive review. No matter the "revelations" within, Dan Brown would fail a sixth-grade writing assignment. His editor must be the best on the planet for making this palatable to even a few - or the worst for not dumping it in the garbage after the first page.
Rating:
Summary: If your a christian, then dont read this book!
Review: If you have already read this book, then you can check the facts. He cant get the correct date for the Qumran discovery, how can he pretend to give any other factual information. I recomend the dictionary of Apologetics by Norm Geisler for the answers to these weak suppositions.( apologetics are NOT apologies, they are the giving of an answer for the REASON behind your faith). The christian faith has nothing to fear from this sort of sensationalastic endeavor, but I wanted to warn any new christians about this book. It is not a christian book! Those who think this book is good-natured fun are mistaken. Re-writing history is serious no matter what kind of history you're talking about, fiction or not. However I will say one thing about the gnostic gospels that may make it clearer... In a thousand years when someone discovers a copy of the national inquirer, who is going to explain it to them!
Rating:
Summary: Mary Magdalene vs Mary, Mother of Jesus
Review: In the book, Brown does give some interesting artistic information, particularly about da Vinci's "Last Supper" painting that was commissioned for the Dominicans (Order of Preachers). As Brown states, it COULD be Mary Magdalene sitting next to Jesus on the left as one faces the picture. Mary Magdalene happens to be the patroness of the Dominican Order. She is regarded as the first "apostle" since she was the first to see Jesus after His resurrection and go tell the other apostles about it as instructed by Jesus. The face is definitely feminine and not masculine. I do not believe Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married as Brown opines since the Gospels never mention it. In fact, celibacy is praised by the Lord for the "sake of the Kingdom" and St. Paul does the same in his first letter to the Corinthians (7: 25-28), and NOT because human sexuality is "evil"-that would be a very anti-Jewish concept! And Jesus was a Jew. It was also believed that Jesus was going to return imminently so why get married? Jesus said that there was "no marriage or giving in marriage in Heaven": we will be like the "angels" (Matthew 22: 29-32).
In the Gospel of John, Judas left the Last Supper early when it was "night." So there are still 13 persons at the table in da Vinci's painting. This Gospel doesn't record a consecration/communion scene like the other three Gospels, however). Jesus' Body and Blood are discussed in the sixth chapter of John's Gospel. John is actually reclining on Jesus' chest because Peter tells John to ask the Lord who the betrayer is (also in the Gospel of John). In the painting, then, John is close to Jesus' right. In discussing the "sacred feminine" author Brown completely ignores Mary, the mother of Jesus. Why? She is certainly the most popular woman in the Gospels and in Christianity to this very day! The most popular devotion is the "Rosary" in Catholicism (coming from the word "ROSE") which have "mysteries" recounting certain pivotal events in the lives of Jesus and Mary that one meditates on while praying. Praying the Rosary is a devotion that did not originate with the Dominican Order but subsequently was taken up by the Order as a devotional practice and used in preaching as well. The Virgin Birth? Why so difficult to believe? God creates all persons: if Jesus was the Son of God (the Father) the egg (of Mary) would have to be fertilized by the "Holy Spirit." God can't do this? This is no more a miracle than each of us are! Does one make one's own body or any part thereof? Jesus had to be divine as well as human in order to effect our salvation.
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