Rating: 
Summary: Lost in Narration
Review: Dan Brown weaves a fast paced, time compressing, and fascinating work of fiction that could be spun as an historical investigation slash murder mystery in "The Da Vinci Code". An enjoyable tale full of interesting twists, turns, and captivating concepts about secret societies, ancient symbology and paradigm shaking religious "truths", the audio CD version of this book looses much of its luster to incredibly poor narration. While narrator Colin Stinton may play well on Broadway, as the sleeve credits hint, his awkward tone and child-like foreign accents make one wish for an author's reading of his own work. In dialogue between main characters Robert Langdon,a Harvard symbologist who sounds like a tough-guy detective in Stinton's narration, and Sophie Nadeau a French cryptographer portrayed in Monty Python-like female french-english, a really good yarn sounds annoying at times. Overall, and despite this poor reading, Dan Brown's book is recommended. It leaves several questions begging and wraps up loose ends a bit awkwardly, but "The DaVinci Code" makes for a good read (if not a good listen).
Rating: 
Summary: An Admonition To Religious Attacks
Review: Over Christmas we took and exciting and wonderful trips from the cavernous chambers of Parisian museums to monasteries on the heights of the Pyrenees mountains to intriguing Papal castles to churches in foggy London to green pastures of the Scottish landscape: our trip companion was Dan Brown and our itinerary The Da Vinci Code. A present from my niece, Karen, the novel was an exciting, thought provoking and revealing experience. Running like a 'bull' through the twits and turns of its intriguing plot, it shook our inner souls stimulating at times but agitating at others. We groped wearing a habit, the tortures and torments (aside praying) to keep the flesh from temptation. It uncovered the workings of powerful cabals, bent on destroying our sacred institutions, with their ulterior motives and hidden agendas; by infiltrating first and sabotaging afterwards our deepest believes forged by the very establishments with which they dared to get affiliated. Doubtless Dan's novel helped strengthen the pillars over which our Roman Catholic upbringing rests, to the point of showing the vulnerability of well-intended living persons and how easily it is to manipulate them recklessly by exploiting their humbled origins and polluting their souls with hateful and dubious claims; we don't dispute the validity of some facts, mathematical or otherwise, but diabolical as means to an end. He did that by bringing a greater introspection and appreciation of the masters' art but in a questionable time line: Da Vinci did paint an interpretation of The Last Supper some fifteen-hundred years after the fact. With such a clever and rapid prose fact and fiction is hard to part. Readers beware! It's just a well-written novel.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Book!!!!
Review: This was the first book I've read by Dan Brown and I loved it. It took me less than a week to finish it. Whether or not everything was historically accurate to the letter wasn't important to me-rather, I found the ideas presented to be intriguing, even if some literary license was used. Any open-minded person will enjoy this book. However, if you are close-minded and not open to different interpretations of religious doctrine, don't read this book-it will only upset you. I'm already reading my second D. Brown novel, Angels and Demons, and can hardly put it down.
Rating:
Summary: WOW, HAS THIS GOT THE INQUISITORS GOING, OR WHAT???
Review: It is a breath of fresh air to finally see the subjects of the repeated Inquisitions out of the closet!! With the thousands, maybe millions of books to look up on this history, try Kessinger Publishing for a few of the oldies. Maybe the Inquisitors can now feel what it has been like for others to have been under the aura of the Inquisition the last 1600 years or so; you know they're ajar as you remember this material and the freemasons have also been under papal bulls of the past. Also recommended:Woman with the Alabaster Jar; Bloodline of the Holy Grail; Jesus the Man; Genesis of the Grail Kings; Adrian Wagner's works. Also the Westar Institute is a group of scholars who've done great work on this subject of Jesus.
Rating:
Summary: Read 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail' Instead.......
Review: Anytime a book gets as much attention as 'The DaVinci Code', I feel compelled to read it. I think the real reason this book has taken off like wildfire is that most people AREN'T familiar with 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail'. This is a historically researched book dealing with the same subjects which Dan Brown basically pirated for his novel. The difference between them is, that truth in this case is stranger and MORE interesting than fiction. The characters in 'The DaVinci Code' were wooden, the plotlines about Opus Dei were awkward, and Dan Brown has an EXTREMELY ANNOYING habit of making every other sentence an italicized thought! It got really cumbersome when I first started reading the novel and became more and more cartoon-like until I gratefully reached page 454.... Another historical book dealing with the same subject matter is called 'Rennes La Chateau' and again the true subject of Berenger Saunier --- a priest who found a mysterious treasure in southern France using clues found in the paintings of Poussin is worlds more interesting and engrossing than Brown's flimsy fictional attempt at it's exploitation.
Rating: 
Summary: Pseudo intellectuals rejoice! Your book has arrived!
Review: Mr. Brown has succeeded in taking a pamphlet's worth of interesting information on DaVinci, mixing it with bits of Holy Blood, and churning out a 400 plus page book filled with a series of non-harrowing escapes (aided unintentionally by some of the most inept police work since the Keystone Cops), 4th grade level word games, and characters with less depth than a kiddie pool. The plot Deus Ex Machinas all over the place, the writer intervening with fate, physics and facts whenever he sees fit in order to insure the welfare of his characters. In Brown's world armor trucks aren't so armored, characters sit virtually inactive 'off-panel' for chapters, drivers involved in high speed getaways at night can NOTE THEIR PASSENGER'S WATCH FACES, and a professor of symbolism and a cryptographer have problems with puzzles a chimp with ADD could solve (Oh, be sure to give the chimp a mirror though for the backwards writing. Quite a stumper that one). Maybe I'm being too hard on the story, but from all the hype it got I expected more. I believe I've read at least 3 of the books Brown 'borrowed' from so for me some of the 'revelations' presented in the book were a little like watching a magician perform tricks you already know...
Rating:
Summary: Not Impressed
Review: This is a poor example of a novel. I place this book on the same literary level as a trashy romance novel (and I don't see Daniel Steel writing bestsellers). There are FAR TOO MANY coincidents among the main characters. It is VERY VERY poorly researched and the "facts" are quite inaccurate. Any FICTION writer that has a "FACT" page at the front of their novel should be shot. This one page is leading people to believe what Dan Brown writes is true and highly accurrate, when in truth, his writing is just the opposite. If you don't believe me, then buy the book and waste your money. I actually had to force myself to finish reading this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is like Foucault's Pendulum....
Review: just written for slower folks, with all interesting mind fodder removed. I disagree with some of the other reviews stating this is a total ripoff.... even within the text Brown acknowledges that all of these ideas are old hat and have been for at least decades. As my title indicates, however, Umberto Eco was able to weave the old legends of the Templars into a much more relevant and poignant work. Besides, with Bush's current fantasia of rationales for provoking illegal wars, the nature of truth as elucidated in Foucault's Pendulum is much more pertinent.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This book is a must read and proves to be a masterpiece in its own right. An excellent, fast paced read that takes us throgh the exqusite journey of realistic fiction. 450 pages of extacy!
Rating: 
Summary: Lives up to the hype
Review: I was reluctant to read this book since it seems like everyone else did and was raving. In the past I have been disappointed by books that were getting big attention. An example is "The Lovely Bones". Anyway, "The DaVinci Code" lived up to all the great things I heard about it. Fast moving and it makes you think.
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