Rating: 
Summary: one of the worst audiobooks ever
Review: Amazing how suspense and pace of a novel can be destroyed by
a narrator, for whom the word pronounciation seems to be unknown. the book is chilling, a pageturner, the audiobook is boring. dont
ever let this person read a book again, please.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best of Religious Thrillers ... Very Highly Recommended!
Review: An eternal secret has to be learned for that its keepers are being systematically murdered by sacred forces. The last of those murdered, a prominent curator at the Louvre, decides to set a French cryptographer (his granddaughter to whom he never spoke in 10 years) and an American symbologist on a journey that, granting their skills, would eventually lead them to the knowledge of that 2000-year-old secret. The sacred forces learn about the late curator's plan and decide to join in on the hunt for the most controversial secret of all time.This has got to be the best thriller I have read! I completely enjoyed the vast amount of religious and aesthetic information provided throughout the book. Sometimes it feels that all of this could be true, but then you realize that this is a work of fiction! I love religious novels and this one hit the spot. I am impressed with the writing style, character and suspense development. The secret brotherhood, the Holy Grail, the Church's secrets and dark history and the very concept of divinity are but a taste of what this novel offers its readers. I recommend it to anyone that enjoys religious thrillers and thought-provoking stories about Christ and his legacy. This is definitely one novel I will reread time and again. It's that riveting!
Rating:
Summary: A STUNNING AND INTRICATELY PLOTTED THRILLER...
Review: For a while I resisted reading this book, thinking that it could not possibly be as good as its hype. Well, I was wrong. This is simply one terrific book that will keep the reader riveted to its pages until the very last one is turned. It is a very well-written, intricately plotted thriller in which a great number of esoteric historical facts and interesting theories of a religious nature are woven. Those who read it should, first and foremost, keep in mind that this book is simply a work of fiction.
All hell breaks loose when Jacques Sauniere, the elderly and revered curator of the Louvre, is murdered inside the museum. The crime scene and the body itself are laden with symbols and cryptic messages pointing to renowned Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon. He is invited to the crime scene by the wily Captain Bezu Fache, of the Central Directorate Judicial Police, the French equivalent of our Federal Bureau of Investigation, ostensibly to assist the police. Little does Langdon know that he is, in fact, the prime suspect.
When he meets police cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, they join forces. They are then led on a merry chase by a series of riddles and ciphers that are ground in a historical context. They are always just one step of the French police, who seem determined to charge Langdon with the murder of Jacques Sauniere. During their voyage of discovery, Langdon and Sophie come across a secret society, the Priory of Sion, that has a startling list of former members, which list includes Leonardo Da Vinci, as well as the late Jacques Sauniere. There is also some interesting historical detail about the ancient Knights Templar, as well as Opus Dei, a conservative religious organization currently in existence.
Langdon and Sophie peel back layers of historical clues that point to a secret of such magnitude that some would kill for it. As Langdon and Sophie surreptitiously travel from France to England and seem to be headed closer to the heart of the mystery that they are trying to unravel, an unknown nemesis is closer to them than they would dare imagine. This unknown adversary is marshaling resources in order to obtain the long hidden secret that Langdon and Sophie appear to be on the brink of discovering. It is one that has the potential to have earth shattering implications.
This is a fast-paced, plot driven, rather than character driven, thriller. It hurls itself into the reader's consciousness at break-neck speed, and before the reader realizes it, the book holds the reader in its thrall: hook, line, and sinker. For those readers who love historical detail and unusual facts and coincidences, this is definitely a fascinating book that will hold their interest. It is a page-turning thriller in which nearly every chapter leaves the reader on the brink of a precipice. The book is written in clear, effortless prose, which makes the most esoteric historical details surprisingly easy to understand. Simple in its presentation but intricate in its plotting, it is no surprise that this book has become a runaway, international bestseller. Bravo!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Historical thriller!!!!!!
Review: I finally broke down and read the book of the century!. This book is a wonderful, historical, FICTIONAL NOVEL. If read with that in mind, it will fascinate you. Should you choose books based on reviews, then beware that it has twisted the undies of conservative Catholics! You who are looking to give it 1 star in the hopes I would be spared the mercy of reading such lies really do need to get a life! At some points a reader may even question truth from fiction, but at the conclusion I seriously doubt that the Catholic Church is in any jeopardy of losing true believers. A well written mystery for anyone -religious and non-religious readers. Enjoy! I also recommend the Acheological thriller "A Tourist in the Yucatan"
Rating:
Summary: Even better than the original...
Review: I read this as a hardback, and when I saw it was offered with illustrations, ordered that too. I'm one of those that finds the facts revealed in this book fascinating. Whether what is revealed in this book is fabricated or truth, it's still interesting to consider and discuss with others. I like that Dan Brown set all this up within a mystery - my favorite genre - and the plot's fast pace.The beautiful illustrations are an additional bonus to what I consider one very good book.
Rating: 
Summary: The Da Vinci Code- audiobook
Review: I was surprised that the production of this audiobook was so bad, considering the mega-selling status of the book. Only one person does all of the voices, which wouldn't be too bad, but for the fact that the narrator's French accents are straight out of Pepe Le Peau and Inspector Closeau. The male voices are low and guttural and the "female" voices are high pitched and cartoonish. The result is unintentionally laughable. What were they thinking when they heard the playback? Although the plot and prose are rather contrived, it does make for a good listen on a long trip.
Rating:
Summary: Much More Than A Super Suspense Thriller!!
Review: Once I began this extraordinary book, I could not put it down. "The Da Vinci Code" is so much more than a gripping suspense thriller. Dan Brown takes us beyond the main plot and leads us on a quest for the Holy Grail - a Grail totally unlike anything we have been taught to believe. With his impeccable research, Mr. Brown introduces us to aspects and interpretations of Western history and Christianity that I, for one, had never known existed...or even thought about. I found myself, unwillingly, leaving the novel, and time and time again, going online to research Brown's research - only to find a new world of historic possibilities opening up for me. And my quest for knowledge and the answers to questions that the book poses, paralleled, in a sense, the quest of the book's main characters. What a trip! What a read! A violent murder is committed in the Louvre Museum. The museum's chief curator, who is also the head of a remarkable secret society that has existed since the death of Christ, is found dead and gruesomely positioned on the floor near The Mona Lisa. In the minutes before he died, this very complex man was able to leave clues for his daughter to follow. The daughter, a brilliant cryptographer, along with a famed US symbologist, follow her father's codes and leads, hoping that he will, through his death, finally tell her what he wanted to confide in her while he lived. The secret society included members such as: Leonardo Da Vinci, Boticelli, Gallileo, Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Jean Cocteau, etc. These folks really Did belong to this society, which Really existed! This is when I first began my online search. The mystery, or mysteries, take us through England, France and far back in time. We learn about the secret of the Knights Templar, and the symbolism in many of the world's most treasured paintings, as well as architectural symbolism in some of history's most sacred churches. Of course, we also learn who committed the murder and why - although this is almost secondary next to the real epic mystery the novel uncovers. If there are flaws in the plot, I was too busy reading to discover any. That is probably the sign of a terrific book! The writing is excellent and the characters are a bit on the super-hero/heroine side, but who cares? Is what "The Da Vinci Code" proposes true? Well, the research is correct. The historical events and people explored in the book are real. But no one knows the Truth...nor will we ever, probably. I think that some things are meant to be a mystery. With all the world's diverse religions and each individual's belief in what is Divine - the Truth would have to destroy the beliefs, hopes and lives of many of the world's population. So, perhaps, in the divine scheme of things, there are many more Truths than one. Don't take the book too seriously. Just read it and enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Just OK
Review: Robert Langdon a symbologist and Sophie Neveu a Cryptologist are paired together to solve the mysterious murder of a very respected Louvre Curator. Before dying of a bullet in his stomach, he has time to leave clues around the museum so that a secret he is the last living person to know about would not be lost forever. The 2 main characters are racing against time, trying to translate anagrams and solve riddles before both the police and some obscure religious group get their hands on them and what they are about to discover.
The book is fast paced and written in a very simplistic style which makes all the weird religious stories in the book easy to understand. THe book starts off pretty well, it has quite a few suspensful moments which will make you keep turning pages. But as the story unfolds, the author seems to try and create too many twists, some of them way too far fetched. The ending is very anti-climatic and extremly disappointing. The characters remain very superficial throughout the story, they seem to have no feelings and you are left with the impression that you are reading about robots rather than human beings. None of the characters are interesting, i did not get to care about any of them and what would become of them. I've heard Steven Spielberg is going to direct the movie with Tom Hanks staring as Robert Langdon. I'll be very surprised to see how Hanks can portrait such a dull and boring character.
[...]The underlying theme of the quest is absurd and i can understand that it would offend christians, mostly catholics. Yet this is fiction, it's supposed to be entertaining and not rewrite history. So if you are a devouted catholic who is very touchy on the subject of religion, this book is definitly not for you.
It seems that everyone is reading this book these days and i had high expectations. It's just all hype, it's really just OK. Based on the idea of the story, the author could have done a much better job had he thought more about the ending and given a lot more depth to his characters.
Rating:
Summary: A Review That Compares Dan Brown's Four Books
Review: THE DA VINCI CODE has been #1 on the best seller and as I write this it has already been reviewed exactly one hundred times on Amazon. Thus, after summarizing the plot, I will attempt to make this review as helpful as possible by briefly discussing the author's four books, comparing the plots, and describing and analyzing his writing style in summary fashion. Harvard professor and symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to the Louvre to help Captain Bezu Fache of the Paris Judicial Police unravel the clues surrounding the body of the murdered curator, Jacques Sauniere. Sophie Neveu, a police cryptologist soon arrives, and it almost immediately becomes clear that it will take their combined skill and knowledge to follow the trail laid out by Sauniere before his death. As they attempt to uncover the hidden secrets of The Priory of Sion (a real organization that is hundreds of years old and has included as members Issac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci, both of whom figure in the story), their search leads them to several Paris locations and eventually to England. Of course, others are also on the trail, including Captain Fachu, a huge albino monk, and an unknown formidable opponent who appears to be the only person in possession of a complete overview of the puzzle which they are trying to solve. The story combines history, murder, intrigue, wordplay combined with cryptanalysis, romance, religion and art. These elements are combined in such an incredibly captivating way that the pace never slackens as you are constantly being bombarded with both new facts and puzzles to solve. (I only solved one of the puzzles before Langdon and Neveu, and it is the one on which the author gives the reader some help.) The pace is fast and the narrative has several threads which merge to provide a surprising and satisfactory conclusion. This is Brown's second book involving Robert Langdon. My review of ANGELS AND DEMONS (Amazon 4/1/03) provides a detailed overview of that book. While this is not a sequel which requires that book to be read first, ANGELS has additional background regarding Langdon's character and academic specialty which made this book more enjoyable for me. Both involve religion, art and symbology, and both a have well researched and accurate historical basis. Thus they are superficially similar. However, ANGELS has three significant differences. First, it assumes further scientific advances and takes place in the future while DA VINCI takes place in the current day. Second, philosophical questions regarding the frequent conflicts between religion and science form the basis of the story and are the basis of some of the best passages in ANGELS. The philosohical implications of the mysteries involved in this story are just as complex but the discussion is much less profound. Third, in ANGELS the conflict among the various religious factions of the Catholic Church did not go the heart of the basis of Christian beliefs but rather to the existence and nature of God, the questions raised by this story are much more profound for Christianity. (This factor accounts for some of the critical reviews.) A common element in all Dan Brown's books is the very compressed time frame in which the stories occur. The tension is heightened by a race against the clock as an integral element of the nature of the various adversaries; this technique helps to make the stories real "page turners". In DA VINCI, the complete story except for a short epilogue incredibly takes place within approximately twenty four hours, yet the pace seems true to the events. (In order to give you an idea of the compressed time frames Brown utilizes, this is roughly double the time frame of ANGELS.) Both DECEPTION POINT (his third novel) and DIGITAL FORTRESS (his first book) also utilize this technique. All the author's books involve extensive knowledge about the subjects involved, which is always imparted in a manner that keeps the reader's interest. Thus, they are for the reader who wants not only fast paced action but intelligent and absorbing fiction, a very different genre than the also enjoyable best selling James Patterson (at least until THE JESTER, see review of 3/15/03). DECEPTION POINT involves computer hacking and introduces the theme ofcryptanalysis which is revisited in DA VINCI. DECEPTION POINT involves science, oceanography, NASA and politics, unfortunately it veers into implausibilty. In summary, Dan Brown knows how to keep his readers' interest. While each of the four books can be read independently, I would recommend reading ANGELS (available in paperback) if you only have time to read one or before reading DA VINCI. DIGITAL FORTRESS is an excellent first novel although not as polished as the later works. The subject is more specialized and probably won't appeal to as wide a range of readers. DECEPTION POINT is well written but had the only conclusion that disappointed me thus is not as highly reccommended as the other three novels.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Thought-Provoking Thriller!!!!!
Review: The Da Vinci Code, an exciting, thought-provoking tapestry of intrigue is a surprisingly easy read given the rather lofty subjects, art and religious history.
To his credit, Dan Brown has woven an indelible tapestry of murder, art, and religion. An added bonus would be the exotic locales of the story enshrined in the history of the Church as well as some enthralling connections to art. It was indeed a wise decision to structure the book in short chapters to give the reader a chance, in many cases, to absorb some the more captivating historical tidbits that play a pivotal role in moving this fast-paced story along.
If you have a problem considering alternative points of view, especially in the religious arena, you may probably want to steer clear. But for those of you secure enough in your own ideas that you are hardly threatened by another point of view, I heartily recommend the book. It should stimulate equally interesting dialogue.
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