Rating: 
Summary: Fun read, fast paced, work of FICTION
Review: I read this book in one setting beause I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. As to be expected, less sophisticated readers miss the point entirely which is that this is first and foremost a mystery. Secondly, as all novels go, fiction is about escapism and so the characters are supposed to have larger than life adventures. Finally, and most importantly, this book is NOT anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, or anti-Christ. The "bad guy" in the book deliberately paints the Catholic church as evil but it is a plot devise and the Catholic church is exonerated in the end. But if you have been too offended to bother to read that far, you wouldn't have known that.As for the discussions of theology, is it so bad that a NOVEL should inspire casual, even regular church goers to ponder the meaning of Jesus' live and his message and what could have happened if history had taken a different turn of events? Brown uses factual events and real people only to embellish the PLOT, not to make a statement. Any theology scholor will agree that the Bible as we know it is highly edited and, yes, edited by Men. It is also a fact that there were other gospels written that were not included in the bible. Why? Because the editors wanted a specific message to come across. Despite their best efforts, a thorough reading of the "canonized" bible finds it full of inconsistecies (Genesis is a good place to start as the inconsistencies begin in the first chapter of the first book). Should good Christians feel under attack because someone points out these inconsistencies? No. This is a book written by many sources and each of them had a diffent view of the same events and would have emphasized those things that were most important to them. Inconsistencies are not necessarily a sign of imperfection, rather, the different versions put together provide us with a deeper and fuller picture of what these ancient holy men wanted to impart about the religion.
Rating: 
Summary: Cleverly misleading
Review: I read this book in one setting, which is a testament to this book's ability to keep one's attention. Nevertheless, anyone with a little knowledge of religious studies or art history will find Brown's blatantly erroneous accounts of Christianity's development or Da Vinci's work unsettling. He comfortably weaves such falsehoods with fascintating historical information in such a way that the average reader will be unable to distinguish the two. At best this is manipulative, however, at its worst, it is grossly deceiving and unprofessional.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: I read this book in one sitting! Whether or not you agree with some of the author's presuppositions, it is a masterfully written suspense thriller. Definitely a must read and would make a great movie. However, I am afraid that most people will accept his theological assumptions on face value. You must read it to know what I am talking about.
Rating:
Summary: I challenge you to put it down!
Review: I read this book in TWO days, I simply could not, would not put it down...absolutely remarkable. This book is not only wonderfully written, the reader comes away from the book yearning for more, more, more. This book is daring, cunning, fast-paced, EVERYTHING a superb suspense novel should be. You owe it to yourself to read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Interact With the Story
Review: I read this book in two days. I found it fun, entertaining, enlightening and a great read. One of the fun things about it is the book is full of riddles and puzzles. When I came to them in the story I tried to solve them before reading on. Some were simply impossible because they were based on locations or situations within the text but others were approachable. It really was thrilling to arrive at an answer, read a few more pages and see if your solution was the "right" one. I got pretty lucky and solved a couple of them. Additionally, because the book is based on historical data it open up new possibilites for the reader to explore while or after reading the book. So have fun, learn a few things and pick up this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I had hoped for . . .
Review: I read this book just from the perspective of wanting a good mystery to read - the religious 'accuracy' aspects didn't concern me. And - it simply didn't hold my interest very well. The plot seemed fairly lite, and the characters weren't well developed. I probably scanned through about 1/4 of the book's pages. I suspect that Dan Brown recognized that the religious implications of what he wrote would make the book sell - and for that he is correct!
Rating: 
Summary: Just silly bigotry
Review: I read this book on the recommendation of a professional acquaintance. It was poorly written and substantively odious. I am tempted to recount the book's astonishingly vast number of factual errors, but for the most part they have been adequately digested in other reviews. The book's worst element, however, is the obvious bigotry oozing from its pages. Bottom line: If you liked the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," you'll love "The Da Vinci Code." Or perhaps more disturbingly, if you liked "The Da Vinci Code," you'll love "The Protocols...."
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read - Everyone Should Read This BOOK!
Review: I read this book over the course of a 48 hour period and have bought 2 copies as Christmas gifts. It provides a very fast, exciting read that keeps the reader breathless. What I really liked about it were the many nuggets of historical information that the world needs to know about.
P.S. Contrary to the opinions expressed in some of the above book reviews, the Internet is not a reliable tool for verifying the author's research.
Rating:
Summary: LOL
Review: I READ THIS BOOK SIMPLY BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS TALKING ABOUT IT. AS A FEMALE, I ALMOST BECAME INTRIGUED WITH DAN BROWN'S THEME REGARDING THE RELIGIOUS, HISTORICAL TREATMENT OF WOMEN.HOWEVER, SOMETHING RAISED THE RED FLAGS IN MY MIND. THE ONLY THING I CAN REALLY POINT AT IS MR. BROWN'S TERRIBLE WRITING STYLE. IT IS SO ANNOYINGLY POOR, I DEFINITELY WILL NOT READ MORE OF HIS WORK. AND, I BELIEVE IF A AUTHOR CANNOT REASONABLY WRITE WELL, IT FOLLOWS THAT HIS INTELLECTUAL CAPACITY DOES NOT INCLUDE THE ABILITY TO ACCURATELY INTERPRET HISTORY. I KNOW MR. BROWN IS MAKING MERRY TRIPS TO THE BANK AND HIS LAUGHTER IS OK WITH ME. I HAVE LAUGHINGLY ENJOYED READING ALL THE REVIEWS ON THIS INSIGNIFICENT BOOK. THESE DAYS I APPRECIATE HUMOR WHERE EVER I CAN FIND IT. READ THIS BOOK IF YOU MUST AND WANT TO BE FULLY ENGAGED IN CONTEMPORARY LIFE ALA ALL THE OTHER POPULAR FANTASIES OUT THERE. PS: MINERVA, I AM ON YOUR SIDE BUT GIRL, YOU HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO SPELL SO PEOPLE WILL RESPECT YOUR OPINION. PEACE.
Rating:
Summary: Wait for the movie!
Review: I read this book thinking I might learn something useful about Leonardo Da Vinci. I was disappointed. The material concerning the master seems to be mostly nonsense, as is the rest of the book -- entertaining nonsense like an Indiana Jones film, but nonsense nonetheless. The more I read the more I thought that the main purpose of the book was to be turned into a Hollywood film with Harrison Ford playing the lead, that is, Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor and expert on "the divine feminine" in mythology. Langdon finds himself invited to the Louvre to talk with a curator. He finds the curator dead and Langdon immediately becomes a prime suspect in the grisly killing. The curator's granddaughter, Sophie Neveu, is a cryptologist with the Paris police and she discovers that her grandfather has left her a complicated message which she and Langdon spend the rest of the book attempting to decipher. For a bona fide expert in cryptolgy, she often seems obtuse. On the other hand Langdon has more than a little bit of Indianna Jones in him, a surprise for us given that he is a Harvard professor, hence the suggestion that Harrison Ford is just right for this role. The heart of this novel is a new search for the Holy Grail -- the fate of the Western World is supposed to hang in the balance. Few readers will believe much of this preposterous tale, I hope. It appears, at least to Dan Brown, the author, that Jesus was married and had a family. His progeny are still alive today, as the reader will discover. The Holy Grail is not what we have thought it to be and I'll let anyone who decides to read this book discover the secret of the Grail. My advice is: wait for the movie that is sure to follow. All the fans of Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones are sure to love this film if Stephen Spielberg can be convinced to direct the movie. Two hours is about the right amount of time to be distracted by this story, not the two or three evenings it will take to read the book, a fast read to be sure. Many reviewers hated this book because they felt it was blasphemous. The Da Vinci Code is not serious enough to be blasphemy. It is mostly fluff which few thoughtful people will take seriously. Other reviewers note the bad writing and many factual errors Brown has made as he rewrites history. Again, The Da Vinci Code is a popular novel; just as in an Indiana Jones film, we are not expecting more than a roller coaster ride with a safe and satisfying ending on the platform where we let out a long breath and think to ourselves, "I'm glad that's over."
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