Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, Fast-Paced, and Smart
Review: I'll make this quick. While not great literature, "The Da Vinci Code" is an excellent read. I could not put it down, and a week after finishing reading it, it is still stuck in my head. Basically, the curator of the Louvre is murdered but leaves clues before dying for a Harvard codebreaker and his granddaughter. Code and puzzle lovers will be fascinated by this book. The clues left lead the two characters on a search for the Holy Grail. Dan Brown writes in enough twists and cliffhangers for four novels, so the novel moves at breakneck speed. At the same time, he takes the time to explain religious history and conspiracy, something I had read about in the excellent "Eve's Seed." Anyway you look at it, this is fascinating stuff. Overall...an easy, completely fun read that still delivers the smarts!
Rating: 
Summary: Such Hype! What a letdown!
Review: I'm a 63-year-old guy whose mind probably isn't as sharp as it used to be. I am of average (at best) intelligence. I graduated from an average small public college with A's and B's in my major/minor (journalism/English), the rest of the grades I'm not too proud of. That said, without -- I swear, promise -- even going to the various Da Vinci Code (DVC)-related websites, i.e., w/o being tipped off there even was a code, I IMMEDIATELY spotted the code on the jacket and wrote it out, in order. I IMMEDIATELY rearranged and understood the "Fibonacci number sequence" before author Brown explained it, and then, on page 298, I IMMEDIATELY read the script (it's only English backwards, for heaven's sake) that none of the "brainy stars" in the book could figure out for several pages. I mean, c'mon. At best this is Clancy with culture. Is it a page-turner? Sure -- I just can't wait to see how much more ridiculous it can get as far as plot goes. I'm just over halfway through DVC and am shaking my head. It's nothing more than a few cute, clever alphanumeric tricks that Brown builds stories around, linking them rather weakly, i.e., trying too hard, and it's SO obvious. Half-way through, the characters in the story have been to hell in a hand basket and back in the span of, oh, 6 to 9 hours of night-time. They are sleep- and food- deprived and yet are as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as well-fed squirrels eyeing a dog. Totally coherent. Yeah, right. Oh I'm learning neat things about the Louvre and the streets of Paris, all of which I've never seen. I'm learning about the factual factions of the Catholic faith/church, that Da Vince was a homosexual, biblical references, that Mary M. was really cool (and thus hidden) and other interesting stuff, but other than that, THIS BOOK -- not just the story of Christianity -- is really the "greatest story ever SOLD" (to borrow a quote from the book). An occasionally interesting, implausible laugher. I'm really hugely disappointed, but I'll finish it out. Boy, has the English-speaking public ever been duped!
Rating:
Summary: Not the Simple Cup of a Carpenter
Review: I'm a big fan of Spielberg's Indian Jones movies and when I think of the Holy Grail, I just naturally think of the Simple Cup of a Carpenter depicted in the third movie. The Carpenter's Cup however is not Dan Brown's vision of the Grail. He sees something that will change the course of Christianity, perhaps crush it. His Grail is something the Church wants to suppress, something one age old secret society desperately wants and another desperately wants to protect. And directing things in from the background is a man who calls himself the teacher, whose motives are personal. That said, the book opens with the murder of the last man who knows the Grail's hiding place. The secret has been passed down for hundreds of years and the dying man leaves clues for his granddaughter, Sophie Neveu, who is a cryptographer for the Judicial Police. Working with Harvard Professor, Robert Langdon, Sophie has to interpret the several clues her dying grandfather left even as they flee from the police, the agents of the Church, the Teacher's pet killer and assorted others who are after them, the Grail and it's secrets. Dan Brown has created one fine read that will have you going to Google checking his facts and looking for other DaVinci clues he could've used in this book that will have you reading the night away. Jack Priest, Writer from the Darkside
Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read in years!
Review: I'm an avid reader who has never been a fan of best selling novels. Just because a novel is loved by the masses does not mean that it will be a story I will like, so for the longest time, I ignored this one. It wasn't until I saw the ABC special on Mary Magdelene that featured interviews with Dan Brown and information on the book that it grabbed my interest. I bought the book the next day and read it within a few days, not wanting to put it down and not wanting the story to be over. I found his fast paced writing style perfect for this type of thriller. It kept me in suspense for just long enough and then shocked me with each new revelation. I loved his use of art and architecture that exists in our real world and the way he incorporated it into his story with the symbology to make the story so believable. It all fit together like a perfect puzzle. I have no idea if the secrets the characters in the book find are real or if it even matters if it's true. It's a fictional piece of literature that captured my imagination and left me amazed, wondering about all the things in the world that we may never know the truth about. It was the type of book that I kept thinking about even days and weeks and months after I finished reading it. It made me want to look into and research the different topics brought up throughout the book, including not only the different theories on what the Holy Grail truly is, but also all the different art, architecture, and symbolgy found in the book. It's a book I would highly recommend but I can also see how many people would be offended by the book. It presents theories that totally contradict what so many of the world's people were taught to believe. Nonetheless, I think it is a great book and one of my all time favorite reads ever.
Rating: 
Summary: A fictional fashion
Review: I'm as partial to anti-Catholic conspiracy theories as the next man. I like reading those books about how the pyramids were built by a lost race from outer space, and how all world power stems from a Freemason/Knights of Malta conspiracy dating back 700 years, involving the Holy Grail and the nail-clippings of Christ. I'm also very much in favour of the ever-fashionable fictional technique of turning history to mush. Like most people, I'd much rather read a poorly written "thriller" with plot complexity and page mass in place of character, profundity or truth, catering to the paranoias and neuroses of the masses than, say, a history book. Here, finally, is apparently a book that combines all of my interests. I haven't managed to get around to reading it yet, however, because I'm still struggling through "The Lost Druid Tribe of Atlantis: How A Race Of Ancient Druids Invented The 'Popular Esoteria' Genre From The Primordial Soup". I fully expect a committee of Vatican Bishops to destroy all copies of this book before I get my hands on a copy, anyway, so my 3 star rating must remain conjectural.
Rating:
Summary: ????
Review: I'm extremely surprised that such a mediocre (meaning BAD) writer as Dan Brown can have this type of publicity. Besides the fact that the story is full of clichés and it basically does not make sense, Mr. Brown simply has no idea of how to write anything, let alone a book. I would strongly suggest him to read, I don't know, Borges, Umberto Eco, but the mere notion of having these authors associated with Brown is ridiculous. He should definitely find another line of work. This is one of the worst books I have read in my life.
Rating:
Summary: Fiction, not nonfiction
Review: I'm glad I read on after the first review to find other people did not take this to be a possible true revelation of biblical fact. This is indeed a suspense thriller but nothing more. Read and enjoy, but if you put any belief in this as the true answer to the Holy Grail I have some swampland in Florida to sell you.
Rating:
Summary: Makes you go, hmmmm
Review: I'm glad I read this book before all the news hoopla came out. It made me go, hmmmm. I could only think that Dan Brown was able to make his points regardless of what all the other priests/scholars thought. As though they would actually admit that there is a conspiracy to keep the Priory of Sion secret and that the world should never know about Jesus and Mary Magdalene. I, for one, still do not see proof that Jesus existed, so by that notion, neither did the apostles as they are listed. As a literary document, the bible is a fantastic read. Dan Brown just takes it a little further. Makes me wonder that if Jesus existed, MaryMagdalene was an apostle and they were married then the Church should rejoice. I would like to know the truth.
Rating: 
Summary: heresy schmeresy
Review: I'm halfway through this and having a grand time. Dan Brown is HARDLY the first one to come up with the idea that Christ fathered a child. If you want stupid religious ... read The Omega Code. The Da Vinci Code is fun, it is full of good tidbits and trivia, it's reasonably well written (the exceptions being some obvious ploys in the plot in order to be able to explain history). It's hard to put down and a quick read. If you like cryptography or fast-paced diversion it will entertain you.
Rating:
Summary: Funny how reviews are as expected
Review: I'm in the process of reading this book (at page 300 now). It is a breathtaking BOOK. I am writing BOOK in capitals, because that is what it is...
It is funny to see how a book like this triggers as much reactions as it does. Did you notice the 5 stars and 1 stars? There is no in between... It IS a book that is breathtaking, full of speed, and - if you are really UNBIASED with respect to christianic faith (I am atheist...) opens up NEW perspectives. Quite possibly, we will never find out the truth of the historicy Jesus Christ. But, as is rightfully stated in this book: the bible itself was written by men... So...any story could be the truth... Have you ever noticed that any arguments that reason against religious reasoning refer to the holy books of the religion itself?
That is in contrast to the famous Goedel paradigm: no truth can ever be established from within (this is a free form expression...). Oh, just read the book as it is: a thrilling experience...
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