Rating: 
Summary: Page-turner with a clever foundation, but . . . . . .
Review: Much ado about nothing concerning the historical inaccuracies in this book. Being a bit of an art sleuth myself I examined the cover and noticed the words "a novel" cleverly hidden several centimeters above Mona Lisa's left eye. All caps, white on black.Having uncovered Dan Brown's 'secret' before I opened the book, I was able to enjoy this read for what it is: A nice whodunit with an intriguing premise that runs clumsily out of gas about half way through. I suspect Mr. Brown had a deadline to meet or perhaps got impatient with his work. Too bad, because for about 200 pages this is about as good a read as you're going to find anywhere. But when I got to the end of the quest I really didn't care at all how things were resolved. The second half of the book becomes sort of character pinball, with many sudden changes of direction for all involved. The questions about the life of Jesus, secrets in the works of the Masters, and the mystery of the Holy Grail have all been out there and discussed for all of my lifetime and for centuries before, I'm sure. Brown deserves a lot of credit for putting them together so cleverly in modern mystery form. If he'd taken the same care with the second half of his novel as he did with the beginning we might be looking at a work of the stature of Follett's "Pillars of the Earth", instead we're left with a good detective story that gets just a little zany towards the end. All of the above said, it is a page-turner and deserves three stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Not As Good As Everyone Says...Maybe
Review: Much has been written about this book in the over 2100 reviews that come before mine. I thought that I would try to help in this review with who the book would appeal to and who it might not appeal to, as it did not appeal to me. I think that you would enjoy this book IF you are interested in conspiracy theories, have a religious faith that is perhaps a part of your life but not the CENTRAL part of your life, or have no religious faith at all. If you are interested in paganism, animism, or the occult, I think it will have an appeal. In addition, I think that if you read mostly fiction, and very little nonfiction, it might tend to appeal more to you also. In my book club many intelligent and educated people liked it, which was a little surprising to me; however they were people open to ideas such as the goddess religions, animistic and pagan religions, etc. I think you will not enjoy this book if your Christian faith (especially if you are Catholic) is THE central defining part of your life. You may even find it offensive, as I did. For example, the main character spends time explaining in a question and answer format with naive questions from his supporting female character how Christians throughout the ages have been deceived by the Catholic Church (which of course was the only Christian church until the Protestant Reformation) and how all educated academicians in the know realize this. This way of writing, this particular literary device, being used by the author to further his negative beliefs about Christianity and his belief in conspiracy theories and paganism---it just bothered me. Other parts of the book are spent explaining (in the context of the story) how certain pagan symbols that some of us find so offensive (like pentagrams, or ritualistic sex as part of our religious faith) are actually perfectly natural and quite misunderstood by the Christians of today, those of us who have been deceived and just can't understand the truth. If this ideal is provocative and compelling to you, you will LOVE this book! If you are like me and think "I don't think this is how I want to spend my time" then you will probably give the book a strong thumbs down. I kept wanting it to get good, or interesting, or for it to be a "page turner". I had bought it for myself in hardcover and for my father too (a Catholic) for Christmas. I wanted this book to be good...but it fell so far short for me. The hugest letdown was at the end, because I felt like it really didn't deliver on any level. I want to be fair, because people are raving about it everywhere, but I can honestly say that I don't know why. I read about five books a week, and this is the worst one I've read in a long time. I stuck with it because it's #1 on Amazon. I guess the only good thing I can think of to say about it is that if you want a good reason to think that fundamentalist Christians or devout Catholics are silly, uninformed, and a little stupid, and at the same time, you're interested in integrating some pagan/animistic thinking into your life, you've found an explanation, albeit a kind of boring one, to read about.
Rating:
Summary: OVERRATED.
Review: Much hype is surrounding Dan Brown's latest novel, The Da Vinci Code. It has been on the NY Times Best Sellers' list for months now, and quite frankly, I'm growing a bit weary. Not a day had passed where I could enter a classroom without seeing girls turning the pages of the book. But I ask, why the enthusiasm? If you haven't read this adversity, I suggest you atleast read its predecessor Angels and Demons. It introduces you to the hero himself Robert Langdon. After a comparsion of the two novels, Da Vinci falls flat on its title page. Although a smart business move (which is what we all try to achieve if our aim is to receive an ounce of profit), does it compromise artistic integrity? Brown has found a niche for himself and he seems to capitalize it. Perhaps it'll gain you attention for the next piece you publish, but he's in the process of writing yet another with Langdon. Gimmicky? Appears so to me. Where as Angels had the suspense and the intelligence, Da Vinci barely touches the bar raised by it's mother book. I suppose it could possibly be the setting, the time frame Langdon is given in the two novels--and the dire consequence. Whereas he has a tenuous 10-some hours to save the Vatican from explosion--that's Botticelli, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Bernini all being shatterned to fragments before our very eyes--he isn't faced with the same plight in Da Vinci. I've found that with each page I am engorged in useless tidbits of relgious + art history, Da Vinci only provided me the knowledge of the hand in Last Supper. I was never the Leonardo fan myself, as I preferred Raphael and of course Botticelli, so perhaps some bias is relevant. However, the abeyance of Angels is what keeps the reader's interest, and it's sadly missed in Da Vinci. If you haven't read Angels + Demons and had been planning on reading The Da Vinci Code--and you do not wish to be spoiled by Dan Brown's intelligent, although a bit limiting move--then by all means, read The Da Vinci Code. But if your goal is to read a book laden with stimulating, purchase the previous. Your wallet will thank you.
Rating:
Summary: Bad Manners
Review: Much of this book is based on the work of Picknett & Price (Templar Revelations, 1977). Inter alia, it was they who first proposed that Mary Magdalene might be found in The Last Supper, and whose first Chapter is called, "The Secret Code of Leonardo da Vinci'. Surely it would have been polite for Dan Brown to acknowledge their work rather than passing off the idea as his own? I would have though that Dan Brown might owe them at least an apology? If not, the words "shameless rip-off" spring to mind!
Rating: 
Summary: A Man! A Plan! A Sequel!
Review: Murder Mystery or Heretical Revelation?
This book is a great page turner because it can be understood on at least three levels: 1. Murder Mystery
In the great tradition of Agatha Christie (suspense and erudition) and written in the style of Tom Clancy (i.e., jumping from one uncompleted scene to another as they rush toward each other), The Da Vinci Code makes great reading. Interesting, sympathetic characters are caught in a convoluted web that they fight to unravel, with the reader's full involvement. 2. Scholasticism
The iconography, particularly of Da Vinci of course, but to one extent or another all of Christendom, Judaism and their Pagan antecedents is touched on in an intriguing and interestingly informative way. Plus, who knew that "sub rosa" came from a kind of Roman mistletoe for secret meetings; or that "gargoyle" is derived from the word to "gargle"? A lot of study went into this work, and it is presented in a very readable way. 3. Historical Fact
Here, each must come to their own conclusions. The basic story is that in the year 32 AD, a pregnant woman (Mary Magdalene) walked from Roman Palestine to modern-day France, where she was sheltered by a colony of Jews who accepted her child as the descendant of the Messiah. Oh! And maybe Walt Disney was in on the secret later on, along with less amazing personages as the Knights Templar. And, of course, Leonardo Da Vinci. The mind reels. Everybody loves a cabal. Cabals are fun. The Holy Grail is fun. Hermann Hesse is fun. Umberto Eco is fun. The Da Vinci Code is fun (and erudite), but let's just leave it at that ... except that, after all our page turning, we don't actually find the Grail! So there must be a sequel, no? It will probably be worth reading, too. Have fun.
Rating: 
Summary: ONE OF THE 2 BEST BOOKS EVER!
Review: Murder, mystery, intrigue, ancient secrets deciphered with modern tools--Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code has it all. If you read just one book this year--make it The Da Vinci Code. If you read two--add John Robert Marlow's Nano to your list; the description above fits both books, and I couldn't put either one down!
Rating:
Summary: Nonstop Scavenger Hunt, Chase Scene
Review: Museum curator Jacques Saunière is running for his life. In the Grand Gallery of the Louvre he rips a painting from the wall, an alarm goes off, bars clang down, sealing him in and away from his attacker, an albino named Silas, but the attacker shoots him through the bars, wounding him. Silas is after a centuries old secret and he offers to spare Saunière if he talks, Saunière lies, but the lie is a good one and the Albino believes him, then leaves him to die with a belly wound. Jacques is desperate to pass his secret on, but only to his granddaughter, Sophie Neveu, a cryptographer with the DCPJ (Direction Centrale Police Judiciaire) the Judicial Police, the French equivalent of the FBI. So he uses his remaining few minutes to strip naked, then he draws a circle around himself with an ultraviolet pen and positions himself like DaVinci's most famous drawing, "The Vitruvian Man," knowing Sophie will see his body and figure out his first of many clues. The Judicial Police summon Robert Langdon, a Harvard Professor of Religious Symbology, who is lecturing in Paris, to interpret the crime scene, but unknown to Langdon, they suspect him as he was supposed to meet with Saunière later that evening. Sophie gets Langdon away from the cops and thus begins a book long scavenger hunt, chase scene that you'll be telling your friends about for months to come. I'm sitting here at my iBook trying to think of how best to describe Dan Brown's writing. It's fast, sure. Historically accurate, yes. Descriptive, without a doubt. But none of that really gets across what I'm trying to say. Maybe I can make a comparison, Dan Brown writes like a cross between a young Robert Ludlum on speed and a young Frederick Forsyth on steroids. There is a reason why this book is the worldwide, number one bestseller, and if you haven't read it yet, you should. Reviewed by Captain Katie Osborne
Rating:
Summary: A fun airplane read, but don't take it too seriously!
Review: My cousin raved about this book and suggested that I would love it since I'm a bit of a Renaissance buff. Like the other reviewers, I found this an entertaining page-turner, but I'm a bit surprised to see references to his "impeccable research" since I recognized a number of inaccuracies off the bat and cursory research revealed several more. His stretches and distortions of history are forgivable--after all, it's a suspense novel, not a scholarly treatise--but it's a bit disturbing to see the faith with which readers embrace his dubious assertions. By all means, enjoy the story, but take everything with a grain of salt. And don't read it if you're already knowledgeable about cryptography or religious symbolism and are easily irritated, since the cryptographer and symbologist make an excessive to-do over some fairly simple allusions. I guess it adds to the thrill to be able to feel smug about solving all the puzzles before the experts. Brown manages to make cabbalistic mysteries transparent and accessible, which is a logical contradiction, but what the heck, it's fun. However, I can't resist quoting Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" (which covers the same territory with defiantly inaccessible flair): "The lunatic is all idee fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars."
Rating:
Summary: Good read, weak ending.
Review: My fingers bled from turning the pages so fast, but when I got to the end, I was disappointed. My hopes were built up throughout the book through amazing storytelling and compelling chapter endings that kept me reading through the night. The search for the Grail kept me enthralled, with clue after clue leading me on the journey along with the characters. Then with about 50 pages left, it all unravelled with a sappy ending that leveraged the author's power to instantly manipuliate his characters to fit a pre-conceived climax. Overall, it's an anticlimactic, but exciting way to pass a weekend.
Rating:
Summary: Dan Brown is brillant
Review: My first experience with Dan Brown was with Angels and Demons (another brillant novel). The Da Vinci Code is superb. Dan Brown has a consistent ability to integrate factual information in a fictious plot...something that I have never seen in an author. I find myself talking using the facts in his books as conversational pieces. I am and always will be a Dan Brown fan. Go and read this book!
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