Rating: 
Summary: Fun, Freaky, with some accurate facts . . .
Review: The Da Vinci Code captured my imagination. Only part of my infactuation was because of the plot. Even more engaging is the
play the author gives to various facts, partial facts, and yes,
probably some questionable statements. Look at "The Last Supper", and tell me whether you see a woman, instead of James.
If you are totally accepting of the orthodox, or fundamentalist
views of Christianity, then this book is not for you.
Rating:
Summary: New Look At Feminism
Review: The Da Vinci Code Doubleday, 2003, 454pp., $24.95
Dan Brown IBSN 0-3-85-50420-9 Though out history, we have looked upon the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton and many others as creative geniuses. In The Da Vinci Code, we take a closer look at those works of art and the message behind them. Harvard Historian Robert Langdon is visiting Paris while giving a lecture. Late one night, he receives a phone call demanding that he come to the Louver, on of the most famous art museums in the world. A murder has been committed, and whether Langdon knows it or not, he's the main suspect. Enter Sophie Neveu, a young cryptinologist who is the granddaughter of the man who was murdered. She has no idea who killed her grandfather or why, just that she knows Langdon could not have killed him. Overwhelmed with guilt, Sophie decides to trust Langdon and together they embark along a journey to find out what the mysterious message meant that her grandfather wrote in his final moments. Along the way, Sophie and Langdon discover an age old secret dating back to the time of Christ. This secret threatens not only their lives, but the Catholic Church's legacy. The Da Vinci Code had me interested from the time I finished the first sentence. You could tell that Dan Brown had done his research from the way he brought to life past artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci in a way that made me want to see the works of art with my own eyes. But what really had me amazed was the way Brown turned one night into a 400 page book. Thanks to Dan Brown, I look differently at issues such as feminism and I am able to believe in my faith enough to question it.
Rating: 
Summary: Take Only As Directed
Review: The Da Vinci Code follows the model that Dan Brown set in Angels and Demons. Robert Langdon, ostensibly a symbologist, visits Paris, where he is dragged into the investigation of a killing - not as a consultant, but as a suspect. In the Louvre lies the body of a famous curator, with Langdon's name beside the body. The sudden appearance of the curator's daughter triggers the opening glimpses of a plot nearly 2,000 years old and Langdon finds himself fleeing for his life across Europe with the beautiful Sophia. As the story deepens we discover that Sauniere's death was the opening salvo in a renewed conflict between the Priory of Sion and the Catholic Church. The target is the grail and its unlimited power. Typical of a Brown story, the plot unfolds frantically of a short time window (no one every sleeps in Dan Brown novel). Be prepared for a short course in the alternative history of Christianity and the forces around it. Brown creates the basis of his plot out of all the paranoid plots of the ancient world, as well as drawing heavily on some of the Catholic Church's less salient moments. I wouldn't say that the book is totally anti-Church, but a very grim picture is painted of both the origins of modern Christianity in the Council of Nicaea, and the present day Opus Dei movement. To say that this is controversial is to understate the point. Despite Brown's tendency to be overly didactic (everything gets explained in excruciating detail), the book is much better written than its predecessor. Adventure/suspense stories are rarely stages for much character development, and this is no exception. But in terms of a continuous flow of action and an intricate plot with countless twists, the book is quite readable. Keep in mind that Brown has woven this story out of an unlimited number of legends and half-truths. In other words, don't take it seriously or mistake the book for an attempt to defame the religious. Don't make it any more real than it actually is.
Rating: 
Summary: Great beginning, soap opera ending
Review: The Da Vinci Code got off to a great start and made for a gripping read for the first hundred pages. However, after that it became a little "same old twist-ish". After developing a wonderful plot around a very believable alternate history, it seems Brown got tired and just decided to quickly tie up some loose ends. Without giving any names or giving away the ending, my major gripe is that, there was no explanation for why those characters who had been painted as potential "behind the scenes" masterminds were suddenly the good guys at the end. The ending (all of twenty pages) seemed to be a "let me just finish this book". The entire story could have been condensed to half its current size in which case the ending may not have seemed like such an implausible soap opera. After developing a whole host of characters in the first two hundred plus pages, he suddenly needs two new characters to finish off the story! Quite disappointing for a book that could have been filled with intrigue.
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: An escapist's dream
Review: THE DA VINCI CODE has been on the top of the best-seller list for so long that I finally decided to read it and see why. The story of the book is common knowledge by this time so that much of the mystery author Dan Brown traces so well is now a bit passe. But THE DA VINCI CODE brings to light a few important lessons that inform about the reading public: first, there is obviously a large audience for 'who-dunnit' mysteries, second, there must be at least a little interest in matters ecclesiastic for a novel based on the Catholic Church/Knights Templar/Holy Grail/Opus Dei etc, and third (thankfully) there is evidence that the public is willing to dig in to a bit of art history and controversy that is in fact much more interesting that the information in the media today. As far as a book is concerned, Dan Brown begins his "Novel" with a FACT sheet: "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals [Opus Dei, Priory of Sion, Vatican, etc]in this novel are accurate". That alone makes this book in evidence of a lot of research. The action takes place in approximately 24 hours but the pace of the tale from France to England and back is breathless. While the delivery of the story is at the speed of breaking the sound barrier, with the accompanying 'can't-put-it-down' reading situation, Brown doesn't really write with elegant prose, or make his caper characters much more than chessboard pawns as far as fleshing them out into people about whom we care. This is not a book for those who love to languish in the beauty of the English language: there are no truly memorable passages that beg to be re-read because of their beauty of expression. But given that, this is an obvious crowd pleaser and seems a sure bet for a movie - if Mel Gibson's PASSION doesn't steal all its thunder. Writers write for different reasons; readers seek books for different needs. THE DA VINCI CODE is a fine escapist route to take on a plane trip or to devour when the world is too much with us. Great literature it is not - and that really is OK!
Rating:
Summary: What's all the fuss about?
Review: The Da Vinci Code has dominated the NYT best-seller list for weeks and weeks, but it's a little hard to see why. Yes, it's entertaining. But I find cloaking the mystery in a pseudo-intellectual romp through art history and church history a little tedious (the inaccuracies have rightly been pointed out). More to the point--and what I haven't seen mentioned in other Amazon reviews--is that the writing is labored, contrived, and frequently cliche-ridden. There are far too many cliff-hangers; the device becomes tiresome. As a puzzle, I found the book more maddening than fun. At one point, two quite intelligent characters are utterly bamboozled by something I saw immediately, and that wasn't so surprising in a book whose backdrop is Leonardo da Vinci (I won't say more in case you read this book yourself).
The tale is too complex, and so it bogs down. It's not surprising that people find the ending a bit of a let-down; Brown writes himself into a terrible corner with not much of a way to get out.
Perhaps the appeal is the idea that "people who know" are keeping things from us: sooner or later, we're all attracted to a good conspiracy. Those who read this book and forget that the work is ENTIRELY fiction are not all to blame: the story is couched in believable--if preposterous--terms. But don't be fooled. There is very little genuine history here. Leonardo did write backwards in his notebooks, and the Mona Lisa is an intriguing painting (speculation about its subject has been rampant all through art history). There was a Priory of Sion and Templar Knights, and Opus Dei and the Catholic Church are of course real. The rest is pretty much the work of the author's imagination.
Read it for fun--if you don't start getting an aneurism from all the cliff-hangers--but don't think you're reading serious symbology, iconography, art history, or any truth about ancient secret societies. And if you must read it, borrow a copy from the library or from a friend who's through with it. Everyone has made enough money off of this bunkum for now.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate 3P
Review: The Da Vinci Code has thrown not only its author, Dan Brown, into literary superstardom, it has also thrown the various topics of symbolism, secret societies, hidden Christian history, and wild theories of the lineage of Christ into a whirlwind of media frenzy. The Da Vinci Code contains many elements that have provoked the Church to wrath and infuriated those opposed to the theories presented here, but for all the information contained in this book it is still just that- a thriller, fiction novel that is expertly written and entertains us for as long as we take reading this book (I devoured it in 5 hours). This book is what I call the ultimate 3P. It contains the 3 "P's" that I consider necessary to a good fiction read. 1. PAGE-turner. Dan Brown keeps you literally on the edge of your seat, and sometimes you fall off of it! With high tension, information unfolding at exactly the right place, and your brain nearly exploding you learn so much, it is definitely a page turner. 2. thought-PROVOKER. So many ideologies and facts are presented! Dan Brown has done his homework, he is clearly quite the expert in this particular field of writing. Many will find the ideologies here heretical and offensive. As a Christian reading this book, I took it for what it was- excellent fiction that presented me with a lot I could learn and use, and a lot (ie the lineage, etc.) that I could do without, but that was entertaining in its fictional context. 3. PURE excitement. This book was so much fun to read!!! You quickly not only care about the characters, but you care abou the cause they are pursuing. The characters are over the top in their actions and beliefs and that is refreshing and just fun to experience. Overall, very well written. Very fun to read, excellent information provided....but take it for what it's worth. 5 hours (or more) of fun escapism into a fictional world. JK
Rating:
Summary: An American in Paris
Review: The Da Vinci Code has to be one of the most remarkable books I've read. It is a wonderful -- and very effective -- mix of history, mystery, action, puzzles and suspense. The pace is so powerful, the book just wouldn't let go! The storyline is almost to brilliant to conceive, the sheer genius and fascinating craftsmanship that Dan Brown uses in his book are breath-taking.
The idea behind the story may seem controversial, but once you think about it, it really does become quite real and even natural.
Don't rob yourself of the joy -- grab the book before it's sold out!
Rating:
Summary: THE DESPOSYNI
Review: THE DA VINCI CODE incorporates the suppressed history of
THE DESPOSYNI, Jesus (Yeshua)'s family & blood-relatives, who
were dismissed/dispossessed/and excluded from the Church in
318 C.E. by Roman Emperor Constatine's henchman, Pope Sylvester.
Too, from the time of the 1st-century through the 5th-century,
Roman garrisons hunted down THE DESPOSYNI as outlaws putting to
sword those they captured--Rome even set about purposefully
burning & destroying the genealogies/records of THE DESPOSYNI trying to eradicate them from the face of the earth. Yet,
this major piece of history is absent from our pro-Roman/
Roman-friendly history textbooks our schools and is conviently
excluded from our Standard Christian Reference Works. Again,
author Dan Brown, thank you for brining to the public's
attention this Roman suppressed history of THE DESPOSYNI/
THE HOLY GRAIL which is the "GOSPEL OF CIRCUMCISION/CIRCUMCISED"
referenced in the canon New Testament books of Acts (the Council of Jerusalem) & Galatians. --Gregory Thompson (MacTavish) p.s.: as a supplement to THE DA VINCI CODE, regards THE DESPOSYNI, I recommend: Eusebuius's ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY;
Julius Africanus "LETTER TO ARISTIDES"; BLOODLINE OF THE HOLY
GRAIL by Sir Laurence Gardner (1996); and REX DEUS by Marilyn
Hopkins, Graham Simmans, & Tim Wallace Murphy (2000)--as well
as, THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN CHURCH by Fr. Malachi
Martin (1981), a JESUIT PRIEST & Vatican-insider.
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