The Da Vinci Code

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Summary: The Da Vinci Code
Review: The Da Vinci Code is like no other book I have read. Its been beautifully crafted by an amazing author name Dan Brown. Dan Brown really grabbed my attention by showing how well researched his book is. He has stunned me by showing how well he can develop characters, so many twists, and so much action in the course of a day. The Da Vinci Code boldly marches into the grounds of religious symbology, secret brotherhoods, and science only to mesmerize the reader with information and mind-blowing code.

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Summary: Fabulous Book!
Review: The Da Vinci Code is one of the most amazing books I've read. It has so many facts. This book is a marvelous suspense story that absolutely shocks you with its ending. I strongly recommend this book. Trust me, its GOOD!

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Summary: Easily one of the top 5 books I've ever read!
Review: The Da Vinci Code is one of the top 5 books that I've ever read. I need to catch up on my reviews here at Amazon.com, but I've read all the John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Clive Cussler, Dale Brown, Stephen Coonts, Nelson DeMille novels to give you an idea of my tastes.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time - I had to take a break between mowing my front and back lawns to read another chapter on the first day, if that gives you an idea!

I simply could not put this book down. The symbolism, history, religious background, the ideology of the theme really blew me away. The book not only has inspired me to learn more about PHI, Leonardo Fibonnaci, Leonardo Da Vinci, the Crusades, and Western European history - but it has really sparked my imagination about historical events in general.

All-in-all, this is a great book. I wish I could give this a rating of six stars!

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Summary: Hope the Movie's Better
Review: The Da Vinci Code is one of those books that would make a much better movie. In fact, as a high school aged reader, I found myself picturing a movie during the whole time I was reading the book. So, when I found out that a film based on Dan Brown's novel was going to be made into a movie, directed by Ron Howard, I couldn't have been more pleased. I will be excited to see the movie version of the book because the book had a terrific plot, but sadly, it lagged in parts from the monotonous writing of Dan Brown. The movie could make up for that major weakness in the book.

The Da Vinci code starts out extremely compelling. The curator of the Louvre in Paris has been killed by an unknown assailant and the police are after Harvard professor Robert Langdon because a code next to his dead body says, "O, Draconian Devil! Oh, lame saint! P.S. Find Robert Langdon." Robert Langdon and a cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, are then racing against an enemy to find out a secret that a group, The Priory of Sion, have been hiding from the world for hundreds of years.

Parts of this book are actually very well done. One could clearly picture the characters and they seemed like real people. I also enjoyed the clues and word puzzles as they were very well done and challenging to figure out. The book raised some interesting topics about the bible, Mary Magdalene, and the Holy Grail. The book also had many plot twists and so one never knew what was coming next.

While reading the book, it seemed to me that the author ran out of steam about two thirds of the way through. Dan Brown includes chapters on events as pointless to the plot as Langdon and Neveu going to a library. To me, this is a sign he was just trying to fill up space. The book has some very interesting information, some of which is made up by the author and some of which is based on fact. But one has a hard time believing the facts that the author does have information to support because the facts are mixed in with a great deal of fiction.

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Summary: Predictable and Heretical Trash
Review: The Da Vinci Code is quite honestly the worst book I have ever had the misfortune of reading. Dan Brown's success results only from his discussion of the Holy Grail and an interpretation of that mystery which most people have never heard. That is where the merit of this novel ends. It is bascially a cookie-cutter novel in the mold of a Michael Crichton or Nelson DeMille novel without the former's frighteningly believeable scenarios or the latter's character depth. Mr Brown's writing is about on par with Danielle Steele; he tries to manufacture suspense when none is necessary, and key plot points are disapointingly predicatable.
The complete lack of style would not have bothered me had it not been for his argument for moral relativism. When I say this work is heretical I am not referring to his treatment of Mary Magdalene. Personally I dont think what he has to say about her is too theologically important. What bothers me is that he makes the same argument Kevin Lomax makes in Devil's Advocate, an argument that denies the existence of right and wrong. By having people take part in pagan rituals, and then anouncing they are practicing the correct form of christianity suppressed by the catholic church, he reveals his disgustingly relativistic outlook. Brown is just one more whiner blaming the catholic church for all of the world's problems and is unable to get even his own facts straight(see the review "Constantine spoke English"). His argument that the church has suppressed "Goddess" worship for two thousand years is ludicrous. Has he ever heard of the cult of the Virgin? It is no mistake that their is no mention of Notre Dame in his description of Paris. The most famous Cathedral in the world being named after a woman is a serious blow to his argument. Keep in mind that the reverence catholics held for Mary is one of the key complaints many protestant groups voiced before splitting from the church.

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Summary: A Major Paradigm Shift or The Emperor's New Clothes?
Review: The Da Vinci Code is really a very well written book. It has been passed through my family and we have all enjoyed the story. It is a fast-paced thriller whose short chapters are a quick read, lending itself very well to the pace of the plot. It puts itself easily at the top of other Catholic Church "conspiracy theories", both in book and movie. (I always liked John Carpenter's movie, The Prince of Darkness.)

This central theme is that the Catholic Church has something to hide. This theme has created some really interesting books and some of which have become best sellers based on the current climate of the priesthood. This book is well-timed to capitalize.

Though this book is a fictional thriller, it makes a fascinating claim at the beginning. Before a single word is written of the plot, the author declares that aside from the story, all facts are true! In reading this book, one is easily captivated by the claims and mesmerized at how these facts are unfolded and presented. The presentation of facts is half the thriller! However, after quite a dose of these 'facts' mixed in with the plot, the reader starts to get the sense that the plot itself is secondary. Most everyone I know who has read the book has begun to question some of the fundamental prevailing paradigms. I must say that I am most disappointed with the book is its lack of a substantial bibliography (nay, the lack of ANY bibliography) to back up these 'facts'. (I read "The Sign and The Seal" and was highly impressed with research of G. Hancock in backing up his statements.) The only referenced books are part of the story with the earliest dating only 30 years prior. (I must say I was expecting books from the 300-500 AD based on the book's claims, certainly not contemporaries or cronies!) Also I believe it will be apparent to others as well that also share a limited view of Christian history (but took at least one History of Civ class) even timelines are inaccurate. One item of note, that I caught easily, was Constantine's famous Edict in which he decides to end christian persecutions and basically making the Roman Empire a religious tolerant 'state'-- but never declared christianity the 'official religion of the empire' as claimed in the book. Since I am not up on my christian history, it was also easy to find online a copy what happened at the Council of Nicea. The book states that christians at this Council voted on if Jesus was God or not, and that they voted by a very narrow margin that they would think that he is. This is FAR from the truth! What they actually voted on (visit a non-Catholic site for an impartial view) is if they thought he was a MAN! AND the vote was not even close, 218-2! These are two very simple examples of 5 minutes of work online that show his claims of 'authentic historical facts' are grossly inaccurate. If the simple facts are misrepresented, what of the ones more difficult to find? I am definitely open to the potential truth, but find it hard to even entertain without documentation. I have since checked the other books that he listed internally for reference, but they conveniently are missing bibliographies as well. I was left wanting more information, but left feeling it was fanciful gossip on a playground. I guess I should not complain too greatly and probably why I was duped so easily. It is my own fault, really. It is, after all, listed in 'Fiction'.

ps. ABC seemed to waste time on the subject and the info is listed here: http://slate.msn.com/id/2090640/.

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Summary: You will not believe how bad this book is.
Review: The Da Vinci Code is really two different books pushed together. One of the books is awful and the other is unbelievable. The awful part of the book is the thriller. The main characters, like all main characters, are trying to uncover a mystery while be chased around by an appropriately bizarre killer (a super-strong albino Catholic fanatic). This part relies on some of the oldest cliches in mystery/thriller writing, including the dying man leaving obscure clues as to who killed him instead of just writing the killer's name. He supposedly doesn't do the latter because the killer might be watching him, but his behavior in leaving clues behind is so bizarre that if his killer was watching he would have to realize something was going on.

For a thriller to work, we need to care something about the characters. That's impossible here because the main characters have no personalities. One is a man and one a woman, but there doesn't seem to be the slightest thing interesting about them. They are in no way distinctive human beings. There are comic book characters with more depth than the ones you find here.

Thrillers of course turn on the characters trying to uncover some mystery, or acquire something that someone evil wants. That gives the writer the excuse to have his characters being chased around, shot at etc. until the conclusion. Alfred Hitchcock famously referred to the thing that is being fought over as a "McGuffin."

Normally no one cares that much about the McGuffin. Here, the McGuffin takes over the entire book. The McGuffin here is the Holy Grail, which is very different than any would think who knows it only from Arthurian romances. And it is Brown's explication of what the Holy Grail "really" is about that is driving the sales of the books. Brown bases his theory on sources that have been known to be false for centuries. However, it appeals to a certain segment of the population, and most people will uncriticly accept what he has to say. For anyone with access to archives of the New York Times Book Review section, I suggest that they read the back of the Book Review for 2/22/04 for more on Brown's sources.

Normally I wouldn't care about what wacky McGuffin the characters in a thriller were chasing -- I like the X Files for years without ever believing in aliens -- but here it is Brown's statements about the Holy Grail that are responsible for the success of the book. This success is not deserved.

I gave this book 1 star only because Amazon does not allow you to give a book no stars.

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Summary: Poor plotting plus author's bias equals bad book
Review: The Da Vinci Code is suffused with bias against Christiantiy and the Catholic Church, in particular. The author's plotting is contrived and ridiculous; the ending is particularly weak. Too bad, because the potential was there for an interesting story.

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Summary: Da Vinci Code Review
Review: The Da Vinci Code is superb! Not only does it have an excellent story line, but the theory and facts were so interesting I was compelled to do more research upon completion of the the book. It was so good that my boyfriend and I almost got into an argument overview who was going to read the book, while reading the same book at the same time. Overall, it was an excellent and informative book that challenges some of the principles of Christianity. If you are a person who seeks unconventional thought and information, this book is a must read!

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Summary: Good writing versus bad history and controversial thesis.
Review: THE DA VINCI CODE is the 2nd book in a series of books surrounding the character of Robert Langdon. Langdon made his first appearance in ANGELS AND DEMONS and not only single-handedly saved the world, but helped "reform" the Catholic church as well. Superman might be able to fly and see through walls, the X-Men can do all sorts of superhuman feats because of their mutant genes, and Batman protects Gotham City because of the very technological (and expensive) gadgets at his disposal, but all these superheroes would be hard pressed to match the mastermind and wit of Harvard symbologist, Robert Langdon. In ANGELS AND DEMONS he saved the world in less than 24 hours. In THE DA VINCI CODE Langdon's on a quest even more important than saving the world.

THE DA VINCI CODE begins about a year after the events of ANGELS AND DEMONS have taken place (don't be alarmed if you haven't read ANGELS AND DEMONS, references to the events of that book are few and far between). Robert Langdon is in his hotel room in Paris when he is disturbed by the arrival of Captain Bezu Fache. Langdon is informed that there has been a murder at the Louvre and that his expertise is needed in helping solve the crime. As it turns out, Fache strongly suspects Langdon of the crime and is hoping that Langdon's assistance will be his own undoing--ala the Columbo technique. Unfortunately for Fache, the murdered museum's curator has left a message behind for his granddaughter, Sophie Neveu, a code breaker on the Paris police force. The message leads Sophie to assist Langdon in his escape and thus begins another 24-hour adventure that takes Langdon across France and to England in search of one of the greatest historical and archeological discoveries of all time: the "Holy Grail."

Despite a series of murders and a mysterious albino priest, THE DA VINCI CODE actually moves fairly slowly in the beginning. The first half of the book tends to jump around a lot and includes a lot of exposition. It isn't until Langdon and Sophie leave the Lourve and head towards the Swiss bank that things begin to pick up. The book then moves at a modest pace until the duo meet up with Sir Leigh Teabing. Once he reveals the "big secret" the book becomes a page turner until the end.

As far as writing styles go, THE DA VINCI CODE isn't all that great. It's a decent mystery/suspense novel and some of the imagery in the book is fairly descriptive, especially the more "action" oriented passages. However, THE DA VINCI CODE isn't written as well as ANGELS AND DEMONS. That book, though a piece of pop literia as well, was fairly tight with enough diversions to forgive the plot holes and discrepancies. THE DA VINCI CODE isn't like that. It's patterned after ANGELS AND DEMONS and like most sequels, it's just not as good.

Now, as for the theme of the novel, I'm not sure why this book has taken off the way it has because overall it's just an average mystery/suspense novel. The book does present a very controversial idea-that Jesus wasn't the Son of God, that he married Mary Magdalene, they had children, and their descendants are still alive today. Combined with ideas presented in ANGELS AND DEMONS, it does seem that Brown as an agenda to debunk the Christin faith. He does an interesting job of mixing a tad historical facts; lots of fiction, conspiracy theories, and suppositions; and a whole lot of cultural references to make the idea seem not only plausible, but also believable. To make the theme seem even more believable he takes an idea from satiric and comic writers and introduces a statement at the beginning of the book that says something to the effect that "all the organizations, histories, descriptions, etc. within this book are true and based on fact". The majority of the book has about as much fact in it as William Golding put in THE PRINCESS BRIDE.

Overall, an average mystery/action/suspense novel with a very controversial proposal that makes for interesting fiction, but has no basis in fact.