Rating: 
Summary: A thrilling ride on a run away train!
Review: The DaVinci Code was one of the most entertaining and intriguing books I have ever read, and I read a lot! After reading this book I went back to the book store to purchase every other book that Dan Brown has written. I liked them all; DaVinci Code being my favorite. I cannot wait for his next book to be published. As a work of fiction that includes some historical fact, I found it to be so compelling and stimulating that I may read it again just for the thrill of it.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Great Thriller!!!!
Review: The DaVinci Code....Everybody and their mother has read this book, or have heard about it. The DaVinci Code starts out with a murder! The murder is done by a albano man named Silas who is looking for what Jaques knows; about a sacared item that has been looked for thousands of years! Now comes in Robert Langdon, a Harvard teacher who is in Paris for a lecture about Leonard DaVinci, and now he is led to the muder scene in a famous art museum, and there is a message left by Jaques: 13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5
O, Draconian devil!
Oh, lame saint! Now, the Paris Police call in Sophie, a cryptologist who is called in to break the code, but to no luck, she cant. So Sophie wants Robert to call the American Embassy, and warning him that he is in grave danger. So Robert heads to the bathroom, and Sophie tells him that the Paris Police has him as the MURDER SUSPECT! Also they are keeping him tracked by a GPS device, so Sophie takes the device, puts it on a bar of soap, and throws it into a truck outside the window. So now the chase is on, also there was another message that the Paris Police cleaned up: P.S. Find Robert Landon. It also turns out that Jaques is Sophie's grandfather, and also a member of a secret society with members of Leonard DaVinci, Sir Issac Newton, Galieo, and the list goes on. Also they discover that this secret society knows where the Holy Grail is! Now the chase is on to find a hidden code in Leonardo DaVinci's work, and in his work is the destination of the Holy Grail, also they are not the only people looking for the Grail; Silas and a preacher he calls The Teacher. Now not only are they surrounded by this mystery, but they are also against time to find one of History's greatest treasurers!
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting Premise....Cardboard Characters...
Review: The Di Vinci Code is a murder mystery that starts out fast paced and easily pulls the reader into its exciting plot, but somehow falls short of expectations by the end. Don't get me wrong, it is a good summer/beach read but I found the writing predictable, hollow and at points very melodramatic. If your looking for good writing look elsewhere. If your looking for fast paced, Hollywood style characters and a plot with an interesting premise this book is the one.
The books two main characters Robert Langdon a symbologist and Sophie Neveu a cryptologist meet in an unlikely way; at the murder scene of her grandfather. The story runs away from there when the two discover an ancient secret tied up with a centuries old society that worships the goddess. On the run from the police, Sophie and Robert on limited time try to figure out the code and discover what is hidden. Interesting enough characters to begin with, but they are never really developed and fall into a predictable sequence of boy meets girl patterns. Other characters in the story include; an albino monk, a knight named Sir Leigh Teabing, a bulldog French police captain and a mysterious, faceless character called "the teacher." The greatest strength is the research and attention to detail that Brown uses in his plot. It is fascinating, to read about Da Vinci, the Priory of Scion, Opus Dei and the hundreds of details he works into the plot on religious and pagan symbols. An interesting, fast read but a bit slow during the second half of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Suspenseful & Intelligent--But a COP-OUT ENDING!!!
Review: The ending of this book left me so disappointed and frustrated. What a cop out! The book was brilliant, had me enthralled the whole way through, but to follow a journey to unearth something for 450 pages, sharing the vicarious thrill of each new discovery leading to the location of that something, and then at the very end, to neatly avoid any kind of revelation with a touchy-feely 'Oh, actually, it's better if people DON'T learn the truth--it's better if we DON'T unearth this amazing historical, groundbreaking treasure we've been searching for because people are probably happier not knowing.' HUH??? Talk about the coward's way out--both for the author AND the protagonist. I really could not believe the author did that to the reader...then again, it makes sense if what's on his mind is just cranking out sequels about this character. In other words, if the Da Vinci Code had actually followed through with its groundbreaking discovery, the world and the church would be a different place than it is now, and maybe Dan Brown is not comfortable trying to write sequels in a setting that seems abstract to him. But all I thought at the end of this book was that I had been strung along for NOTHING--and furthermore, I will not put myself through it again with Angels & Demons, which is going right back to the store!
Rating:
Summary: Great Concept and Execution
Review: The excellent way Brown leaves cookie-crumb style clues are worth the read alone. Add the scandle-of-the-ages subtext, and this is a weekend "finish at all costs" adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: ha ha ha
Review: The fact that this book is so popular is because it is so infantile and general that it appeals to the very general public. It's a successful heresy in paper though, because the general public seems to easily accept such follies presented in a novel. Such an untruth as the idea that Christ was married to Mary Magdalene is laughable. This is a novel by a foolish anti-Catholic upstart. Only fools can be swayed by lies in mystery novels.
Rating:
Summary: Controversial and Clever
Review: The fascinating aspect of this book is the author's brilliant weaving of fact, conspiracy, and fiction. Most reviews I've seen on this book are either highly positive, or highly negative. That is due to the contraversial theories presented, and because the author presents them with known facts or ideas, the reader begins to wonder how much of the story is actually fiction. The book is dotted with mathematical theories and versions of history that I was not privvy to, which made it an uncommonly rich story. It is emotionally engaging and has a clever way of pulling you into its world... I wish I could go into more detail, but you'll see! I read it in two days. I actually took notes while reading the book because I wanted to keep track of what the author was presenting as fact. This book extends beyond its pages. There is a world of historical issues and science that I didn't know existed, but find intriguing. I may not agree with all of it, but it's refueled my interest in history, math, art and architecture.
Rating:
Summary: Good read, much fun
Review: The first 180 pages are great, then the middle becomes a little contrived, you ever see on of those movies, where they throw so many twists in it pisses you off? Well there are a good 80 pages of that in this book, but he wraps it up delicately in the end. I enjoyed immensely and overall was very satisfied.
Rating: 
Summary: After 300 pages forget it!
Review: The first 300 pages of this novel were exciting and as suspenseful as FOCAULT'S PENDULUM. At a critical juncture the story fell apart. I am very disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: Anti-Catholic, neo-feminist silliness
Review: The first few chapters of The Da Vinci Code drew me in to the story. It was fast paced but still full of details that make a great mystery. I love how Brown interweaves history in to the story. What could be better than a modern mystery that involves real historical figures like Da Vinci, Newton and Christ? Add a legendary mystery like the Holy Grail and I was totally hooked. And then it begins. Christianity is painted as *the* villain and not just a few weirdoes in the extreme Catholic cult, Opus Dei. Soon Brown's novel begins to sound like an Oliver Stone conspiracy script. "OK", I thought, "it's part of the novel intended to advance the plot." But as I continue to read, a new voice begins to intrude into the narrative, distracting me from the story like an annoying buzzing in my ear. It is not the voice of any character, not even the voice of the narrator. It's the author, on his soapbox, trying to sell me something. His anti-Christian rhetoric is no longer a vehicle to advance the story. Sadly, now it is the story that has become a vehicle for bashing Christianity. Brown ties to be subtle, hoping hide his mesage as Da Vinci's hid Mary Magdalene in his painting of "The Last Supper." But, in the end, the book becomes something less than a novel, and more like propaganda. Try a few Googles and you will find that this novel has fed the fires of Christian bashing. People are quoting it as a trustworthy source of factual information about Christian history. But it's just a novel right? The author can't be blamed if people take a work of fiction and believe it as fact-unless that was the author's intent. Both in the novel and in subsequent interviews Brown makes it clear that he is a true believer concerning this 2000 year Christian conspiracy. In an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio, Brown said only the characters and the plot involving them were fiction--everything else is historical fact. Well maybe he's stretching it a little? One small example is that there are 673 panes of glass in the Pyramid at the Louvre, not 666. Hmmm, I wonder what other "facts" are wrong? But hey, in a novel the author should be free to fudge historical facts to color the story--unless the author has a hidden agenda, or an axe to grind. Clearly, promoting the book as historically factual is disingenuous at best. Does Brown have an axe to grind? It's hard to conclude that from a single novel. But read his earlier book, "Angels and Demons" and it becomes clear that he has a distaste for Catholic Church. Perhaps he has good reasons for those feelings. If so, he is free to speak out against the church. But I would rather he did it openly rather than putting that message into his mystery novels. To quote Michael Medved (Washington Post), "Yeah, the Da Vinci code is nonsense. Read an analysis of its neo-feminist silliness in that bastion of reactionary Catholicism, the New York Times" (see NY Times Book Reviews, Sunday, August 24, 2003)
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