Rating: 
Summary: Insipid, Inaccurate, and Inexcusable
Review: The reviews for this book and the fact that it was on the best seller list intrigued me. However, upon reading it I was sorely disappointed. The writing style reminded me of those banal R. L. Stine's books. What's more, I am unclear why Mary Magdelene is supposed to be worshipped over Jesus. I mean Jesus is a really cool person, whether you are religious or not, most people can agree with that. This cult of Mary thing didn't make sense. I just didn't get why this secret society was supposed to be worshipping her. It seemed like the author was trying to downplay the works and honor attributed to Jesus, but yet elevate Mary Magdalene because she supposedly married him? And then there was the whole goddes thing. I felt the author took a bunch of unrelated myths and pieced them together in a nonsensical manner. For a book that toted puzzles of logic, the premise given for Mary Magdalene being worthy of worship was illogical. The puzzles in the book were interesting, but everything else was flat and not fleshed out. In short, this book was a big waste of both my time and money. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as it panned out to be just a bunch of hype
Rating: 
Summary: A Stunning Thriller That Will Provoke Much Debate
Review: The search for the Holy Grail is one of the most intriguing enigmas of history, art and fiction. Speculation as to its location, its meaning, even its existence have fueled the imaginations of artists, writers, rulers and clerics for centuries. Dan Brown's THE DA VINCI CODE is a stunning new thriller that presents a new slant on the meaning of the very nature of this vessel, which was purported to hold the blood of Christ. Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is in Paris on business when he receives an urgent midnight call at his hotel from the Paris Judicial Police. The man he had planned to meet with the next day, a curator of the Louvre, has been found murdered in the Grand Gallery of the world's most famous art museum. Langdon has been summoned apparently because of his connection to the victim and his knowledge of ancient symbols. He is rushed to the scene to find Jacques Sauniere's body lying spread eagled and naked with a pentagram painted on his torso. He is told that Sauniere apparently painted the symbol on his own chest and arranged his body in the bizarre position before he died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Langdon's expertise in symbology and his acquaintance with the curator are called upon to help decipher the motive and help police find the killer. Police detective Sophie Neveu from the Paris police cryptology division arrives on the scene; she and Langdon embark on a dangerous and frantic search for the murderer. They soon discover that Sauniere's message was not a clue to the identity of his killer, which is what the police believe, but instead holds a much deeper and significant message to mankind. The connections to the murderer reach into the very depths of some of the highest authorities of Europe. Langdon and Neveu are ensnared in the ever-tightening mesh of this deadly triangle of power, as Langdon seeks to clear himself of suspicion of his colleague's murder. The desperate battle between The Priory of Scion, Opus Dei and the Vatican in the search for the Holy Grail airs one of the most fascinating theories on the Holy of Holies published in a very long time. Dan Brown's extensive research on secret societies and symbology (he wrote ANGELS AND DEMONS, a bestseller about secret Italian religious societies) adds intellectual depth to this page-turning thriller. His surprising revelations on Da Vinci's penchant for hiding codes in his paintings will lead the reader to search out renowned artistic icons as The Mona Lisa, The Madonna of the Rocks and The Last Supper. The Last Supper holds the most astonishing coded secrets of all and, after reading THE DA VINCI CODE, you will never see this famous painting in quite the same way again. Brown has given us a controversial subject wrapped in thriller clothing that will provoke debate in the circles of religious and secret societies --- and among readers. Curl up on the couch and dive into a title filled with speculation, action and intrigue. --- Reviewed by Roz Shea
Rating:
Summary: RELIGION DEBUNKED
Review: The search for the Holy Grail. This book was too good to put down. If you've ever wondered about the roots of religion, you need wonder no more. Most entertaining, very well-written.
Rating: 
Summary: Good mystery-questionable history
Review: The secret to good history-based fiction lies in the inability of the reader to detect what information is fact and what is fiction. One glaring error and the entire historical foundation immediately becomes open to question. An error of that magnitude occurs early in this book and caused me to laugh my way through the remainder. Mr. Brown's protagonist claims (in one of his many lectures disguised as dialog) that 5,000,000 women died in the witch hunts of the Middle Ages. The highest number ever calculated by experts was 100,000. Even that number has since been downgraded to 50,000 and while most were women (15% were men), the church had little to do directly with the trials and executions, except to encourage prosecutors and judges. Much of the remaining history can be found in other sources, many of which are fringe historians and/or conspiracy buffs. The plot is not bad if you accept the existence of centuries old secret societies and global conspiracies. If you don't; well there is no plot without those. Ultimately, this is simply more fuel for those intoxicated with conspiracy paranoia.
Rating:
Summary: A Specious Book
Review: The story contained within the book is a thriller. The one problem I encountered though, was the non-existence of Robert Langdon at the Harvard University website. The author alleges that Robert Langdon, the protangonist, is a professor at Harvard. This leads me to believe that the book, albeit interesting, is one big falsehood.
Rating: 
Summary: One little , two little , three little cryptograms...
Review: The story is a fine mystery I suppose...but the endless cryptograms and ciphers got pretty tedious. Any book with Templar Knights the "Holy Grail" and an albino assasin gets a star just for trying. I heard the author on a local radio program try to push the feminine goddess concept, which on its face sounds reasonable...but with deeper study you'll find its just another heresy in a long list of Pagan concepts that stretch from Babylon on down to our present day. Throw in a little British Israelism and some DaVinci mysteries and SHAZAAM...we got a bestseller! I probably would have given another star if not for two things...on Audio recordings how frickin hard is it to pay an actress to read female lines? I'm sorry but even at his best the voice actor here makes a delicate French cryptologist sound like Francois the village drag queen. Second...I was doing ok with the recording until Langdon asks Sophie.."You witnessed a sex ritual didn't you?" and then tried to explain it being something not about sex...but a divine ritual of the Goddess. Yeahhhhh...Riiiight. How many Masonic Templars have used that line?
Probably would work at a Tantra convention I guess. Theologically... what a bunch of HOO HAA!
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment.
Review: The story is unusual, I'll give it that much. But don't editors do their jobs at all any more? There are so many grammar errors peppered throughout the book that I have to wonder if anybody with a basic grasp of the rules of written English read the manuscript before publication. Someone should teach either Mr. Brown or his editors the difference between "like" and "as," the proper use of the past imperfect tense, and how to conjugate the verb "lay" before he publishes another book. As for factual accuracy, I am no Grail historian, but there were some blatant bloopers. For instance, the left brain is listed as the "irrational" half of the brain in a list of left-sided items that are supposedly wrongfully associated with femininity. The left half of the brain, of course, is the logical, analytical side. It's the right brain that is supposedly more intuitive and irrational. And the association comes from scientific research, not from dastardly Catholic propaganda. If the book got something as obvious as this wrong, I have to assume that many of its more esoteric "facts" are just as far off. Finally, most of the clues, supposedly so terribly hard to guess that a Harvard symbologist has to be recruited to analyze them, are painfully transparent. I guessed every one of them long before the characters did. All told -- a big disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: A real yawner
Review: The story started out well enough, with the plot unfolding at a sufficiently fast pace for me to overlook the paper-thin characters and the rather clunky writing style. As, however, the story became increasingly predictable, the other flaws began to loom larger, and about halfway through I began to simply skim. Soon, even that became more trouble than it's worth, and now the book sits on an end table, about fify pages shy of completion. I will probably pick it up again after I read some of the more interesting books I got for Christmas, just to see if I really did guess the rest of the story. It's nice, I guess, to see somebody dissing Corporate Christianity, but other than that I really wonder what the big deal about this book is.
Rating:
Summary: Good idea but wish Brown was a better writer
Review: The story was interesting and it was definitely and quick beach read but Brown's style of writing detracted from the strength of the book
Rating:
Summary: The Da Vinci Code
Review: The story was much better the first time it was written by an author named Lewis Perdue under the title of Daughter of God.
Do yourself a favor and get the original.
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