The Da Vinci Code

Rating:
Summary: Pure and Absolute Genius!!!
Review: While Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist about to publish a novel, is in Paris on business, one of the greatest enigmas in history is dangling on a piece of string right in front of his face but is just out of reach. When the renowned curator of the Louvre, Jacques Sauniere, is murdered, he leaves a special note for Langdon on the floor next to his strangely positioned body that leads Langdon and his new friend Sophie Neveu, a gifted French cryptologist who happens to be Sauniere's granddaughter, on the quest to uncover a secret that has the power to completely change the world. Langdon and Neveu are led on a wild search through Paris and beyond that is made up of riddles and puzzles that only the smartest of men can figure out. But between Langdon and Neveu, the clues are deciphered and they quickly begin to uncover the greatest secret of all time. The problem? Langdon is the prime suspect in Sauniere's murder. And when Langdon discovers that Sauniere was involved in an ancient secret society that is guarding the greatest secret of all time, a whole new twist is put on everything. Unless Langdon and Neveu decode the clues that Sauniere has left around Paris for them to find, this great ancient truth will be lost forever.
I had a strong penchant for nearly every single part of this spectacular story. What enthralled me a great deal was the fascinating codes and clues that were scattered throughout each chapter of the novel. Although I could not decipher any of these extremely difficult codes, they were so interesting that they, among other things, made it so that I could not put down the book and kept me on my toes looking for hints; when Langdon and Neveu figured out some of these codes, I learmed many extremely interesting facts about how the codes were broken. I also thoroughly enjoyed the historical secrets that were planted in the pages. Each provocative secret made me question everything that I had ever learned about religion and kept me so intrigued that I, again, could not put down the book. The way that these secrets were connected to history absorbed me and made me question the truthfulness of the Christian religion. These secrets, however provoking they were, made this book one of the most interesting that I have ever read. Another thing that really made it so that I could not put down the book was the enigma involved; each page left me yearning to discover more. Dan Brown's novel made me so curious that I could not stand it. Between the secret of the Holy Grail, the many mysteries of Jacques Sauniere, and the other enigmas, I was completely enthralled. There were very few things that I did not enjoy immensely about this novel. One was that at certain points, Brown tried to make the book so unpredictable that it became predictable. Another thing was that sometimes Brown bombards the reader with so much esoteric, heavy information that it becomes abstruse. However, by the end of the book everything gets cleared up and leaves the reader feeling educated and incredibly intrigued and fascinated. The final thing that I did not enjoy was that I was so interested in the book that I literally could not put it down and spent hours every day reading the novel to the point where reading took over my life but I had a great time reading it, none the less. Other than these few complaints, which are extremely minor, I enjoyed "The Da Vinci Code" remarkably and thought that it was a perfect, must-read. This novel was pure and absolute genius.
I highly recommend "The Da Vinci Code" to anybody who enjoys history, mystery, thrills, puzzles, riddles, conspiracies, or just enjoys an amazing, extremely interesting story. Just as a precaution, I advise that you read this novel when you have time to be completely absorbed in a book that, quite literally, does not allow you to put it down. But, no matter where or when you read it, no matter what speed you read it at, you will absolutely, positively love Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code".

Rating:
Summary: The Da Vinci Code
Review: While the book's plot and characters are well-developed, Brown's "research" is selective, and--in several instances--incorrect. Caveat emptor.

Rating:
Summary: I hate this book! Caveat lector!
Review: While the conspiracy theory piece of the novel is well researched and interesting, it cannot make up for such egregious stylistic faults as the over-use of the verb 'grin', eyes constantly described as 'twinkling', and the author's inability to trust either his characters or his reader. Everything is over-explained to a fault, and the two page chapters go from annoying at the beginning to insulting by the end. One of his characters is a French woman, but her dialogue reads like a first year French student. To get around the fact that he obviously does not speak French, Mr. Brown uses the completely unbelievable tool of making English part of her personal history. Her flashbacks inevitably begin with an insipid, childlike question in French, countered by the admonition "English in the home!" from her grandfather. Anyone who has ever lived amongst the French will recognize immediately how completely implausible this scenario is. Why not italicize her speech so that the reader knows that it has been translated for his or her benefit? There are many other ways to accomplish a bilingual novel that respect the intelligence of the reader and make the characters believable. There is not enough space provided here to detail all the flaws in this book. But I can say this: I gobble up trashy mystery novels and sophisticated literature alike (and everything in between) - I love to read and will read almost anything - but this book made me regret having learned to read. I would not recommend it to my worst enemy. Had I not been on an airplane when I finished it, I would have thown against the wall! If you're interested in the history of Da Vinci and the Mona Lisa, this is not the place to get that information. Mr. Brown did do a fine piece of research. The history of the Priory and Opus Dei was truly interesting. It is unfortunate that he chose to write "The Da Vinci Code" rather than a non-fiction piece. Suffering through the plot is too high a price for knowledge that could easily been found in some other, better book. Dan Brown successfully did this research, and I advise that you do the same.

Rating:
Summary: The Devil is in the Details?
Review: While The Da Vinci Code IS a page-turner and the premise seems promising, even fascinating, this book is really just a beach or airplane novel disguised as high art. The mingling of some fact with a lot of fiction will leave most with more questions than answers, or worse the belief that much of what Brown passes off as legitimate undisputed theology is actually the truth. If you're still interested in reading it, the good news is that you can do it in an evening or two and move onto something better!
PS I completely agree with the reviewer who complained about the publisher's review spoiler; many reader reviewers do this as well and I, too, think Amazon should effect a policy against this practice.

Rating:
Summary: The Holy Grail ?
Review: While the story is about a hunt for the grail, this book may be the Holy Grail ! It starts fast and hooks you right away. The story has many twists and turns as the heros take a fast trip in France and England. This intelligent mystery will keep you guessing (wrong) all the way through. One of the best books I have ever read and highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Ironically smug. Disappointing.
Review: While the subjects upon which the plot of this book are built are interesting ones, this book fails to live up to the great potential for a truly suspenseful and interesting story that could be created about them.

I think Dan Brown makes a fool of himself by trying to sound intelligent and knowledgeable with unnecessary flourishes, only to follow up by spelling everything out so deliberately that he insults the reader's intelligence. It makes him come off like a pompous professor, and not a very bright one at that.

Similarly, the dumbed-down dialogue undermines the intellectual potential of the subjects. I laughed out loud when someone described as a high vatican official actually said "the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away." He should have followed up with "Bummer -- eh, dude?"

In parts it reads like a cheap romance novel -- you can tick off the steps in the characters' romance, which are just stuck in awkwardly throughout the book, and are only there so the book can end as a schmaltzy and uncompelling love story.

I'll admit that it's a quick and engaging read, but there were too many times when I thought "okay! I get it! can we PLEASE move on?!" And while it kept me busy during a long flight, by the end I felt cheated.

Rating:
Summary: A quick read that encourages further discussion
Review: While this book does read like a screenplay, I still found it intriguing, entertaining and apparently very well researched. It moves along quite rapidly and creates enough suspense to make the read worth it. Some of the scenes were over the top, but it's still a good book.

One positive aspect of the book is that those who read it are actually looking into the many premises offered up by Mr. Brown. Whether reading other books on the subject, researching on-line, or just talking with others, people are actually using their heads. In my book, anything that encourages learning is a good thing!

Rating:
Summary: Not worth reading a second time
Review: While this book initially looked very promising, by the time I read a few pages in and saw a web address for ODAN, I knew that the author must have an axe to grind against Opus Dei in particular and the Catholic Church in general. I would have been willing to forgive that (every story needs a bad guy) had the book at least been engaging.

However, by about halfway through the book I no longer wanted to read it; I finished the book only because I was bored and was curious about the riddles. Yes, the riddles were the only partially saving grace of this book; even though the rest of the book was decidedly lackluster, some of the riddles were ingenious. (I must wonder, though, how they could solve the puzzle involving encrypted Hebrew in mere minutes while taking several hours to find even a Biblical reference well known to most four-year-olds.)

The author does a good, but not perfect, job of concealing the true identity of the Teacher; after I finished the book I paged back and saw at least a couple of examples where the author slipped up a bit--which would definitely irk me if I read this a second time. Likewise, Sophie and Langdon fall in love at the end; this is to be expected in pop fiction, but the author only even alludes to this once. Like so many other things in the book, this appears thrown in as an afterthought.

This book could have been great. However, it has a cookie-cutter plot, loose ends, and the entire book is an attack on Opus Dei (and by extension the entire Catholic Church), which at times seems like it was the entire reason the book was written. The riddles and puzzles and art history alone would have been worth four stars, but sadly the rest of the book drags it down.

Rating:
Summary: Good research, acceptable plot, horrible ending
Review: While this book is currently selling well, I will be surprised if most people are not disappointed with the ending. The background material for the book (Grail, art, and religious history) seemed to be well researched and inspires me to learn more. Unfortunately, the plot and ending detract from this material; the book would be better if Robert Langdon had not entered the story.

Rating:
Summary: watered down apostasy
Review: While this book is obviously entertaining the masses (every other person at the airport seemed to be carrying one) and it is an entertaining and fairly well-written (for the most part) story, I'd sum up my first perception like this: Imagine John Grisham holed up in a far away cabin sinking his intellectual teeth into not only such works as "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" and "The Templar Revelation" but more blatantly all of the works of Umberto Eco.

The Grisham-like writer then exits the cabin, returns to civilization and "vouchsafes" his "spell-binding," "highly original" story to the unsuspecting masses.

Personally, I see no problem with him twisting around church doctrine and placing women into their rightful (and originally pagan before the Christians 'patriarchialized' everything) place of hegemony. And I'm intrigued that a popular writer is delivering such goods to a mainstream audience.

It's just that The Name of The Rose and Foucault's Pendulum (both by Eco) did it so much better. Not to mention the non-fiction works of such writers as Pagels and Capra.

I'll give it a second read and see if I'm missing something - if so, I'll revise/update my review.