The Da Vinci Code

Rating:
Summary: Worth The Read
Review: Brown can write and some of the things in this book are outstanding. However it starts to fall apart towards the end. If you are willing to be let down a bit, go for it.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible mystery wrapped around fascinating facts
Review: Brown constructs a 3rd rate mystery to carry a boatload of amazingly interesting facts about the early origins of Christianity and the Holy Grail. I wish he would've just written a book on the substance and spared the extremely amateurish and poor writing. I was also irritated to see how much he ripped off "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco, which was light years ahead of this extremely disappointing book. If you're a fan of fine writing in mysteries, like Alan Furst, you'll be very disappointed in the Da Vinci Code.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Novel, With Believeable Research and Suspense
Review: Brown conveys his entire story based on true archaeoligical and historical evidence, and that makes it THAT more exciting. The ending caught me completely by surprise, and I am dying for a sequal. READ THIS BOOK

Rating:
Summary: Best Beach Book I've Read Since "Eye of the Needle"
Review: Brown crafts a fascinating story by combining things that are true and things that could be true. It's the only mystery I've read where I wish there were footnotes. It's a thriller, so the fast pace and twisting plot carry more weight than the characters.

If you like a great story with some interesting historical nuggets, read this. If you like a mystery based on religious themes but with intricate, nuanced characters, read Name of the Rose.

One more note: Some of the reviewers here have "spoilers" in their reviews. I wish they would add the note "Spoiler" to their headlines so folks who haven't read the book could skip them if they wish.

Rating:
Summary: Only a little bit of scholarship is a dangerous thing!
Review: Brown did enough homework to fool the average reader, but reader beware! The premise of this book regarding a vast conspiracy of the church to cover up the true identity of the holy grail is so far-fetched that fiction doesn't even begin to describe this literary work. It would be one thing if Brown didn't claim that the descriptions of art and religious history were all true. This tale is far-fetched, predictable and sells out to a reductionistic view of history.

Rating:
Summary: An explosive concoction...
Review: Brown does a fantastic job integrating the mythical worlds of religion and art history in this brilliant thriller. Although the characterizations are more of a sketch than fully realized, they work remarkably well as a scaffolding for the *real* substance this book has to offer.

Certainly his research has resonated, and caused all the zealots and religious whackos to come seething out of the woodwork like the worms they are. Feeling threatened, are we?

Ultimately, it's the simple logic behind this piece that makes it so powerful, something almost completely missing from the foundations of modern religion.

Rating:
Summary: Cranking up codes
Review: Brown does it all over again: some intriguing ideas, good writing and a not so new story. For those of you who are fans, go ahead. As for the rest, you may want to either pick up a less convoluted novel or a real religion history book.
By the way: some people could find the novel straightforwardly offensive...

Rating:
Summary: An Umberto Eco wanna-be
Review: Brown has a long way to go until he reaches the class of Eco. If you have read any of Eco's books and expect a similar nail biter, this is not it. If you have never read Eco and like historical thrillers, you will probably enjoy the book, as long as you do expect historical facts.

Rating:
Summary: thrilling use of junk history
Review: Brown has admittedly written a suspense filled thriller that will keep you turning pages well into the wee hours of the night. He has a gift for making the unbelievable credible and for placing us in the exotic confines of the galleries of the Louvre, the streets of Paris, the London's Temple Church and Scotland's Rossalyn Chapel. Unfortunately, the conspiracy theories of history that undergird the novel are bogus. Brown's novel is filled with unhistorical material passed off as certain truth in the mouth Robert Langdon, whose area of academic expertise is something called "symbology". If this is historical fiction, the emphasis is on the fiction. We are told that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child whose descendants founded the Merovingian dynasty and whose family survived to this day. We are told other fake facts along the way, e.g., that the New Testament Gospels were written during the reign of Emperor Constantine and that London's Temple Church was designed to be round to reflect the Knight's Templar worship of the goddess (rather that being modeled after Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepluchre). Apparently Brown did not trouble himself to find out that the Western legends about Mary Magdalene are more products of the Middle Ages that the early Christian Church.

Rating:
Summary: A Clever and Exciting Novel Injected w/ Historical Research
Review: Brown has done his homework on this one. With a conspiracy eminating from the earliest days of the Catholic eclesiastic governing body that trumps down on present day. His story has plenty of factual historical research that is infused with his fantastic ability to carve a heart-pounding thriller. Simply put, if you enjoy reading, you'll enjoy The Da Vinci Code.