Rating: 
Summary: Big Time Fun To Read
Review: Dan Brown hit this one out of the park. Great read! Reading is supposed to be fun and informative. This one sure is. The plot twists are terrific and the characters are well constructed.
Rating:
Summary: A novel with precise detail for reality
Review: Dan Brown is a great author. He has captivated me and will continue to do so. Reviews are trashing on the book stating that Mr. Brown is making things up and tearing up the Catholic belief, or Christians for that matter. It's a shame people are so close-minded to see the truth. Perhaps someday you will realize that Dan Brown was only trying to pry open that part of your brains to try to get you to remember the truth. With that said, The da Vinci Code is a piece of art in it's self. It has opened new horizons for me. I have finished each of his books within 5 days total and I am anxiously waiting the next. Read the book. No one is making you believe what you don't want to. The book is an awesome find, sure to keep your interest. If you fail to leave without the knowledge that was intended, oh well, at least you will leave it saying it was GOOOOOOOOD.
Rating: 
Summary: Good thriller or bad hoax.
Review: Dan Brown is a masterful writer who has taken on a difficult topic with great flair creating a roller coaster like suspense thriller that I could not put down. Unfortunately, he has some highly skewed sources and some gaping flaws in his Biblical scholarship. This is not significant to the non-Christian reader, or better yet to the atheist or New Age reader since their world view is not impinged on by such, yes, heretical notions. Mr. Brown himself admits that the core of his book's conspiracy theory has been "whispered" for centuries and is not his own. His web site contains an interview of sorts that gives us a glimpse of his attitude to these "facts" and to his quasi-Christian beliefs. Mr. Brown, according to that same site, is in a writer's seclusion while working on the sequel to the "Code." He cannot be contacted...My commentary and counterpoints may affect someone not yet having read the book except to say to the Christian reader, beware of the presentation of fiction portrayed as fact. Spiritual warfare is ubiquitous in this otherwise enjoyable if not misguided work. The fundamental premise that Jesus was a man, not divine, not the Son of God makes the reason for the intrigue and the focus on His so-called lineage a puzzle in and of itself. If He was only a man, who cares who his decendents were. Even if this allegedly suppressed "secret" were true, how would this make his decendents important? There are 28 generations from David the King and the birth of Jesus the Christ according to the Bible. That is an awful lot of people. Joseph was not in line for any throne that he did not himself carve. The Princes in Brown's story is no more royal than anyone who believes in Christ and is therefore an inheritor of Heaven. The divinity of Jesus is critical to Christianity. Christianity based on Jesus as some prophet with healing powers makes this faith no different than other faiths pinned on prophet leaders. Judeo-Christian traditions had many prophets none of whom became the basis of a faith within a faith that had any lasting power. Christ was different. His divinity was based on many things most importantly the "empty grave" or Christ's resurrection. No one ever came forward at any stage and alleged the grave was not empty, that his bones were found, or that he failed to defeat death. These are the facts of Christianity. Then there is Leonardo, himself. He was indeed not a Christian for most of his life, just as is alleged in the book. The end of the story, Leonardo's story, is also important. On his deathbed, Leonardo accepted Jesus as his Lord and professed his faith without reservation. How does all of this affect your premise and plot line, Mr. Brown? Maybe you are right (from his Web page interview), your novel will provoke Christians to think. My hope is that they will think about what are the immutable minimums that make them Christian. I hope and pray they do not re-think their faith because your well spun web gives the misimpression of fact instead of good fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling and Scary
Review: Dan Brown is amazing!! His writing is very easy to follow and the story completely consumes you!! The reality of the story was so scary!! Makes you think twice about life in general!
Rating: 
Summary: Pure rot...
Review: Dan Brown is laughing all the way to bank. I find it remarkable that so many who have read this book are stumbling all over themselves to believe every word. The author has taken snatches of history, outlandish theories and spun a tale that reads as truth. Anyone who knows art history and Christian history will see this book for what it is - pure garbage. Read it , laugh out loud and then chuck it in the waste pail.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best I've ever read!
Review: Dan Brown is more than an excellent writer, who fully develops his characters' personalities, which by the way is not boring!
Nor is his detailed descriptions of historical information. If you are bored by this or any of his other books, you either already know everything there is to know, are unimaginative and unwilling to learn about new ideas. Enjoy the book for what is it - a fascinating murder mystery in a unique setting that includes both fact and fiction. I recommend all Dan Brown's books as I learned some wonderfully interesting technology, political ideology, and even computer programming from them. The excitement never stops and once you've started it you'll have to read all the way to end non-stop!!
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent, fast-paced thriller
Review: Dan Brown is my new favorite author. He is well-researched and smart. He lures the reader in with little known facts, then spins a wonderful fictional tale around it. I can not wait until 2005 to read his next effort, which will also be a Robert Langdon book. The Da Vinci Code has several age-old elements. Murder, suspense, double-cross, etc., yet this is somehow a little better. The story is grand and while it is "out there", it seems believable. Anyone can read the liner notes for a story description. And yes, there is a similar formula to Angels and Demons, but TDVC does it better. This is a must-read book for lovers of fiction. I can also understand why devout, conservative Christians are upset. But, my advice to them is to get over it. Dan Brown is not telling the educated world anything it didn't already know. For those in the dark, The Age of Enlightenment has apparently returned. We missed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Exciting and Well-Written
Review: Dan Brown is on to something and he has done a very good job of writing an intelligent, thinking-man's action story. In fact, he does so good a job, that many actually come away from this story with the belief that they've also read an analysis on historical documents and events (they have not). The plot revolves around solving a murder in the Louvre that takes the protagonist on a journey around France and London, solving clues and learning about secret religious orders in pursuit of the location of the holy grail. DaVinci Code elevates the concept of action novel to a new level. It will get most readers to think about religions in a new way and it will potentially change the way we look at the impact of religions on the world we live by showing us the possibilities. But let's not get carried away. This is an exciting, well-written novel, and (for page-turning, make you think about new possibilities, well-done thinking person's action), it is on a par with Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, and others. This book came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. Just make sure you don't try to come off like some kind of expert on religion when you're done. Some of the concepts Brown uses to put his story together are highly disputed and not necessarily subject to verification.
Rating:
Summary: Dan Brown and Oliver Stone
Review: Dan Brown is to Da Vinci what Oliver Stone is to John Kennedy's assassination, i.e., a purveyor of pure fiction for the sake of self enrichment. As for the suggestion of a reviewer to read Beauseigneur's Christ Clone Trilogy in ADDITION to Da Vinci, I say read Christ Clone INSTEAD.
Rating:
Summary: A masterful thriller
Review: Dan Brown knows how to write a thriller. The pages of this book know how to turn, almost by themselves. He also has a wonderful knack for blurring the line between fact and fiction but this is very much fiction, however it is depicted. In the beginning of the novel our hero, Robert Langdon, is called by the French police to help understand some strange symbology in the death of a curator at the Louvre. This starts a breathtaking journey through art and religion, Paris and London as he searches, with the aid of a young French woman and an eccentric English gentleman, for clues leading to ancient secrets. In the background hovers "The Teacher", a mysterious figure who seems to be almost one step ahead of them at each turn. His disciple (or henchman!), Silas, is pursuing them with equal vigor thus setting the scene for this very suspenseful thriller. The puzzles were well thought out and, better still, solvable by the casual reader which always gives a sense of satisfaction. My only real quibble was with the motivations of one of the minor characters - a bank manager - and when that's the biggest problem with a novel, it must be good. There are obviously a large, vocal contingent who dislike this book on religious grounds. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but, for my view, it is still a work of fiction that some historical factual input. The weaving of the two is what provided much of the interest for me. I have since read Angels & Demons. If you enjoyed that novel, you will find much to enjoy here too. There are certainly a lot of similarities in the construction of the books but both stand on their own and both are highly recommended.
| 
