Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but vastly over-rated
Review: I admit my feelings about this book may have been colored by having recently read a far superior, and much more exciting, one that has virtually the same over-view, Daniel Siva's "The Confessor". While the history and erudition contained within "DaVinci" cannot help but be fascinating (hence the 3-stars), the book itself is overlong... and for no good reason! Further, it is hampered by an annoying "tick" that, ultimately, becomes infuriating. Mr. Brown seems to feel that one builds suspense by NEVER revealing anything of importance to the plot without first taking page-upon-page of digression after we have been told that something important IS going to be revealed. While this can be effective when used sparingly, it truly becomes irritating when it is used constantly! One example, which occurs right at the beginning: We are told a murder victim has placed himself in an odd position before dying. We are told this two, three, four, times. Yet we have to go through page after page of description of the Louvre museum (where the body is) before we find out what the position is! And there is no reason for this (it's just the tip of the iceberg) except for Brown to show off his knowledge of history.
In short, while I'm sure many will find this tour of ancient culture fascinating (I did myself), as a thriller it fails.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Get Hoodwinked
Review: I admit, I too saw this book on the bestseller list and was intrigued. A relatively unknown author's book debuting in the top 10? Had to check it out, and boy do I have buyer's remorse. The book is, in a word, lousy. Mr. Brown must have some serious Catholic school damage, because the entire book is a rant about how "the Church" has subverted our 'true spiritual nature' as Goddess-worshipping free-loving wood nypmhs. "The Church" is responsible for all the male-centered evils that have been and are being wreaked upon the world. And "the Church" contains high officials who direct their acolytes to murder people in their attempt locate the Holy Grail. And of course, as pointed out by other readers, Brown heavily laces the book with the ridiculous theory that Jesus was not the Son of God but merely an important historical figure who married Mary Magdelene because it was politically advantageous (He was of the line of David, she of the Solomon line) and they produced offspring whose lineage survives today. Of course they did. The characters are paper thin, the plot is obvious, and the ending is anticlimactic. A big waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Page Turner
Review: I admit, I was clueless about the hype surrounding this book. I just knew that it was on the bestseller list. So, I saw it on the library shelf, and thought I'd give it a whirl. My favorite books are thrillers and mysteries, but sadly, the stuff that's being churned out these days is pretty much garbage. I didn't start this one with much hope, either. Boy was I surprised! I am a former Christian minister (now a "New Ager") who's just now starting to explore the Divine Feminine. (You know how taboo *that* is, right? And believe me, it ain't just Catholicism...) I knew that El Shaddai meant many-breasted one, but that was about it. The information in this book blew me away. It all made perfect sense to me. (Although I can certainly see how it would enrage Christians!) It's very rare that you find a book that is both an engaging work of fiction *and* a deliverer of historical and mystical ideas. It has whet my appetite to explore the Divine Feminine and this aspect to spirituality that I've been missing out on due to my upbringing. For some reason, I felt the first 3/4 was the best part of the book, but it was very satisfying on all levels--even the ending. However, Brown gets into too much detail with architecture, the looooong cat and mouse part at Westminister Abbey, etc. A good deal could have been trimmed from this book. The characters are memorable and unique: an Albino monk, an Englishmen in Paris who walks on metal crutches, a hot-head French capitan,... I felt as if I could see each and every one. Setting wise, all the French streets and architectual references were lost on me, but the details didn't take away from the pace of the novel, nor the intrigue. Technically, Brown did everything he was supposed to: ended the chapters with hooks, shifted perspectives fluidly, "showed not told", etc. It's formulaic...but formula *works*. You'll enjoy this book if you love good fiction and if you have an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat predicable, having read Angels and Demons first
Review: I agree that the DaVinci code is a fun thriller that is hard to put down. I was so intrigued by the review (especially a positive comparison to Katherine Neville's "The Eight"--one of my favorite books which I am now re-reading) that I decided to read "Angels and Demons" first. That was probably a mistake, since many of the plot elements in DaVinci code mirror those in his earlier book. "The DaVinci Code" is a much better book than "Angels and Demons",but I was able to guess things about what was going to happen based on my reading of the previous book. This only could occur because of the very strong reliance on the same plot elements from the very first scene with the hero getting a nocturnal call to immediatly view a dead body mired in symbolism, his meeting a young women who turns out to be related to the murder victim (grandaughter, vs adopted daughter) and so on. I don't want to mention any others since they might give away the plot.
Rating:
Summary: Good Fast Read--Lots of info, but the writing is shallow.
Review: I agree that this book is chalk full of great little tidbits of historical info and teasers, as well as some controversal ones (both fact and fiction) however it's definitely not a well written piece (as far as the form of writing goes). But it is definitely a page turner. It's almost written as a screenplay and I'm sure they had their sights on a movie deal shortly after. As many people have mentioned, the plot devices can be seen coming a mile away and the writing style doesn't help to improve it much. It is, still, a page turner with suspense/murder/cryptology/conspiracy theories/art history/secret societies and of course the Catholic Church.
The main characters are the vehicle for the reader to learn all this great info--and little more. They don't really have much depth themselves. I believe this is coming out in paperback soon, so if you've held off long enough from buying this, I would wait to get it in paperback.
I'm sure you could also just wait for the movie too (maybe next fall?).
Rating:
Summary: It's Almost Plagiarism
Review: I agree with all of the readers who give this book 1 star (or less, if possible). Many have observed that Brown obviously steals from the research of HOLY BLOOD HOLY GRAIL. However, I have yet to see anyone state that the bulk of Brown's sex goddess theology (including gothic arch "vaginas") comes straight off the pages of THE TEMPLAR REVELATION by Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince. Read these two books, and you'll see that Brown's so-called "research" took perhaps all of two weeks to compile. Everything in Da Vinci Code is somewhere in these two books. He is neither original, nor is he a good writer. Baigent, Leigh, Lincoln, Picknett, and Prince, in my opinion, have grounds to bring a plagiarism suit against Brown. I hope they do. I hope they win.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, even if not completely accurate
Review: I agree with many of the other reviewers who point out some inaccurate points in the story, but, if we view the story, long as it is, as the tale of fiction it clearly is, it should be easier to take. Plus we must be willing to put our religious objections to such a book as this aside. And it doesn't matter if you are Catholic, Protestant, or Southern Baptist...this is just a book, guys! At any rate, I recommend this book, but I also recommend other Dan Brown books that are equally good such as "Angels and Demons", "Digital Fortress", "Deception Point", as well as really good sci-fi like "Altered Carbon", "Ringworld", "Ringworld Engineers", "Prey", "Neuromancer", "Darkeye: Cyber Hunter", and many more. When reading "The Da Vinci Code" or any of these other books, it is always important to keep an open mind.
Rating:
Summary: A GOOD READ, BUT.............
Review: I agree with most readers that the book was a real page turner. However, most of the plot was predictable and the author should have spent more time in character development. My big disappointment was the end of the book. After 400 plus pages of build-up I felt let down by the weak ending. Mr. Brown should have spent another 50 pages developing a conclusion as exciting as the story.
Rating:
Summary: Where's Tom Cruise?
Review: I agree with several of the other reviewers that this was a fascinating topic rather disappointingly boiled down into something between a Grisham and a Crichton. Unfortunately to me this means a book that could have been written either before or after the movie, but which is inextricably tied to one somewhere. The short chapters bugged me, too. Yes, it's a page turner. But what are you going to do when every chapter ends with something like "they hardly expected that they were minutes away from a shock that would undermine everything they had ever believed in their lives." (That's actually not in the book, but if you read something like that, what would you do? Turn the page ... ) I also lost patience with the alternation of the dumb and smart hats. The two main characters are supposed to be brilliant cryptographers, but I laughed at how many times each one of them asked the other, in reply to a statement, "what do you mean??" The exposition works well for screen, but let's just say it's a bit difficult to believe that the grandaughter raised by her grandfather, director of the Louvre, has never really looked at The Last Supper beyond cocktail coaster level. Likewise there was that crazy "code" printed in the book in cursive. I figured it out in two seconds. It took the brilliant cryptographers another two or three pages of scratching heads to figure out how to translate it (even though one of them could do NYT and Le Monde crosswords in a day as a child). Makes no sense. Lastly, although the novel's payoff is pretty stretched (and not that much of a payoff, at that, really), I did appreciate how the author effectively manipulated his characters throughout so that you truly are not sure who is good, who is bad ... so hey, good job on that one.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother with this book - read Umberto Eco instead!!
Review: I agree with the reader from Evergreen, CO - if you're going to write a book like this, do your homework first! I'm not an art history scholar, but I have two degrees in medieval history. The inaccuracy of the author's assertions about almost every historical reference I ran across in this book was appalling! I too tried to have fun with the story, but the bad research was so distracting that I never truly engaged in the book. If you are interested in reading a great book that also deals in similar subjects, go to the master - Umberto Eco - and read Foucault's Pendulum. Eco's breadth of knowledge is vast, and he deftly navigates not only history, but philosophy, theology, semiotics, philology, etc. and weaves them seamlessly into a captivating plot with 3-dimensional characters.
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