Rating: 
Summary: Hardly Convincing
Review: Abanes makes a few points well (I think his section on Planchard and the Priory of Sion is particularly good) but most of the time it boils down to "Look, The Bible says X, Y and Z and that's that". He fails to convince me that Christianity isn't sexist; he glosses over witchhunts as if the Church were an innocent party; and his whole "Fact versus Fiction" premise comes across as a "Your Fiction versus My Fiction" discussion.
Perhaps if we all accepted that none of us has a clue what really happened?
Rating:
Summary: breaking the human domination...
Review: Dan Brown categorized his book under "fiction". Therefore, those who challenge the content of his fictional idea are in question.
We are speaking of a subject no one knows for sure; therefore, whoever claims he/she knows the truth and lure to share this limelight with his/her own assumption is nothing more than jumping on the band wagon for fame and fortune. Nevertheless, I do find Dan Brown's "fiction" quite riveting as claimed by the wagon jumper and I most certainly enjoyed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Earth to fanatics... earth to fanatics....
Review: Do those of you who are drooling over this book realize that The Da Vinci Code is FICTION? The author of this book should be grateful to Dan Brown, because thanks to The Da Vinci Code, Abanes is making a lot of money selling his book by riding Dan Brown's coattails. The same goes for all the other authors who are writing books about The Da Vinci Code.
Many of you seem to have trouble getting the message, so read the following line carefully and chant it to yourselves daily: The Da Vinci Code is fiction. The Da Vinci Code is fiction. The Da Vinci Code is fiction.
Rating:
Summary: Stupidest book I've read
Review: Don't waste your money buying this book. Abanes is out to prove Dan Brown wrong. His arguments are sometimes even childish. Poor journalism indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Does Abanes have something against Dan Brown?
Review: Good If you do not know the mesning of fiction. The DA VINCI CODE is fiction. If you do not know this, then this book is for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Format Provides Easy Read
Review: Hopefully this is the last book I will read regarding Dan Brown's popular "The Da Vinci Code." It has created spin offs both for and against. This book by Richard Abanes is formatted greatly for the average Christian, and his similar Q&A allows the reader to read what the Brown asserts in his book and what the hsitroical or theological accurate answer truly is.
Abanes has written some nice books, particularly on the end- times and Mormons, but has touch on other subjects with maybe too much suspicion (his book on Harry Potter). This book is short and sweet and provides enough information for the audience to refute Brown's book, but avoids details the reader is probably not very interested in. Of course, conspiracy theorists who what to believe Brown's book is accurate will not be swayed, but then again, neither are conspiracy theorists in other camps - they must have their conspiracy regardless of the evidence.
Abanes covers the most important topics, ranging from Da Vinci himself, his paintings, the gnostic gospels, the the priory of sion, etc, etc, etc. This is a good little book that takes very little time to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Got My Answers
Review: I am writing this review not only in response to the book, which I read, but also to hearing Abanes on the radio in an interview.Abanes is extremely articulate and he knows what he is talking about. The radio interviewer asked him numeorus questions that bounced back and forth between all kinds of Dan Brown-related issues. And he actually answered the questions, rather than just blathering on about something unrelated to the subject at hand. What's nice is how Abanes was able to transfer is spekaing style--very casual--into the way he communicates in his book. It's a SUPER easy and enjoyable read. He deals very concisely with a broad spectrum of topics from the obscure (the origins of the Tarot and pentegram) to historical facts (Constantine, Knights Templar, Bible, Gnostic manuscripts) to the contemporary (Brown fans, reviews of The Code, the Priory of Sion). My favorite part = his material on Leonardo Da Vinci, the man and his art. EXCELLENT! Abanes, who I think is a creative type himself (a musician/singer), really brings an artist's perspective to viewing Da Vinci as a person. He also, of course, very astutely examines and "de-codes" Da Vinci's art and writings. I am a female, 35-40, Christian, but not a fundamentalist, and do have a feminist background and sympathies. IN other words, very much in the middle of Dan Brown's fan base. I thought The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code was fabulous.
Rating:
Summary: THE ABANES CODE!!! -Happy Hunting
Review: I just finished reading "The Truth Behind the Da Vinci Code" by Abanes and LOVED it (for reasons I will explain). But first, and this is hysterical-ABANES INSERTED A CODE INTO THE INTRODUCTION OF HIS BOOK. I couldn't believe it until I noticed certain letters that seemed to make words. And, as I continued to piece together the letters, sure enough, it all created a sentence with a message for readers. I won't spoil it for anyone, but it's there as plain as any code can be. You have GOT to try to figure it out. Way to go Abanes. This shows, at least to me, that Abanes has a sense of humor and is keeping all of this in perspective. Now, on to the serious critique. Abanes shows in his very concise, fun-to-read, and highly informative book that Dan Brown, for all of the PR on his novel, is not only not a scholar, but actually seems to have deliberately misrepresented key historical documents and historical events. This is shown beyond debate. One example, is how Abanes pulls two quotes from Brown's novel where a character quotes Leonardo Da Vinci's scathing words supposedly about the Bible (see Da Vinci Code, p. 231). Abanes, however, actually tracked down these citations and shows that in their context they have NOTHING to do with the Bible!!!! There is no way Brown could not have known that Leonardo was not talking about the Bible. It is very clear from the writings. This is only one example of how the research in this book is phenomenal. I encourage everyone who wants to get into this type of fun stuff to get Abanes' book. I am very, very impressed. As much as Brown's fans and critics of books like this one from Abanes are screaming about how ridiculous it is that anyone would be troubled about a work of fiction, Abanes smartly documents places where Dan Brown is saying that what he wrote is absolutely true (p. 9). I'd love to see Brown and Abanes in a debate. Now that would be fun.
Rating:
Summary: Right On!
Review: I tried to post this review earlier, but for some reason the review never made it online, so here I go again-only because I believe it is very important that people understand how great a book Abanes has produced. Abanes is an accomplished author who has stuffed just about all of the information the average person would need to: 1) talk intelligently about The Da Vinci Code; 2) respond to Dan Brown fans who say the novel is based on fact. Unlike the other responses to Dan Brown, Abanes seems to have wanted to do several different things for different audiences. Christians get information that helps defend Christianity; 2) Roman Catholics get material that deflects the most outrageous claims by Brown; and 3) secular readers get a great crop of facts without hearing any religious preaching. This is clearly the volume that stands head and shoulders above the other books about Da Vinci. I say this wih no malice, but simply as an observation. Abanes gives the reader all the facts they need to make an informed decision about Brown's book, and without much of an agenda except to get the truth to people. Money will be well-specnt on this book FAVORITE QUOTES: "Extrico subjectio quod verum ero evidens." (p. 10) "This is not even a "Christian" issue. The issue is fact versus fiction. Truth versus lies. Accuracy versus inaccuracy" (p. 77).
Rating:
Summary: Well Researched, Scholarly
Review: In my opinion, Abanes has done what is so very difficult to achieve. He has written a thoroughly enjoyable and user-friendly book, yet documented it in such a way as to give it an air of scholarly merit (truly impressive endnotes).
Abanes has also packed an unbelieveable amount of information into just 96 pages. He did this by not wasting ANY space on commentary or preaching. He keeps a steady (and rapid) pace to his writing that goes from a Dan Brown quote to a response, then to another Dan Brown quote to his response, and so on. It moves you along very quickly, and the quotes by Brown are in shaded boxes in order to help the reader know preciely where they are and helps with back-referencing. I've never really seen this approach. It actually provides a little bit of eye candy. The book is very visually oriented.
Particularly fascinating is the way this book systematically deals with the issues, as one can see from the chapter titles that move logically through talking baout conspiracy theories in general, to religious holy writings (Bible, Gnostic texts), to the Church & Magdalene/goddess, to all the Holy Grail / Knights / Priory material, until finally reaching a grand conclusion in his final chapter about Leonardo Da Vinci's artwork (truly excellent).
This book is really a little gem, especially for so cheap. I'm actually buying about 10 more copies and giving them out as gifts. It's a great little conversation maker and truly fun to go through.
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