Rating: 
Summary: Simply a masterpiece
Review: If you enjoy reading novel thrillers, fiction, reading at all then there is no reason why you shouldn't love this book. This is very simply one of the best things I have read, I feel honored that I got a chance to read this book. Can't wait for the sequel.I would give it a higher rating but there is only five stars, incredible book. This is my first book by Dan Brown, and most certainly he made a fan out of me.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for a one-time read for fun. After that, burn it.
Review: If you enjoy well written books that completely pull you into the story, then "The Da Vinci Code" is not for you. After reading this book (it was a Christmas gift) I was astounded to hear that it's a best seller. As a fledgling writer myself, I was surprised to read so many novice writing errors in this supposed "professional" piece. "The Da Vinci Code" is a large push of pseudo-historical facts and suspence, but Brown fails in making his characters feel human. During the course of their two day quest, they do not stop to eat, sleep, or even use the restroom. There isn't even a comment on how the characters feel about the lack of these necessities. (No tiredness, no stomach growls, nothing.) Brown is so wrapped up in trying to make a good story that he forgets to make believable characters. When the bad guy was finally given an actual name instead of just "the teacher," I was completely disappointed. I actually didn't believe the antagonist was really who he said he was for several chapters. Why didn't I believe it? There is a blaringly obvious plot hole that Brown forgot to cover up, which prevents his antagnoist from being who he says he is. It's simply impossible. Oh, and the chapter lengths are just amusing. Apparently Brown doesn't know how to transition between scenes without making a new chapter. In this 454 page book, there are 106 chapters. (I'm calling the epilogue a chapter because it is.) This means each chapter is roughly 4 pages long. If this were an elementary book, I wouldn't be surprised at the short chapter lengths. But as a work of fiction for adults, I expect the author to learn how to transition scenes without making new chapters each time. Personally, I think I might have enjoyed this book if Brown had set it up as a simple historical mystery. The cross-country chases and multiple gun-point standoffs quickly become tiresome and boring. The historical research is interesting, but "The Da Vinci Code" utterly fails as a good suspense novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Conservative Christians will hate this book.
Review: If you feel strongly about your Christian beliefs, you won't like this book. It contains a major plot point that mocks basic doctrines of Christianity, such as the authenticity of the gospel and the resurrection and diety of Jesus Christ. I put the book down for good at the halfway mark. Personal beliefs aside, I thought the book was slow. The short chapters made the book seem fast-paced at first, but you begin to see through this trick as you find yourself wading through redundant flashbacks and unnecessary exposition. I also found Robert Langdon, the lead character, way too passive for my taste. In a story like this, I expect the lead character to be assertive, charismatic, clever, and resourceful. Robert Langdon came across as a sleepy bookworm stuck in the backseat of a chase scene. The puzzles in the book were a creative idea, but when the riddle of the Holy Grail was "revealed," I lost interest in the book altogether. Maybe I'll find a more appealing and less offensive mystery on my next trip to the bookstore.
Rating: 
Summary: Do the Means Justify the End?
Review: If you find a book fascinating in the beginning and riveting in the middle but disappointing in its ending, is it a good book or a not-so-good book? I dunno, but like most people who have read "The DaVinci Code," I couldn't put the book down. Until the last part of the book that is, when I couldn't put it down because I couldn't pick it up. The hills are alive with the sound of people plunking money down for this book. Inspired by this, I, too, plunked. While I found the prose in "The DaVinci Code" hardly Emersonian and the characters cardboard cut-outs, throughout most of the book you HAVE to know what is going to happen next. Sometimes, unfortunately, I knew what was going to happen next before it happened because I had figured out the often rather puerile cryptic clues before the combined talents of the lead characters, who happen to be the world's greatest symbologist and one of France's best cryptologists. So much for character credibility. What bothered me most about this book was that although there was a cursory "Fact" page at the beginning stating a few items of non-fiction upon which the book is based, I couldn't differentiate what was fact, factoid, and fantasy, apart from what was obviously fiction. I thought Dan Brown could have added an author's afterword at the end to help the reader in this regard. I suppose I could read "De-Coding Da Vinci: The Facts Behind the Fiction of the Da Vinci Code" when it's released. But having put "The DaVinci Code" down a final time, I don't think I care anymore. "The DaVinci Code" is definitely a page-turner. You are driven to climb peak after peak of suspense. But the final descent is into a valley of disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: read the original - it was better
Review: if you found this book as lacking in intellectual stimulation as i did and you would like to read the excellent original from which the idea for this book were culled, read Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. THAT was challenging and none of the twists have predictable endings. To bad Mr. Brown, Angels and Demons was much more intriguing.
Rating:
Summary: Displeased
Review: If you have a good education you will find it hard to ignore this authors continuous factual mistakes. If I am too harsh, I can only say that I am not used to reading such poorly researched text. The fact that so many people find it so well researched makes me wonder about the sorry state of education in our country.
I am on page 217 so far, and I am still trying to push my way though it. It is not easy, for it is also not terribly interesting.
And the Silas character, what is he he supposed to be? , some kind of Catholic secret agent with a license to kill?
Please. This book so far feels like a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: If your a christian, then dont read this book!
Review: If you have already read this book, then you can check the facts. He cant get the correct date for the Qumran discovery, how can he pretend to give any other factual information. I recomend the dictionary of Apologetics by Norm Geisler for the answers to these weak suppositions.( apologetics are NOT apologies, they are the giving of an answer for the REASON behind your faith). The christian faith has nothing to fear from this sort of sensationalastic endeavor, but I wanted to warn any new christians about this book. It is not a christian book! Those who think this book is good-natured fun are mistaken. Re-writing history is serious no matter what kind of history you're talking about, fiction or not. However I will say one thing about the gnostic gospels that may make it clearer... In a thousand years when someone discovers a copy of the national inquirer, who is going to explain it to them!
Rating:
Summary: Plot can be found in previously published books
Review: If you have read HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL (1983) or similar books you may find this story entirely too predictable to enjoy. The central plot twists are based on traditions, speculations and legends previously published in other books. If you are not at all familiar with these theories you will probably enjoy the story. Whether you believe them or not the theories are interesting enough to carry the plot.
Rating:
Summary: I can see the movie already
Review: If you like John Grisham novels, then you'll like Da Vinci Code. It moves at breakneck speed and keeps you in suspense, and it really is a good ride, but then like Grisham novels, it sorta falls apart at the end. The unlikely turn of events in the last part of the book will leave many groaning, especially when you find out who the bad guy is and his motivations. If you think really hard about it, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But it's breezy, light reading, so just suspend your disbelief for a while and enjoy what is essentially the book version of a hollywood thriller.
Rating:
Summary: Christianity is a 2000 year old lie!
Review: If you like this book read "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. I say DOWN with christianity! Wake up people, a new age is upon us! No more killing in the name of a false god.
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