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The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code

List Price: $44.95
Your Price: $29.67
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The good news and the bad news
Review: The good news:
It is a riveting, fast-paced thriller, that is hard to put down before one has read it to the end.

The bad news:
The book is littered with factual faults. This is obvious to anyone having a rudimentary knowledge of: science, religious-history, geography, Paris, Europe, symbolism, computers, architecture, cars, world-history, aviation, banks etc. The author uses widespread name-dropping in every area instead of doing a more thorough research. Two small examples: How do you put a car with a manual transmission in "Park"? It doesn't make sense. How do you use a computer to calculate a ten digit access code for a bank account? You can't.

You have to be narrow-minded to thoroughly enjoy this book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Review: THE GOOD: The Da Vinci Code has already become a classic, sporting one of the most intricate and engrossing plots ever put to page. The story unfolds over a 24 hour period, and what a story it is! From Paris to London, the main characters are in a race against the French authorities, secret societies, and powerful religious organizations, all to break the codes revealing one of the most explosive secrets in history. It's difficult to praise such a novel without giving away pieces of the mystery, just note that if mystery is indeed what you crave, then Dan Brown's best seller will not dissapoint. The ideas presented in the novel have caused me to research the validity of some of the claims, and has provided me with a list of dozens of non-fiction books that continue the story through the theories put forth by scholars from all over the world. The secret disussed in it's pages are that powerful.

THE BAD: My two bits of criticism are directed at the lack of charisma posessed by the characters in the book, and that you sometimes get the feeling that you are reading an ode to Dan Brown's education and research instead of a novel. In a book so plot oriented, it must be hard to provide really interesting characters. And that's exactly one of it's shortfalls.

THE UGLY: The reactions of the characters to certain situations is rather ridiculous at times. And after discovering that much of the content/ideas came from non-fiction books already written leaves me questioning the authors creativity a bit.

CONCLUSION: Buy this book. It is destined to be a classic, and will be discussed for years to come. I could fill 400+ pages of my own just reviewing this book. It opens up so many doors, leaves so many questions lingering, and provides you with an extremely entertaining read that will leave you breathless. Highly, highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's All True
Review: The great thing about this awsome book is that it is ALL TRUE! It's great being able to get educated and entertained at the same time. I now know that Catholics are evil and the one true religion is paganism! These are just two of the eye opening facts revealed in this great work of literature.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting themes, predictable story
Review: The great thing about this book is how it brings to light how women have been neglected in th history of the Catholic Church. It is worth reading just for the education you get in that. The plot is the thriller-in-a-day variety that the author has used time and again. It works, but it's hurried and formulaic. I'm afraid when they make the movie (and they are sure to) they'll leave in all the action and take out the meat - Who is Mary, who is Mary Magdelene, what is their significance? Sigh.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: The hero of our story Robert Langdon is in Paris on business hrecieves a phone call thar curator of the Louvre has been murdered.Langdon had been scheduled to meet with the curator that night but the curator failed to show.A ciphered message is found on the floor near the body.Langdon teams up with French Cryptologist Sophie Neveu to try to solve this mystery.Many of the clues lie within the works of DaVinci.
Langdon discovers that the curator was involved with the Priory of Sion a secret society whose members include Sir Isaac
Newton,Botticelli,Victor Hugo,and Da Vinci.He believes that this society is hunting for an ancient secret.
Neveu and Langdon race across Paris and London trying to out wit a secret powerbroker.His identity will shock you.The ending of the book will shock you as well.
This is an excellent book that I enjoyed reading.It is definitely classified as a page turner.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Intrigued by Da Vinci Code? Don't be. Please.
Review: The idea wasn't bad. But the writing is horrendous. And the dialogue - dear God.

If you're looking for a real intellectual thriller, don't despair: Umberto Eco, Arturo Perez-Reverte and Sebastien Japrisot provide some of the very best, and they actually do research. Nikos Kazantzakis' "Last Temptation of Christ" is brilliant for those interested in alternative theories of Jesus. And Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" is an old classic that Dan Brown should have glanced over once or twice.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Interesting ideas wrapped up in thin thriller...
Review: The ideas posed by The Da Vinci Code are new to me, but as I research now I see they have been around for some time. Dan Brown does a good job bringing these ideas into the mainstream and gives us all a little more to ponder when it comes to religion and just what we believe.
The plot, however, motivated me to look elsewhere for a better thriller. Elmore Leonard and James Patterson have taken care of the for me. The beginning of the book starts out very cliche with the phone ringing and waking up the main charachter. Maybe if it started with Langdon tracing the medallions on his way to the Louvre to meet with Sauniere not knowing he had been killed already. But it wasn't until he got to the Louvre is when I considered the story to actually begin. Some people may think that the story takes a break-neck pace or a non-stop plunge into the grail quest it is, but I thought the story just drug whenever any of the characters would recall something in the past. I realize that the reminiscing was essential to the different plot threads, but maybe he could have done it in a more of an explanation method instead of the "I remember when..." method.
The characters are another bright spot of the book. Langdon and Sopie stand out to most, but it was Teabing the caught my attention the most. Brown did a great job capturing the British feel for him and some of his lines still run around in my head, including the draw bridge troll feeling I got when Langdon and Sofie first came to see him at his home. The only character actions I didn't like was the relationship between Langdon and Sophie at the end. It seems like most writers fall into that two people involved in a stressful and close situation often fall in love. Why can't the two just stay friends?
Overall The Da Vinci Code was an enjoyable book and I would recommend it to others, but if you want a more satisfying thriller, look to Leonard or Patterson.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Timely Read during the Harmonic Concordance
Review: The imagery that Dan Brown conjures up is quite vivid throughout the entire novel.

I commend the author for helping people to awaken to other customs, rituals, belief systems and hierarchy within organizations.

From 8-NOV through 23-NOV, celestial bodies will form the Magen David above the planet Earth. This symbol is discussed in detail, throughout the novel. I wonder if the author is trying to help people understand that the "Star of David" is not just for the Jewish people. Dan Brown references this symbol being used by the ancients before Judaism.

The subtle reference to the 325A.D. conference of priests and the casting out of certain Divine Teachings (like reincarnation) was thoughtful, historically accurate, and might help Catholic Christians better understand the levels of hell.

I very much enjoyed this. What's next, Dan Brown?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: FASCINATING!!!!!
Review: The information in this book is absolutely fascinating. Information that would shatter the foundations of what churches have been teaching for centuries. Read this book! It will leave you wanting to find out more about the Holy Grail and the strong possibility that Jesus was a mortal man. Anyone who gave a negative rating to this book is either uneducated or closed-minded. This is a brilliant book, with a movie to be directed by Ron Howard on its way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "Pure Genius" is right!
Review: The inside cover of The DaVinci Code says "This is pure genius." This couldn't be closer to the truth. In an incredible show of creativity, imagination, and cunning, Dan Brown brings to life an ancient secret the likes of which I have never seen before. To be concise, this is the most interesting book I have ever read - and it has everything a book of its type needs: action, suspense, mystery and everything between. The characters are fanatastic and dynamic, the plot has a blissful mixture of action and information, and the puzzles and codes are unbelievably clever. The way that Mr. Brown ties these seemingly unrelated facts (every bit of information about history and art is true) into a single novel is utterly stunning. Dan Brown is many steps ahead of today's writers. Read this book... I promise you will love it!


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