Rating: 
Summary: HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL, HOLY COW
Review: Well, it's interesting to see by his remarkable new bestseller, THE DA VINCI CODE, that author Dan Brown has been reading many of the same books I have. Not sure if I should congratulate or pity. In 1984, I bought my first copy of Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln's controversial and much maligned HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL, a veritable Pandora's box of secret societies, heretical orders, medieval murder and intrigue involving (supposedly) an astonishing array of some of the greatest artists and thinkers in Occidental history. Aside from some particularly sensational claims, the book did host an impressive measure of very scholarly research into certain shadowy avenues of history I had few ideas about. I was, in a word, hooked.In the years since then, along with my regular diet of novels and mainstream nonfiction, I consumed a good deal of HOLY BLOOD spin-offs. Too many, really; a few were quite fun, but most were just strange and preposterous crackpot pseudo-histories. Like the flying saucers of the fifties and sixties, suddenly the whole of ancient and classical Christendom was somehow encoded with one great secret message after another, and amateur symbologists and geometers were having an endless field day. Never naive enough to become disillusioned in any real sense, still I was disappointed that more serious research wasn't being done, but it seemed the whole tainted business had become anathema to the powers that be in our present-world academia.
Dan Brown is, undeniably, well read in this area. What he lacks in prose style--which is considerable--he almost makes up for in his use of all this anecdotal history, this mudslide of minutiae, a manic, relentless assault upon the reader. I can only imagine how this all might affect someone who has never read of or heard any of these theories before.
If, as a fiction writer, Brown has mastered anything, it's the trick of the twist, unexpected turns of events stacked so densely one atop the other here as to be mind-numbingly humorous. Reading DA VINCI, I thought of nothing more than old James Bond movies--then it occurred to me how Oliver Stone had done much the same thing with his movie JFK. Recipe being, you get yourself a juicy conspiracy, gather together every known crumb of theory and leftover tale concerning it, throw in a few more or less interesting characters (the wooden variety will do just fine; no time to waste), sprinkle in a few exotic, historically drenched locales, stir and heat to a rolling boil until the lid goes through the roof.
If the function of art is to arrest the mind, Dan Brown succeeds only in testing it. And if the pace of his novel were not so astonishingly quick, he would succeed also in trying our patience. He seems to be betting all along on a sure hand of keeping one step ahead of the reader and in that I'm quite sure he has not failed himself.
Rating:
Summary: Not such a hot book
Review: Well, two of my friends insisted I read this book, so I did. I've read better books, although I did finish it. I guess the 'rapid fire' and 'action-packed' etc, etc, nature of the book got to me, it all seems a bit pat, i.e. the right things just keep happening to these two rather flat characters. It would be a good airplane book, the kind you could read and follow with a huge jet engine roaring outside your window. I haven't reviewed a book that had 1200 other Amazon reviews, and I see huge piles of this book in the brick-and-mortar stores, so I am probably in the minority on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Shaggy-dog story
Review: Well-written mystery-thriller keeps you involved at the beginning. But it is historically misleading, often inaccurate. You put up with too much overt pagan proselytizing and are let down by an unsatisfying denouement to the mystery of "the Grail." I advise against wasting your time on it. If you have sufficient knowledge of history of art or of religion, you will be aggravated. If you don't, you are likely to be deceived!
Rating: 
Summary: A REAL eye-opener! Can't put this down!
Review: What a book! And let me say, because of the length of the story, try the "large print". Makes your eyes a lot less tired. My cousin told me about this book. I had never heard of it. I could not put it down. The story is excellent and the truths that were told were something that just simply confirms my beliefs. Anyone who insults this book down for its content, should reconsider. Open your eyes to the possibilities as they exist. The Bible, some believe is the word of God. However, others like I, believe that they are simply stories... made up. They sound good, but come on. And that Jesus is not the Son of God. But instead a mere human. I had to go online and look for the Last Supper after I finished the book. I found it, and WOW. Thanks Dan Brown.
Rating:
Summary: Solid reading
Review: What a captivating read! I loved Dan Brown's previous books, and this one is completely great. Plot twists, lots of rich histroy, a fun page-turner. Quick reading!
Rating: 
Summary: One of the year's best !
Review: What a Christmas for thrillers! I received Michael West's awesome novel "The Wide Game" (which I read in a day!) and this incredible thriller (also read in one day)! There's been a killing in the Louvre and the race is on to discover the truth behind an ancient secret, a secret hidden away since the time of Christ. West makes your heart race as you turn each page, but Brown takes it a step further to make your brain race as well. This is powerful work that will have you thinking long after you are done! I can't recommend it more!
Rating:
Summary: Cypher This
Review: What a disappointment. Brown's story starts out well enough, a murder in a museum, a secret religious society and couple of relatively attractive characters thrown together in a break-neck paced plot. So what went wrong? Just about everything. By the end of this book I found myself screaming - Get on with it!!! What's the point of so many cryptic references - it felt like I was working my way through a puzzle book. Brown tries so hard to impress us with the "mystery" of the Holy Grail and his pseudo-religious plotline that he forgets to tell the story.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written Prose
Review: What a dissapointment. The topic is well researched but the prose is very poorly written. He actually uses the simile "the ambulance sirens cut through the night like a knife." I think I wrote that in a seventh grade paper. The religious history is interesting for those not well versed in Christian lore but is the author writing down to a median intelligence level? Not that I think all writing should make a contribution to the "canon" but jeez - do bestsellers have to be so cliche???
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and fun to read
Review: What a fun book to read! The fact-based trivia are clear evidence of the author's research efforts which make the story even more entertaining. Even though he doesn't understand GPS capabilities (nor does Clive Cussler - a wristwatch GPS will NOT work in a submarine deep underwater), it's a minor matter and doesn't really detract from the fast-paced story. Now I'm off to the library to take another look at Da Vinci's paintings...
Rating:
Summary: A Top-notch Thriller
Review: What a great book! After reading this book, I began searching for information re Da Vinci's paintings. It was shocking to look at the Last Supper & Madonna (original version) now.
Enjoy!
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