Customer Reviews

The Da Vinci Code

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I've never been in Paris. I wasn't a DaVinci's fan and didn't know much about his works & paintings except Mona Lisa. When I picked up Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code to read, I did have a hard time to follow the Da Vinci's works and some sightseeings in Paris described in the book. Thus, I had my computer connected to Internet besides me to dig out different paintings and photos of what the book mentioned like Louvre, Pentacle, The Last Supper, Opus Dei Headquarters, etc. Luckily, The Da Vinci Code Special Illustrated Edition is just out.

I couldn't wait and purchased immediately regardless I have the regular hardcover edition of Da Vinci Code, which I plan to give it to one of my friends. This Special Illustrated Edition is not a cartoon or comic edition of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, nor it is an abridged version. It's a full original version embedded with over 126 colorful pictures & photos besides the text. It saves you lots of time & effort to search from Internet if you don't know how Château de Villette looks like, the overview map of the Louvre, and many other scenes, buildings, paintings mentioned in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Overall, it's LOVELY!

Undoubtfully Dan Brown has done amazing jobs to his book "The Da Vinci Code". The story is powerful and magnificent. Mixing with a lot of traceable truth and facts, he made his novel sound extremely convincing and inevitably deluded you from what's real and what's fictional. However, please don't take it too serious, it's just a novel, not a research paper trying to make a breakthrough statement. Overall, the book has quite a lot of twists shocking you. Even the ending has double meanings. Make sure you read the Epilogue chapter, or you won't know where the Holy Grail rests that Dan Brown suggested as the poem below:

"The Holy Grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits.
The blade and chalice guarding o'er Her gates.
Adorned in masters' loving art, She lies.
She rests at last beneath the starry skies."

For people who love deciphering codes, Dan Brown wisely placed some codings on the regular hardcover edition's paper cover. If you pay attention you may find some bold fonts seemed appearing randomly. Link them up and you should see a hint to read.

(Reviewed by Otto Yuen, 21-Nov-2004)

An excellent read, but it's truly SAD to think that some readers assume that Dan Brown's contrived history is factual and would even base their spiritual beliefs on a book of fiction. Just read some of the other reviews to see what I'm talking about. It reminds of the guy who watched too many episodes of Highlander and decided he was an immortal! (I'm not making this up.)

One reader compared Da Vinci Code to James BeauSeigneur's Christ Clone Trilogy and suggested that like BeauSeigneur, Brown should footnote all the factual material. While BeauSeigneur and Brown have a similar style and both deal with controversial religious topics, BeauSeigneur can footnote the facts in his fiction BECAUSE THEY ARE FACTS. Brown's "facts" cannot be footnoted because they are a fictitious as the rest of the book.

Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is an interesting book for a number of reasons. It is entertaining yet essentially light reading. It is also filled with tantalizing bits of information about the history of Christianity and a miriad of other related topics including paganism, Gnosticism, The Knights Templar, art history, and the Holy Grail.

The most fascinating aspect of this novel is the overwhelming public interest and controversy surrounding many of the assertions Brown makes in this book. It may be safe to assume that most people have little or no previous exposure to these topics and it certainly has generated extreme controversy in Christian circles. There are no less than 20 books in print that attempt to support or refute the information found in "The Da Vinci Code". I have never seen such polarization over a work of fiction before. That said, this illustrated edition is just the kind of thing to not only make the reading experience more enjoyable and interesting, but to continue to stir things up by providing visual references for the works of art, architecture, and religious symbology discussed in the text. Here it is pretty hard to dispute some of the things Brown talks about when it is staring at you in living color. This would seem to give the book's many detractors more work to do also.

"The Da Vinci Code" is not great literature by any means, but it is entertaining nonetheless. I would recommend it especially for the simple fact that it presents ideas that make people think. This was obviously not the original intent of this work of fiction, but has turned out to be one of its strongest selling points.

I was introduced to the books of author Dan Brown only three weeks ago, but have quickly absorbed all four of his published works. It is easy to see why some are comparing the work of Dan Brown and James BeauSeigneur (THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY). Both Brown and BeauSeigneur deal masterfully with the more mysterious features of religion, politics, and science. Both bring to light amazing bits of information, which they weave into the intricate patterns of their stories. Both are highly imaginative and write with a ring of authenticity that makes for a compelling read. While Brown compresses labyrinthine plots into brief time periods to provide page-turning suspense, BeauSeigneur trilogy is of epic proportion, covering several decades. While Brown applies the mysteries of history to the drama of "today," BeauSeigneur uses both history and prophecy (from perhaps a dozen major world religions) to transport the reader from the world of today, to the very dawning of a new age in a story reminiscent of the scope of Asimov's classic, FOUNDATION.

One other difference is that BeauSeigneur has taken the novel (pun intended and forgiveness is asked) approach of including footnotes in his books of fiction. By doing so, he all but eliminates the necessity of suspending disbelief. Few authors employ such strong factual grounding as to make footnotes useful, but I believe Brown's work (and his readers) would benefit from BeauSeigneur's innovation.

This is a pretty formulaic page turner, a fun quick read. Written at about the level of the average Nancy Drew mystery, it is best appreciated at that level. As far as the content, there are howlers on virtually every page (starting with the hero who looks like "Harrison Ford in Harris tweed" and is a "Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard" -- good work if you can find it). You have to ignore very pulpy, cheesy writing to enjoy this romantic thriller.

Intended as a book that a dedicated reader could finish in a day, or something you take to the beach and casually finish in a weekend, "The Da Vinci Code" makes for a reasonable airline novel, so much so that it is often a bit clunky in its desire to ensure that no intellectual effort on the reader's part will be required. Here's a recurring example in this novel: a bit of unfamiliar terminology, say "crux gemmata" (jeweled cross) will will be explained on page N, then on page N+1, a character will finger his jeweled cross and explain, "Oh, yes -- this is a crux gemmata." I've read dinner menus that were more demanding on the reader. My wife and I both read about a third of it in a day, sharing the same copy, and that's a full work day plus taking care of kids, bedtime, etc. That's also a kind of virtue, I guess -- it's fast and peppy.

As far as history goes, Dan Brown apparently thinks that "most historians" give credence to the forgeries and frauds promoted in hoary best-sellers like "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." This author gets the best of both worlds: simultaneously claiming that "it's just fiction," while introducing the novel with claims that the historical record contained within is "fact." That claim is ridiculous. To pluck a random example, he spends some time talking about the Council of Nicaea, and incorrectly summarizes it as the origin of the doctrine of Christ's divinity by Constantine. He ignores the Arian controversy out of which it arose, which is like trying to explain the Treaty of Versailles without mentioning World War I. He ignores the documented fact, agreed upon even by the cheerleaders of the gnostics that he is sympathetic to, that the earliest gnostic doctrines held that Christ was *purely* God, and not really man -- the very reverse of the doctrine that serves as the lynchpin of his novel's intellectual base (such as it is). This is a bad novel for weak or misinformed Christians, but anyone familiar with history should spot the train wreck of Brown's ideas a mile off.

Oh yes, and in Brown's world, Opus Dei has shadowy assassin "monks" (in real life, Opus Dei is not a monastic order -- there are no Opus Dei monks, let alone trained assassins), and the Catholic Church has been promulgating known lies as its central dogmas, promotes violence throughout the world, and has been retarding the progress of science and knowledge for 2 millennia. Brown leaves the reader with the impression that this, too, is a matter of settled historical record. Oh, but then again, it's just fiction. Except when it's not.

In general, if you're looking for a heady thriller wrapped around Christian arcana, I'd recommend Umberto Eco's excellent "Name of the Rose," not this dumbed down, by-the-numbers novel.

For the time-challenged, here is the short version of this review:

Highs: the French sentences are correctly spelled.

Lows: everything else.

Want a more complete picture? Read on, but don't say I didn't warn you.

The basic premise of "The Da Vinci Code" is this: an American expert on religious symbology uncovers a conspiracy to eliminate the descendants of Mary Magdalene, who was Jesus Christ's wife. He is aided by a French cryptologist, who happens to be the recent victim's granddaughter, while being chased around by the French police and, naturally, the Catholic Church's hitman. Hero and heroine go through an esoteric version of a treasure hunt involving, more of less in this order: a message written in blood, another message written in invisible ink, a permutation of the Fibonacci sequence, a safe deposit box key, a box with a rose on its lid and a white cylinder with five coded sections inside, an inverted message (in English, despite having been written by a Frenchman, for his French granddaughter), a tomb in London, a smaller cylinder, presumably with a papyrus inside, and here I stop to avoid spoiling the non-climax.

Needless to say, this by itself would not carry the story very far but, wait, there's more: did I mention the Catholic Church is dead set against our heroes ever discovering its dirty secret, and therefore they're throwing in their best and brightest to thwart them? Namely: a self-flagellating, gigantic albino with an IQ of around 20, who seems to be perpetually on crack, plus a jet-set American bishop connected with a mysterious "Teacher" (whom I won't reveal, either, lest I spoil this component of the final non-climax as well). And that's it. No Sicilian Mafia, no Spanish Inquisition, no Swiss Guard-sorry, wrong again: there's the French police, perpetually two steps behind everyone else in the story, but speaking lots of correctly spelled French (unlike the Spanish in the book).

Characters: you've probably guessed it. Robert Langdom, the hero, is a Harvard version of Indiana Jones. He's an expert in religion, maybe because of his belief that religion is bad for people. At the end, he hasn't changed one iota. Sophie Neveu is the granddaughter of the previous Grand Master of the "Priory of Sion," and this fact is key, because she keeps remembering things her granddad had told her long ago so she could solve the mystery. We're told she's a brilliant cryptologist but her memory, however, is so weak that the necessary clues only come back after pages and pages of mental jogging. As to the villains, I've already mentioned the albino and the bishop; the French police inspector is very French (as in "Casablanca," but without the jokes), which defines him completely. There's also an English scholar, Sir Leigh Teabing, who hides a terrible secret behind his facile demeanor. This secret is definitely not his deep aversion to the Catholic Church, which he expostulates through lengthy lectures.

Plotwise, the book follows a treasure hunt structure, with chapters interspersed to show how the villains are getting closer to the heroes. At some point, the albino catches up with them but they disable him easily despite having no weapons (this sort of thing happens again in the non-climax scene, involving another villain that I won't mention). This and the "anima ex machina" interventions by the dead grandfather, who always had the right clue to give but Sophie had somehow forgotten until that very moment, make for very dull reading. Here is a typical page: Langdon and Sophie are stumped by the most recent clue. They talk back and forth for many pages. Then Langdon reveals a piece of the ongoing Catholic conspiracy against the defenders of truth and freedom, and then Sophie remembers something her grandfather had once told her, which leads them to the next clue after maybe using a bit of kindergarten-level cryptography. Rinse. Repeat.

As for setting, the whole book has a luscious white-room feel, where the only locations described in any detail are the albino's hideouts. Even street addresses are given for those (they are, apparently, Opus Dei centers, whom anyone can find in a phonebook). After he goes inside, accuracy goes out the window, but what do readers know? Depictions of the albino's self-flagellations are presented at the start, probably to hook the reader, but these too seem taken from medieval stories rather than modern-day practices of corporal mortification. There are lectures on the Priory of Sion and Church's big conspiracy against them, but you can get more depth from a Web search for a fraction of the cost, and I suspect this is precisely all the author did.

Style? Every problem imaginable can be found: non-simultaneous present-participle constructions, chopped-up, stilted yet mundane dialog, adverbs galore. It reads quickly, but I suspect this is mainly because you end up skipping a lot so your mind doesn't shut down. All of the above recommends a zero-star rating which, hopefully, Amazon.com will consider after this experience.

So, is there something going for "The Da Vinci Code"? Why is it selling so well? Aside from the fact that many best-sellers are manufactured by marketing devices, the most memorable trait of this novel is its pervasive, corrosive attack on the Catholic Church, presented as the ultimate villain, eternal source of slavery, war, ignorance, and everything else bad that's ever happened, and this is probably why so many find it appealing (I find it hard to believe it's because of its elementary plot and shoddy writing). If wallowing in this stuff is what you like, go ahead and read "The Da Vinci Code." It may be boring otherwise, but you'll get your kicks.

You've got to be kidding me - *THIS* book has sold over 6 million copies and become an international sensation? That a book this badly written, characterised and plotted can be a runaway best seller is bad enough. That the ludicrous conspiracy theory it peddles, in between all the cliches, terrible dialogue and hackneyed chase scenes, is actually being given creedence by some readers is much, much worse.

This is an astonishingly stupid, stupid, stupid book.

Other reviewers have already outlined Brown's flaws as an author, but what bothers me most is the way favourable reviewers (including some professionals) keep talking about his "impeccable research". Did we read the same novel? Anyone who is familiar with "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" would recognise that about 80% of the (ahem) "information" Langdon drones on and on and on about has been lifted directly from that classic piece of lowbrow, pulp, pseudo-historical conspiracy.

In fact, on the first page of Chapter 60 Brown effectively gives the reader his whole bibliography: Lincoln, Baigent and Leigh's "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", Picknett and Prince's "The Templar Revelation", and Margaret Starbird's "The Woman with the Alabaster Jar" and "The Goddess in the Gospels". These four books - widely ridiculed and utterly discredited pieces of paperback speculation of no academic standing whatsoever - represents the bulk of Brown's "impeccable historical research". That he is able to convince people that the pastiche of nonsense he extracts from these crackpot books is credible says something about our culture's historical illiteracy.

And about its chronic lack of informed critical thinking. An intelligent 12 year old would be able to dispose of much of Brown's "impeccable research" given access to an internet connection or a decent encyclopaedia.

Brown has one characters lecture about the suppressed gospels found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls - a 15 second search on Google could tell you that *NO* gospels or Christian writings of any kind were found in the Qumran material.

Brown says the Council of Nicea set the canon of the New Testament. A few minutes browsing reveals that the canon was *not even discussed* at that Council and that an official canon was not set until the Council of Trent 1300 years later.

Brown says that the Witch Craze was orchestrated by "the Vatican" and resulted in "five million" women being burnt by "the Inquisition". In fact, the Witch Craze was a largely *Protestant* phenomenon, the numbers killed over a 300 year period are around 20-50,000 and 20% of them were men.

And so it goes on. Virtually everything Brown presents as "fact" in this stupid novel is either wrong, completely wrong or wildly and unbelieveably wrong. Many of those who have criticised this book have been Catholics - which is understandable, considering how their Church is presented in the book. But this book is not just offensive to believers (I'm an atheist), it's an insult to anyone with a knowledge of medieval history and the history of early Christianity. Or anyone with a brain.

I'm with the others who have recommened Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" instead - it's smart, well written, amusing and well researched. And, unlike "The Da Vinci Code" it laughs at stupid conspiracy theories. Brown's terrible novel shows why they deserve to be ridiculed.

One star because you can't give them no stars. Terrible.

I have read most of the reviews on this book, and I am glad I did so AFTER reading the book myself. I found this book EXTREMELY interesting and entertaining. It is fun to read a book that gets the ole juices flowing in the brain again. Like other reviews have said, I found myself putting down the book and running to the computer constantly to do research. It made me WANT to learn more about art, Christianity, history, etc. So what if a few of the facts are not 100% correct? I looked up on the computer what was important to me, and am enjoying all the new information and theories. It will be a fun topic of discussion and debate with my friends who are Christians, Buddists, Athiests, Agnostic, etc.

It is a novel, not a faith deciding textbook. If you don't agree with facts, go look it up yourself and find what YOU think is true! If that bothers you, then go read in the non-fiction department.

Don't get me wrong, I am a Christain, and am very comfortable in my faith. I think reading The Bible cover to cover can be more disturbing! Talk about contradictions...To all the people who gave it a one star vote, thanks for your reading suggestions of "The Purpose-Driven Life","Gospel", etc. I look forward to reading those too. An open mind is a happy mind.

Before you part with any cold hard cash, think back to your first creative writing class... now, remember the clunky prose and paper-thin characterizations of the least talented class members. This will give you an idea of how The DaVinci Code reads.

Don't get me wrong: I'm no literary snob, and I love a good Michael Crichton or Stephen King as much as the next person, but The DaVinci Code was no Firestarter. Many of the theories it hints at are never developed; the editor (if there was one) was clearly asleep at the wheel; and the characters themselves are so clichéd and unbelievable that you will soon find you are only reading to find out how it all ends. In short, Dan Brown makes John Grisham look like Shakespeare.

However, despite its flaws, this novel is not without merit:

BONUS #1: Dialogue so stilted you will laugh out loud.

BONUS #2: Possibly the lamest, least imaginative, most one-dimensional rendering ever of an uptight Brit by an American author... found myself wondering less where the holy grail was and more why on earth Brown chose to revive such a dull, DOA stereotype for one of his main characters.

BONUS #3: You DO have a chance in hell of getting published after all!

For a somewhat better read on the same subject, I recommend The Prophetess by Barbara Wood.

For author Dan Brown, I recommend Creative Writing 101 and a seasoned editor!

As so many have said before me, this is a terribly underwhelming novel. The writing is stilted, the characterization lacking, and the plot predictable while still being improbable.
And as for the "revelations" and the "intense amount of research" that went into this novel - all I can say to those comments is that they demonstrate the deplorable state of the public education system in the US. None of the "historical facts" in the novel were particularly revelatory to me - a product of the public school system in the US, but apparently one of the few who wasn't comatose during history.

It's mildly entertaining, and if it gets people to crack open a book, great. But the controversy is just silly. Anyone who has their faith seriously challenged by this book was obviously not particularly devout, or at least not very well educated, in the first place. And, as other critics and commentators have noted, it's terribly sad that it takes this sort of novel to get millions of people to take a serious interest in the history and origins of their religion.

In short, I've read Star Trek novels that were more profound, thought-provoking, and better researched. Not to mention better executed.