The Da Vinci Code

Author - Dan Brown ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Doubleday was reviewed on 29-Jul-2008.

Search ISBN:0385504209 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. The Da Vinci Code Reference Book. Classifications : United States 18th Century 19th Century 20th Century African American Asian American Classics Collections & Readers Drama General Hispanic History & Criticism Humor Jewish American Letters & Correspon . Click the following link to view the cover of The Da Vinci Code.

Related topics: United States. 18th Century. 19th Century. 20th Century. African American. Asian American. Classics. Drama. General. Hispanic.

1) Paperback Book The Da Vinci Code by Doubleday. I read the Da Vinci Code because..., well, I was traveling and everyone seemed to be reading it. After I finished it, I felt as if I had had a lot of warm beer: bloated with empty calories, left with mildly unpleasant taste and a slight headache.

The fact that this book is a bestseller can make one question the value of universal literacy. It is really badly written. I didn´t expect Updike or Vonnegut, but Dan Brown makes even Clive Cussler appear a decent wordsmith. To add insult to injury, the Da Vinci Code fails the genre and becomes predictable halfway through.

The story is inhabited by "comic strip" -grade characters bumping around, solving absurd puzzles placed there for reasons which make no particular sense. From time to time, a character stops what they are doing, leans against a wall, or stares into space and thinks "deep thoughts", through which the puzzles are solved and the premise of the book is laid out. These are sprinkled with what passes for historical and religious factoids, often researched poorly enough for the errors to be apparent to a layman like me.

Before I stand accused, I am not religious in the least. I don´t find the book offensive (other than by being so badly written): in fact political correctness oozes from it, as does the author´s apparent desire to be liked by everyone and sell to everyone (and this includes the good Catholics among book buyers:-)

If you want a well written and well researched "conspiracy theory through the ages" tale, get Umberto Eco´s Foucault´s Pendulum. For a nice travel crime story, pick up P.D. James.

As for the Da Vinci Code..., I have played computer games that have higher literary merit than this. Really.¤

2) Paperback Book The Da Vinci Code by Doubleday. Dan Brown hit a homerun here. This book has an awesome story line and really keeps you wanting more. The action is fast yet easy to keep up with. Brown has a great way of making you feel like you know what´s going on in the story, but still surprises you in the end. Read the book first, saw the movie second, and the book was MUCH better.¤

3) Paperback Book The Da Vinci Code by Doubleday. I found myself up very very late reading this book. The ending was ok, but overall a must read.¤

4) Paperback Book The Da Vinci Code by Doubleday. Davinci Code had an interesting beginning. I liked how he drew the reader in with his introduction of the curator, langdon, the bishop and albino. Initially engrossing, but BEWARE, the last two thirds drag. He regurgitates a good deal of his plot twists as the novel wears on. I had his ´twists´ and characters figured chapters ahead of time. I even guessed the last cryptic clue APPLE pages and pages before Langdon figured it out. These characters with their Ivy league PhD´s should be able to outsmart me - but they didn´t!

As far as the religious controversy. Any intelligent, practicing Christian takes it with a grain of salt. Obviously, those most vulnerable to this kind of tripe are people of little faith, minimal worship and study of Christianity. Brown is so repetitive in his love of pagan rituals, sun dieties, and feminine goddess garble that it turns the reader off completely. He seems to be writing for a less intelligent audience. Why else would an author insist on such redundancy unless he felt his audience wasn´t smart enough to grasp his message the first time around? Yawn.

Overall, I´d give the first 150 pages four stars. Brown could have easily shaved off 100 of the last 200 pages and still made this a pretty good read. The last third (two stars at best) really dragged on and the ending was highly predictible (if your inferencing skills go beyond a third grade level).¤

5) Paperback Book The Da Vinci Code by Doubleday. Loathed by elitist literary critics, wannabe highbrows and religious conservatives, The Da Vinci Code is by any measure a work of genius. To dismiss it as pop drivel is to overlook the fact that countless writers are striving to produce catchy pulp fiction that will propel them to stardom and riches - and few succeed. The book is riveting, fascinating, thought-provoking, surprising and a masterful work of entertaining fiction. If you feel above such light fare, fine, go read Dostoyevsky or James Joyce , but spare us your condescension. As for the religious opposition to the work, any book - in our postmodern day and age in which we are exposed to so many different realities - capable of stirring up so much passionate opposition and so much sincere interest in weighty topics like religion and philosophy and history, is frankly some kind of masterpiece.¤

6) Paperback Book The Da Vinci Code by Doubleday. While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci -- clues visible for all to see -- yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion -- an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory´s ancient secret -- and an explosive historical truth -- will be lost forever.

THE DA VINCI CODE heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightning-paced, intelligent thriller…utterly unpredictable right up to its stunning conclusion.¤

7) Paperback Book The Da Vinci Code by Doubleday. With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder mystery with a collection of fascinating esoteria culled from 2,000 years of Western history.

A murder in the silent after-hour halls of the Louvre museum reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected by a clandestine society since the days of Christ. The victim is a high-ranking agent of this ancient society who, in the moments before his death, manages to leave gruesome clues at the scene that only his granddaughter, noted cryptographer Sophie Neveu, and Robert Langdon, a famed symbologist, can untangle. The duo become both suspects and detectives searching for not only Neveu´s grandfather´s murderer but also the stunning secret of the ages he was charged to protect. Mere steps ahead of the authorities and the deadly competition, the mystery leads Neveu and Langdon on a breathless flight through France, England, and history itself. Brown (Angels and Demons) has created a page-turning thriller that also provides an amazing interpretation of Western history. Brown´s hero and heroine embark on a lofty and intriguing exploration of some of Western culture´s greatest mysteries--from the nature of the Mona Lisa´s smile to the secret of the Holy Grail. Though some will quibble with the veracity of Brown´s conjectures, therein lies the fun. The Da Vinci Code is an enthralling read that provides rich food for thought. --Jeremy Pugh¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 26-Aug-2008, 03855042099780385504201, 090-820-870-SYB-0AB-F4B-8

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