The Da Vinci Code

published	March 28th 2006 by Anchor
first published	2003
binding	Paperback
isbn	1400079179 (isbn13: 9781400079179)
pages	496
description	With The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown masterfully concocts an intelligent and lucid thriller that marries the gusto of an international murder myst...more [close] 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 [close]
date added	12-06-06 edit book

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Mer rated it:

12/25/07

bookshelves: tripeshitandgarbage

Read in January, 2004

recommends it for: morons and troglodytes

PLEASE do NOT recommend The Da Vinci Code to me because you think it's brilliant. Please do not try to explain to me that it is a "really interesting and eye-opening book." Just don't. Please.

I've read Iain Pear, I heart Foucault's Pendulum, Dashiell Hammett is my hero, Alan Moore is My Absolute Favorite, I listen to Coil on a fairly regular basis, and cloak n' dagger secret society/Priory of Sion/Knights of Templar-tinged num nums make me a very happy girl... but if you truly bel...more PLEASE do NOT recommend The Da Vinci Code to me because you think it's brilliant. Please do not try to explain to me that it is a "really interesting and eye-opening book." Just don't. Please.

I've read Iain Pear, I heart Foucault's Pendulum, Dashiell Hammett is my hero, Alan Moore is My Absolute Favorite, I listen to Coil on a fairly regular basis, and cloak n' dagger secret society/Priory of Sion/Knights of Templar-tinged num nums make me a very happy girl... but if you truly believe that Brown's stupid airport thriller has ANY right whatsoever to be placed in the same category with Michael "Wooden Dildo Dialogue" Crichton, let alone Umberto Eco, kindly keep this opinion very far away from me, or the ensuing conversation we have will not be constructive or polite in any way.

I loathe Dan Brown. I resent him for spoon-feeding the masses pseudo-intellectual "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" D-grade thriller shite under a pretense of real sophistication, and getting orally serviced by The New York Times for his effort.

I'd heard that the novel was meticulously researched and contained some really interesting and controversial assessments of religious zealotry. Um, not really? Well, not by my Merovingian standards, anyway. :D

Let's put it this way. If Dan Brown was teaching an Insurgent Christian Symbolism in Art and Literature 101 class at my local community college, I'd definitely have a different opinion about him.

But NO. Dan Brown is not a professor of anything but pap. He is a barely competent thriller writer who wrote an AWFUL book that I could not bear to finish because I felt my IQ plummeting a little further with every "Let's Go to Paris! Guidebook" description and blowhard authorial essay. Oh, don't even get me started about those cute soliloquies the main characters are so fond of delivering, ever so calmly, often while cops n' bovvers are chasing them.

The characters are weakly drawn. The dialog is excruciating. The research is shoddy and self-serving at best. The plot, no matter how open-minded you are, is beyond ludicrous. It's laughable enough to be incorporated into the next Indiana Jones movie. That'd be sweet, dude.

What really irks me are Dan Brown's sanctimonious interviews, wherein he shows off all of his priceless antiques while expressing his abiding convictions that the American public needs a "deeper appreciation" of art and history and culture. What a shallow, self-aggrandizing hypocrite. I'm all for fictional subversion of the dominant Catholic paradigm, but only if the subverter knows what the hell they're talking about. Brown DOESN'T. He's all "la la la, connect the dots" but the picture he comes up with is awkward and unconvincing.

The DaVinci Code is a dead easy, nay, downright lazy read, and yet droves of people are patting themselves on the back for having read and *gasp* actually understood it. Like this is some spectacular achievement? WHY? What, because the slipcover describes it as "erudite"? Are you fucking kidding me?

Don't believe the hype, kids. You are profoundly more intelligent than this holiday page-turner gives you credit for.

If you really, honestly, just plain liked the book, that's cool I guess. Maybe you also prefer Anne Geddes to Alfred Stieglitz, Kenny G to Sidney Bechet, John Tesh to Igor Stravinsky. Your prerogative. Just.... please don't try to tell me that this is "fascinating" or "meaningful literature". Frickin' read The Club Dumas or something. Then we'll talk, and I won't want to shoot myself in the face.

Alright, glad I purged that poison from my system. Carry on....less

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Michael rated it:

(review of isbn 0307277674)

02/10/08

The following is Dave Barry's take on the book, which is a lot better than any review I could write.

`The Da Vinci Code,' cracked
by Dave Barry

I have written a blockbuster novel. My inspiration was The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, which has sold 253 trillion copies in hardcover because it's such a compelling page-turner. NOBODY can put this book down:

MOTHER ON BEACH: Help! My child is being attacked by a shark!

LIFEGUARD (looking up from The DaVinci Code: Not now! I just got to page...more

Like this review? yes (29 people liked it)

2 comments

Jim rated it:

(review of isbn 0307277674)

07/17/07

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 b...more 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 hoary forgeries and frauds promoted in sensationalist 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 linchpin 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 The Name of the Rose, not this dumbed down, by-the-numbers novel....less

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Mirna rated it:

(review of isbn 0307277674)

02/15/08

Read in April, 2005

Buku ini ditulis belakangan dibandingkan Malaikat dan Iblis (Angels and Demons) oleh Brown pada tahun 2003, namun Serambi menerbitkannya lebih dulu daripada MdI yang cetakan pertamanya pada 2005 sementara buku ini dicetak pertama kali pada 2004.

The Da Vinci Code disebut sebagai buku paling kontroversial tahun ini karena memberikan sebuah teori konspirasi pembuktian bahwa Isa al Masih yang dianggap suci itu pernah mengawini seorang wanita yang tak kalah terkenalnya, Maria Magdalena. Dan perka...more Buku ini ditulis belakangan dibandingkan Malaikat dan Iblis (Angels and Demons) oleh Brown pada tahun 2003, namun Serambi menerbitkannya lebih dulu daripada MdI yang cetakan pertamanya pada 2005 sementara buku ini dicetak pertama kali pada 2004.

The Da Vinci Code disebut sebagai buku paling kontroversial tahun ini karena memberikan sebuah teori konspirasi pembuktian bahwa Isa al Masih yang dianggap suci itu pernah mengawini seorang wanita yang tak kalah terkenalnya, Maria Magdalena. Dan perkawinan itu membuahkan keturunan. Rupanya perdebatan status kemanusiawian Yesus yang Kristus itu sudah berlangsung cukup lama dalam kalangan kristiani sendiri.
Tokoh jagoannya masih juga Robert Langdon yang otaknya seksi dan kali ini pendamping wanitanya adalah seorang perempuan Perancis yang cerdas dan dididik di Inggris bernama Sophie Neveu. Thank God he didn’t romance her at all. Kalau tidak Langdon akan sangat kehilangan keistimewaannya sebagai jagoan berotak. He will be just another horny man who happens to be very smart and classy.

Alurnya masih kurang lebih sama dengan MdI, sanak keluarga Sophie terbunuh dalam sebuah rancangan konspiratif raksasa yang melibatkan pemecahan sandi yang rumit dan pengungkapan konspirasi tertua di dunia mengenai sejarah kehidupan pribadi Kristus. Kalau Vittoria Vetra kehilangan seorang ayah angkat, dalam artian yang kurang lebih sama Sophie juga kehilangan seorang ayah angkat, yaitu kakeknya Jacques Sauniere; seorang kurator Musee de Louvre dan sejarawan Perancis ternama yang merawatnya semenjak kecil karena orangtua, nenek dan adik lelakinya konon terbunuh dalam sebuah kecelakaan mobil.
Tokoh lainnya adalah Capitaine Bezu Fache, kepala biro intelijen Perancis, Police Judiciale (setara dengan FBI) yang diibaratkan seekor banteng mengamuk tak pandang bulu dan mempertaruhkan reputasinya. Ini semacam olok-olok khas Amerikanya Brown pada orang Perancis yang digambarkan selalu mematuhi hukum dan mudah tersinggung. Tokoh-tokoh polisi Perancis bawahan Fache juga digambarkan “khas” Perancis.

Olok-olok lebih lanjut ditujukan pada orang Inggris yang diwakilkan pada Sir Leigh Teabing, antagonis bangsawan sejarawan bergelar ksatria yang jadi gila karena obsesi terhadap legenda dewi dan Maria Magdalena. Karakternya sangat eksentrik, khas tokoh Inggris yang seringkali digambarkan oleh tulisan novel detektif picisan atau film Hollywood yang sudah ada sebelumnya (sejenis dengan Artful Dodger atau bahkan Remington Steele yang tampan). Kaya raya, memiliki selera humor yang aneh (maksudnya: sulit dimengerti orang Amerika), senang memperolok diri sendiri, sangat sophisticated, dan tahu benar apa yang diinginkannya—karena itu ia membuat rencana rumit untuk menjebak ketua lembaga gereja besar menjadi kambing hitamnya.

Kambing hitam dalam cerita ini adalah Uskup Aringarosa, kepala gereja Opus Dei, dan Silas, anak angkat albinonya yang tercerahkan dengan terlahir kembali setelah rangkaian “cobaan penebusan dosa”. Dua tokoh ini digambarkan begitu ingin dekat dengan Tuhan—dalam kasus Aringarosa, ia ingin menyebarkan jalan Tuhan yang paling benar, heh not the first of his kind— hingga bisa diterjemahkan sebagai fanatik fundamentalis yang sangat naif hingga bisa diperalat untuk tujuan yang kurang mulia.

Karakter dalam buku ini sedikit lebih manusiawi daripada dalam MdI. Sophie jelas jauh lebih manusiawi dari Vittoria yang bagai jagoan dalam sebuah game RPG. Fache, Teabing, dan si penjahat Silas masih dapat kita kenali blueprint Hollywoodnya. Timbul dugaan kalau Langdon ini Indiana Jones versi nerd Brown, yang memang ia akui dalam buku ini.
Senjata utama plot misterinya masih seputar konspirasi dan sekelompok teka-teki yang cerdas. Selain bepergian ke tempat-tempat yang dikisahkan dalam buku ini, Brown konon menyusunnya dengan berkonsultasi dengan orang yang pernah terlibat dalam Opus Dei, sejumlah ahli matematika, sejarah dan setumpuk buku referensi yang menyegarkan otak. Tak salah lagi buku ini cukup mendidik.

Kekuatan fiksi buku ini terletak pada dua hal. Yang pertama adalah settingnya yang berputar pada kehidupan kepercayaan Kristiani dan pertentangan yang sudah cukup sering dieksploitasi antara Ilmu pengetahuan/sekularitas dengan keagamaan/religi.

Yang kedua adalah alur konspirasi yang dibangun sangat kuat dan meyakinkan di atas landasan setting tadi.
Kegemparan yang ditimbulkan oleh buku ini pada umat Kristiani sepertinya terlalu berlebihan. Pembaca yang jeli akan melihat selera humor Brown dalam membeberkan plotnya. Dia bahkan menggunakan sistem anagram, meminjam beberapa nama asli orang dekatnya, untuk menamai karakter dalam buku-bukunya. Misalnya Jason Kaufman yang menjadi Jonas Faukman (keduanya sama-sama berprofesi sebagai editor). Atau Stan Planton dan Sylvie Baudeloque, yang terakhir muncul di buku MdI sebagai sekretaris presiden CERN. The Da Vinci Code seharusnya disebut The Dan Brown Code. Coba kita lihat berapa orang yang bisa memecahkan teka-teki dan anagram yang disebar Brown di buku itu berkenaan dengan kehidupan sehari-harinya.
Misteri dalam novel ini cukup menghibur dan suatu hari nanti mungkin Robert Langdon akan disejajarkan dengan Sherlock Holmes yang ternama.
...less

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Ethan rated it:

07/15/08

Read in May, 2005

Four stars for pure entertainment value.

However, Dave Barry's review gets five stars:

`The Da Vinci Code,' cracked
by Dave Barry

I have written a blockbuster novel. My inspiration was The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown, which has sold 253 trillion copies in hardcover because it's such a compelling page-turner. NOBODY can put this book down:

MOTHER ON BEACH: Help! My child is being attacked by a shark!

LIFEGUARD (looking up from The DaVinci Code: Not now! I just got to page 2...more

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Jake rated it:

(review of isbn 0385504209)

07/09/08

bookshelves: fiction, pulp

If for some reason you haven’t heard of the Da Vinci Code before now, I have no help for you. I live under a fairly substantive rock, and even I had heard of this book to death. I had even attempted to read it once or twice, during my stint at Waldenbooks, but couldn’t really get into it. So I gave up, and decided to relegate it to the same place as Titanic and Forrest Gump—works of popular culture that I have no interest in, and therefore, will not partake of. But in a testament to the po...more If for some reason you haven’t heard of the Da Vinci Code before now, I have no help for you. I live under a fairly substantive rock, and even I had heard of this book to death. I had even attempted to read it once or twice, during my stint at Waldenbooks, but couldn’t really get into it. So I gave up, and decided to relegate it to the same place as Titanic and Forrest Gump—works of popular culture that I have no interest in, and therefore, will not partake of. But in a testament to the power of the feminine wile, SV convinced me to read it, and so, at the suggestion of Professor Mortis, borrowed a copy from my local library before setting out for the Thanksgiving holiday (Thanks to PG and Laurion for their lending offers, though I did not take them up on it.).

So what did I think of this incredibly popular, highly controversial work that sold literally millions of copies, spawned a movie, and produced comments from the Vatican itself? In a word, it’s bad. Other appropriate single words might be awful, atrocious, terrible, or abominable. Other similar synonyms can be found here.

The Da Vinci Code is a combination of bad writing, shoddy history, poor plotting, and unconvincing characters that blends together to form a barely readable work. The fact that anyone took this work seriously in any capacity is amazing to me. The characters are flat, boring, and none of them exceed two dimensions at best. The “history” is so riddled with holes as to be completely unbelievable to the semi-alert observer (my favorite part is the explanation of how the Church’s desire to destroy the “sacred feminine” is responsible for Orthodox Jews and devout Muslims barring women from certain rites.). And finally, the plot just makes no damn sense. Even the much vaunted puzzles are fairly trite, and usually explained so quickly that it’s barely worth thinking about. The final puzzle that the main character is faced with is so mind-bogglingly obvious that anyone who knows how to draw a Mogen David (Star of David) can figure it out instantly.

So the question for me became this: given how awful this book is, why the hell is it so popular? I can offer the following explanations/observations.

First off, Brown employs a clever (and I use the term loosely) narrative structure in which he ends every single chapter on a cliffhanger. This forces the reader to continue reading, hoping to reach a payoff or stopping point that is never quite realized. Thus the reader keeps going to the next chapter, hoping to finally hit a point where the story will relax, only to discover that the story never really relaxes. It just plods relentlessly forward, like the Terminator chasing Sarah Connor with a SuDoKu puzzle.

In a similar vein, Brown keeps his chapters short. In fact, I’ve read verse poetry that was longer than some of the chapters in this book (and considerably better written). This helps the reader feel as though they are making progress, because they’re suddenly on Chapter 44, and can reach Chapter 50 with only a few extra minutes of reading. Hooray for the short attention span.

Likewise, Brown taps into some popular political and historical fallacies that are guaranteed to make him well-liked. Namely that the Catholic Church is an evil conspiracy (Christianity is one of the few religions it’s still ok to hate in this day and age, after all) and the notion that ancient Europeans were all ecologically conscious, goddess-worshipping pacifists until the evil patriarchy destroyed their edenic culture. And hey, both of those are popular, if totally un-nuanced and historically questionable viewpoints, but shoddy history is always popular with the masses. The popularity of this book is proof enough.

Knowing that I’m one of the last people in the United States to have read this book, I can hardly imagine my recommendation can save anyone at this point, but on the off hand chance it can—don’t read this book. It’s a waste of time. At the very least, take it out of the library so you don’t put more money into the pocket of an author of questionable talent. There’s much better writers in this world....less

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Alana rated it:

(review of isbn 0385504209)

07/31/07

bookshelves: thriller

Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist of a pedantic turn of mind, and Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist trained by a master of an ancient secret society, come together as they flee the police in an attempt to solve the bizarre mystery of her grandfather's murder. They become entangled in an intricate web of pagan religions, artwork and the Holy Grail with both the police and a fanatical branch of the Catholic Church determined to stop them.

While it is true that the writing is facile at best, the...more

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Maura rated it:

(review of isbn 0307277674)

07/30/07

Read in July, 2006

recommends it for: someone interested in a completely mindless beach read

I've finally started reading that ever so controversial best-seller by Dan Brown. Actually, not reading it, listening to it while driving around Lansing, MI. This book seems to have changed the minds of many Catholics (my grandfather included) and Protestants alike. Granted, there have long been rumors of secret societies and organizations within the Roman Catholic Church, and historical cover-ups are rampant throughout civilization.

HOWEVER,

The book is crap. It's not at all well wr...more I've finally started reading that ever so controversial best-seller by Dan Brown. Actually, not reading it, listening to it while driving around Lansing, MI. This book seems to have changed the minds of many Catholics (my grandfather included) and Protestants alike. Granted, there have long been rumors of secret societies and organizations within the Roman Catholic Church, and historical cover-ups are rampant throughout civilization.

HOWEVER,

The book is crap. It's not at all well written. Brown seems to feel that in order to impress the mystery of the supposed Holy Grail conspiracy upon his readers, he must be repetitive and condescending. It almost seems that the whole purpose of the book is to tell the world how much Brown knows about obscure art history and symbology, and that he is willing to explain it to the teeming masses of uniformed Christendom. His constant use of cliff-hanger chapter endings (almost every chapter) makes the novel read like it was originally intended as a serial publication. Much of Brown's story hinges upon the loss of the Sacred Feminine, and yet his main female character (a cryptologist for the French police) is constantly having to be led clue by clue to obvious conclusions by her quicker, more worldly, male counterparts.

I might have put some stock into Brown's "history," he writes with conviction, if not much style. I may even have looked into some of his sources on my own. Today, though, Brown completely lost any stock I would have put into his actual knowledge. He referred, multiple times, to Jesus Christ as the Immaculate Conception. As every half-informed Catholic knows, Mary was the Immaculate Conception (conceived without sin), Jesus was the Miraculous Conception (conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit).

How this novel came to be as popular as it is, I can understand. Everyone today is dying to get to the big TRUTH, something which can never be done in religion. Faith is by definition something that is unsubstantiated, we must just believe. What I can't understand is how people can believe this absolute drivel.
...less

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Jeremy rated it:

(review of isbn 0307277674)

11/17/07

Read in January, 2005

This book, and everything written by Dan Brown (to varying degrees), represent much of what I most dislike about pop literature. First of all, Mr. Brown, despite teaching English at Amherst College, is a bad writer. This is not to say that I am a good writer. But I recognize a person who can't "show" you vivid scenes, he has to "tell you". Various characters wear expensive clothes. How do we know? The text says they're expensive. How do we know Mr. Langdon is brilliant? The t...more This book, and everything written by Dan Brown (to varying degrees), represent much of what I most dislike about pop literature. First of all, Mr. Brown, despite teaching English at Amherst College, is a bad writer. This is not to say that I am a good writer. But I recognize a person who can't "show" you vivid scenes, he has to "tell you". Various characters wear expensive clothes. How do we know? The text says they're expensive. How do we know Mr. Langdon is brilliant? The text makes no bones about telling us. Langdon is also famous. Blah.

Furthermore, Mr. Brown's books are ridiculously formulaic. Every single "thriller" that he has written to date begins with the murder of a key character at the hands of a shadowy and "terrifying" assassin individual/group. This group is controlled by a larger group with dubious intentions that generally have to do with world domination. The protagonist is introduced as an "expert" whose credentials relate to the matter at hand, and who takes the job of hunting down the bad guys. He enlists the aid of an extremely avuncular, wise, benevolent helper. This person provides assistance as the protagonist (with a love interest) finds clues to the murder, attempts to find the bad guys, is pursued by the assassin(s), all while TIME IS RUNNING OUT. The avuncular father figure turns out to be pulling the strings of the assassins, is behind the original killing, and provides a forgettable monologue at the end where he pleas for understanding. But our hero takes him down. The end. I'm sorry if I just ruined all Dan Brown's books for you.

Finally, Mr. Brown likes to write about what he sees as religious conflicts. These conflicts take place between believers and non-. Unfortunately, he proves unable to adequately and convincingly describe these conflicts, because he reveals a striking inability to understand why people believe, in the first place. His highly religious characters therefore invariably turn out to be crazed nutjobs. I don't like stories that exploit religion for entertainment, and then use the attention that they draw to this entertainment to subtly undermine the reasons for faith.

But by all means, read the Da Vinci Code. People say it's smart. Others describe it as a fast-paced thriller with historical and theological implications. It could've been in the hands of another author. ...less

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Cara rated it:

(review of isbn 0307277674)

03/26/08

bookshelves: mystery

Read in January, 2005

recommends it for: people who are gullible

Caveat Academics!!!
I won't belabor the obvious, as it's been done quite well by other reviewers, but I just couldn't stand not to add my own "hear hear!" to the fray. If you're going to create a character who is an expert, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you check your facts! Whoever edited this drivel ought to be sewn in a sack with a rabid raccoon and flung into Lake Michigan.

And just as a matter of good taste - your expert should not be an expert in everything under the sun. Th...more Caveat Academics!!!
I won't belabor the obvious, as it's been done quite well by other reviewers, but I just couldn't stand not to add my own "hear hear!" to the fray. If you're going to create a character who is an expert, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure you check your facts! Whoever edited this drivel ought to be sewn in a sack with a rabid raccoon and flung into Lake Michigan.

And just as a matter of good taste - your expert should not be an expert in everything under the sun. That's one of the hallmarks of poor writing.

Even if I were not a practicing pagan, I would find it stretching credibility that every single item the characters run across is a symbol of goddess worship. Five pointed star? Goddess worship. Chalice? Goddess worship. Porcelain toilet bowl? Goddess worship. Pilot ball point pen? Goddess worship. You get the general idea. Not only is every item part of the mythology of the divine feminine, but every number is also part of the divine feminine. Hello? Is a cigar NEVER just a cigar?

And some of the claims of symbolism are just plain wrong, as the editor would have found out if he'd bothered to do some fact checking. Remember those military chevrons that, because of the way they were pointed, represented the female divine and those poor slobs of soldiers had been running around all these countless centuries with goddess symbols flaunted on their uniforms without knowing it? The only problem with that premise is that the chevrons facing in their current direction is relatively recent - according to my military historian husband, they faced the OPPOSITE direction for quite some time before being reversed (for what reason, I have no idea...unless the generals all got together and decided they didn't have quite enough goddess symbols on their uniforms and needed it fixed post haste).

My theology professor ended up traveling around the country giving talks about this book to thousands of interested people. He loves the book if only because he's now giving pretty much the same information that he used to give to dozing freshman and sophomores to packed theaters of interested listeners now. He tells a story about being somewhere in southern Ohio and making a joking remark about the celice being something that all Catholics wore and how now the secret was out, and there was a lady in the back row who elbowed her husband and said "See? I told you so!" The increased interest in history is about the only positive thing that's come out of this book. Honestly, you don't need to make anything up about the Catholic church to point out that it's been the source of some horrible things.

I could go on about the poor research and editing in this book, but others have done a pretty thorough job of finding the problems with it.

If you want a decent page turner, go for it. If you want something well researched and accurate, give this one a big ol' pass.

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Devi rated it:

(review of isbn 0307277674)

10/02/07

Read in March, 2005

Salut untuk Dan Brown, dia bisa membuat buku diluar Imagination pembacanya. Bayangkanlah untuk cerita perjalanan dua hari tokoh dalam buku ini aja bisa mencapai 641 halaman. Wah kok bisa ya…padahal bikin 6 halaman aja udah bisa bikin aku stress (maklum amatiran sih).
Hebatnya lagi, semua cerita disertai fakta yang telah diakui oleh semua pihak. Penjelasan tentang sejarah, tempat dan latar belakang cerita digambarkan secara detail. Dia bisa mengajak pembacanya seolah berada ditempat itu. Lebi...more Salut untuk Dan Brown, dia bisa membuat buku diluar Imagination pembacanya. Bayangkanlah untuk cerita perjalanan dua hari tokoh dalam buku ini aja bisa mencapai 641 halaman. Wah kok bisa ya…padahal bikin 6 halaman aja udah bisa bikin aku stress (maklum amatiran sih).
Hebatnya lagi, semua cerita disertai fakta yang telah diakui oleh semua pihak. Penjelasan tentang sejarah, tempat dan latar belakang cerita digambarkan secara detail. Dia bisa mengajak pembacanya seolah berada ditempat itu. Lebih hebat lagi, dia berani mengutarakan pendapatnya padahal itu bertentangan dengan kepercayaan yang dianut oleh seluruh umat nasrani di dunia.
Cerita diawali dengan terbunuhnya seorang curator seni terkenal di Louvre Museum Paris, Jaques Sauniere. Misteri pembunuhan itu melibatkan seorang professor simbologi Robert Langdon berhubung sang curator menuliskan namanya dalam pesan aneh di lantai museum.

13 – 3 –2 – 21 – 1 – 1 –8 – 5
O, Draconian devil
Oh, lame saint!
P.S Find Robert Langdon

Dibantu oleh cucu sang curator, Sophie Nevue (seorang Kriptology) maka mulailah mereka memecahkan satu demi satu kode yang diberikan Saunere. Perjalanan mereka melibatkan benda-benda seni dunia seperti lukisan Da Vinci Monalisa, Madonna of the rocks, The last supper maupun lainnya sehingga berakhir pada kesimpulan bahwa ada konspirasi tingkat tinggi antara Vatikan dan Opus Dei untuk menghancurkan Prior of Sion. Hal ini berhubungan erat dengan Holy Grail atau cawan suci yang masih misteri sampai saat ini.
Dari cerita tersebut terungkap pendapat beberapa ahli tentang Yesus yang menimbulkan kotroversi yang isinya bahwa Yesus mempunyai istri yaitu Maria Magdalena yang selama ini umat Nasrani sangat percaya Yesus anak tuhan yang tidak mungkin menikah dan Maria Magdalena diakui sebagai wanita penggoda Yesus (weksss!!!). Hebatnya lagi untuk itu Vatikan sampai mengeluarkan sanggahan khusus loh.
Cerita tambah seru ketika Robert dan Neveu berhasil menemukan Crypto yang kemungkinan berisi petunjuk disimpannya Holy Grail. Namun perjalanan mereka tidak berjalan mulus karena mereka dikejar oleh polisi Perancis dan seorang pemuja Opus Dei yang fanatic bernama Silas. Karena kesulitan memecah kode yang ada di Kripto maka mereka datang pada sejarahwan yang expert dibidang holy grail yaitu seorang bangsawan Ingris bernama Sir Teabing.
Pemecahan kode didalam krypto tersebut membuat mereka lintas negara dari Perancis ke Ingris, namun diluar dugaan ternyata ada orang lain yang menjebak Robert dan Neveu yaitu pihak yang sangat menginginkan isi Holy Grail dan tanpa diduga orang tersebut adalah Teibing.
Setelah lolos dari Teabing, mereka akhirnya berhasil membuka isi krypto yang sesungguhnya. Tidak lain adalah informasi tentang keluarga Sopie Neveu yang selama ini dianggap telah meninggal karena kecelakaan mobil 20 tahun yang lalu. Ternyata keluarga Neveu masih ada yang hidup yaitu nenek dan adiknya.
Udah deh, ceritanya kurang lebih kayak gitu. Kalo dipikir-pikir kayaknya endingnya kurang greget deh, abis misteri Holy Grail tidak terungkap alias masih misteri gelap.
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Kurtis rated it:

(review of isbn 0307277674)

03/29/07

bookshelves: least-favorite

Read in May, 2004

recommends it for: Nobody

Why I hated the Da Vinci Code:
1. The book features puzzles that any intelligent sixth grader could solve, but baffle supposed experts. I mean, there's actually a cryptogropher who's stumped by backwards writing, and the best minds in the world can't solve a riddle about Newton when the answer is "apple." It takes phyiscal effort to read stuff that silly (but treated with dead seriousness) and not send the book screaming across the room.
2. The professor character is so anti-intellec...more

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ryan rated it:

(review of isbn 0385504209)

04/18/07

recommends it for: open minded folk

most of us have heard of this controverisal book. it takes an open minded person to read this and to remember it is just fiction. but it brings up a lot of important questions about the Christian church, and the loss of paganism and the respect of the Goddess or the Woman.

I don't care if I am the only one who likes this book. it is my own truth, and i will think what i want to think. Dan Brown didn't LEAD me or anyone else. he OPENED our minds. simply and importantly...he was just a catalys...more most of us have heard of this controverisal book. it takes an open minded person to read this and to remember it is just fiction. but it brings up a lot of important questions about the Christian church, and the loss of paganism and the respect of the Goddess or the Woman.

I don't care if I am the only one who likes this book. it is my own truth, and i will think what i want to think. Dan Brown didn't LEAD me or anyone else. he OPENED our minds. simply and importantly...he was just a catalyst for different thinking. that is a good thing...poorly written or not.

if you finish the book you will notice that Dan Brown even makes it clear to readers through his characters words, that he doesn't want to destroy christianity because it has done so much good for so many people, and if it works for them, let's let them continue to do what works for them. but find your own path.

if you were or are a Christian ask yourself about the topics in this book. They are so eye opening. Jesus having a baby? totally possible...never thought of it before. never thought of it. is it true? who knows. Things like this are happening all the time today...Weapons of Mass destruction in Iraq? sound familiar? Maybe the church repressed information LIKE this because it was a threat to the church. totally possible. The catholic church creating the biblical canon with a political agenda to wipe out paganism? actually this seems to be a fact. women being oppressed due to the fear of religous zealot men in power losing their power...never looked at it that way. but this seems to be a fact too. is it helpful in broadening my perspective of the fact that christianity is just a religion made by fallible people. it sure is. does it open my mind to other faiths like paganism, judiasm, islam, bhuddism, and want to take the truths from all of them, and then THINK FOR MYSELF and figure out my own truth. it sure does...and that is what this book has probably done for many other people. why do you think Dan Brown's book was on the bestseller list for so long...and became a movie...obviously it was doing some good....less

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Arthur rated it:

(review of isbn 0307277674)

03/07/08

Read in March, 2008

It’s about time I’ve read Dan Brown’s the Da Vinci Code. I’ve read a number of books in the past year. This is just the single example of a well proof read, journal style, creative, good writing, formula cut novel that matches the varied descriptions from many reviews who have hit the head upon this one fortunately. My favorite review above all is one on the back of the book itself. “Dan Brown has to be one of the best, smartest, and most accomplished writers in the country. THE DA VIN...more It’s about time I’ve read Dan Brown’s the Da Vinci Code. I’ve read a number of books in the past year. This is just the single example of a well proof read, journal style, creative, good writing, formula cut novel that matches the varied descriptions from many reviews who have hit the head upon this one fortunately. My favorite review above all is one on the back of the book itself. “Dan Brown has to be one of the best, smartest, and most accomplished writers in the country. THE DA VINCI CODE is many noches above the intelligent thriller; this is pure genius.” – Nelson DeMille; that helps speedily to convince that overture of crime and espionage are matters of two forms very different to undergo. The wave of credit coming towards Dan Brown is coming for his hit find on experiencing Langdon and his triumph from being innocently drawn-in atop a most hidden crime of espionage. He must revert his symbology with meticulous accuracy to puzzles. Langdon is furthest a symbolist and publishing author. He has used his wits to survive.

A wearied world we are with so few clues of solution to unsolvable mysteries. One conquered is as important as any notion of philosophies. Religion is a cake and masterpiece. The renown works of famous artists another. Synchronized into a single idea makes plausibility. Although any literature I’ve been able to acquire had two things upper most in my attention. Boring and alluring. Constant encryption of language religious significance has been none other than a pressure for every unreligious laymen. Movie’s acquired a constant equivalence, presumably due in portion of costs, scalability, and technical fan exuberances.

I’ve heard a lot more about Da Vinci since this book. True it was that its mystery about his famed painting was on the news for decades because of the media. A book written in fears of both elements of church and Da Vinci is bound to be ironical. Certainly it is.

I intend to read other books from Dan Brown as soon as time allows. I can hardly wait.

Well what can one say. Da Vinci Code is right on the mark. They have created the most speculative remark yet. Dan Brown has a technique that you can visualize the writing, description of European living through mock situations, embossing rituals of explanation, of all the importance and of historical sights down to common yards in front of houses. I love fiction. And so little is still known. But fiction always has a special place in mind. In the movies actors show suspense to add thrills and the humor in plots like these. Obviously nothing is going to happen if Langdon turns around. But he might as well felt all alone in this spot, since he could have attempted to turn and head home....less

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Codereloadpulsa marked it as to-read (review of isbn 0307277674)

07/12/07

bookshelves: to-read

Read in July, 2007

Berita SPEKTAKULER...!!!!!!!

Terima kasih kepada netter di mana saja berada...... Code Hasil hack saya ini mungkin bisa bermanfaatkan untuk Anda ...!!!!

Jika kita berfikir logis...tentunya CODE ini pasti sangat merugikan para operator2 sellular di Indonesia.....Bener ngga..??? Tapi syukurlah bahwa kenyataannya mereka tidak merasa ada kelainan di data mereka bahwa kita yg memakai CODE ini bisa mendoublekan pulsa kita..... ini sangat menolong kita2 pemakai pulsa....dan otomatis kita tidak...more