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The Da Vinci Code
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Manufacturer: Anchor
Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: Anchor
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $7.99
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Anchor
Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: Anchor
Average Customer Rating:
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The Da Vinci Code Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781400079179
ISBN: 1400079179
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 496
Publication Date: 2006-03-28
Publisher: Anchor
Product Release Date: 2006-03-28
Studio: Anchor
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781400079179
ISBN: 1400079179
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 496
Publication Date: 2006-03-28
Publisher: Anchor
Product Release Date: 2006-03-28
Studio: Anchor
Editorial Review of The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
Customer Reviews of The Da Vinci Code
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: More Like "By The Numbers."
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Dan Brown
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Hard to put down.
Review: I found myself up very very late reading this book. The ending was ok, but overall a must read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Last two thirds...not so great...far too predictable
Review: 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).
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Elitist Criticism Aside, It's Genius
Review: 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.
Review Summary: More Like "By The Numbers."
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Dan Brown
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Hard to put down.
Review: I found myself up very very late reading this book. The ending was ok, but overall a must read.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Last two thirds...not so great...far too predictable
Review: 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).
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Elitist Criticism Aside, It's Genius
Review: 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.