The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

Advantages: A good read
Disadvantages: Lack of characterisation

...extraterrestrial plots to take over the world. However a new trend seems to be developing, many authors are looking to the past and older conspiracies involving historical secret societies with religious or occult traditions are becoming favoured backgrounds for many stories. Of course Dan Brown is not the first to do this and 'The Da Vinci Code' does not have the impact, the literary credentials or witty style of Umberto Eco's much better 'Foucault's ...
...In the dark galleries and corridors of the Louvre museum in the middle of the night a deadly confrontation takes place between Silas an Albino monk and the academic and curator of the Louvre Jacques Saunière. Saunière is the holder of an ancient secret that the extreme Catholic organisation Opus Dei desperately wants in order to obtain a great source of power. Saunière is left to die but in a desperate bid to alert other to his life's purpose before ... Read review

Advantages: Fascinating subject matter, gripping, fast-paced action
Disadvantages: Some flaws in the plot which means it is not the classic it should be

...from well-respected museum curator at the Louvre, Jacques Sauniere, to meet after his lecture, and as Sauniere is reputed to be something of an expert on female symbology, the topic of a manuscript that Langdon has recently been working on, he is keen to meet the curator. He is somewhat disappointed when Sauniere fails to show up for the meeting, and resigns himself to having to return to Harvard without having met him. Events take a shocking turn, ...
...of the night. Sauniere has been murdered. It seems, however, that he had a message that he wanted to tell the world before his death, and he has attempted to pass this on through some shocking symbology and an intriguing message. Unfortunately for Langdon, he appears to have been implicated somehow in the death, and Bezu Fache, Capitane of the French Police, is keen to speak with him. At the Louvre, Langdon meets Agent Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist ... Read review

Advantages: A cracking good yarn
Disadvantages: It's full of holes and poorly researched

~ ~ For the past few months American author Dan Brown has been topping the paperback bestseller lists here in Ireland, with all four of his published novels in the first four positions, the “Da Vinci Code” seemingly a permanent fixture at No. 1. To be honest, it’s not hard to see why, as all four novels are taut, exciting, and extremely well crafted conspiracy thrillers, and there’s nothing the reading public likes more than a damned good conspiracy ...
...the most celebrated and most recent of his novels, “The Da Vinci Code” (2003), Brown returns once more to the theme he successfully exploited in another of his novels, “Angels And Demons”, namely the Roman Catholic Church and, according to Brown at any rate, its multifarious and devious machinations to exploit the public and the entire world for its own evil purposes. In Angels and Demons we had the Catholic Church under attack from an ancient secret ... Read review

Advantages: Excellent flow to the story, superb settings, thought-provoking concept, action-packed
Disadvantages: Sometimes goes off-track to explain symbolic and religious references in detail, some slightly predictable elements towards the end

...person, but neither am I the type to seek out a book such as The Da Vinci Code simply on the grounds of excited murmurings, that claim it ‘denounces Christianity’ and does other such naughty stuff. Reading it between lessons in school, it became clear to me that Dan Brown’s novel was perhaps being misunderstood somewhat – I don’t know what kind of coverage its been getting in the media but various people I know have asked me ‘how does it disprove ...
...bafflingly of all; ‘is that the book with the vampires and stuff.’ Honestly, it’s bad enough when your friends keep asking these kinds of questions, but when the teachers join in too… Sure, there are some remarkable claims made about the life of Christ and some interesting theories regarding the Holy Grail, but amidst all the furore, people appear to be forgetting that when all is said and done, The Da Vinci Code is still just a fiction novel at ... Read review

Advantages: Exciting, fast moving, thought provoking
Disadvantages: Less than stellar character development

Dan Brown's latest effort, The Da Vinci Code, isn't a great book. All things considered, very few literary works merit such a distinction. Nonetheless, The Da Vinci Code is a highly readable volume based on a myriad of ancient and often mysterious themes. Brown does a credible job of intertwining those themes into a thoroughly modern adventure novel cum murder mystery, and at the same time he focuses a fair measure of intelligent discussion on the ...
...possibilities. The Da Vinci Code is not apt to find a sympathetic hearing among Christian fundamentalists. This book is based squarely on a series of premises hardly designed to curry favor either in Vatican City or in the Bible Belt of the American South. These include such delectable heresies as the notion that Jesus was mortal, not divine; speculation that the Four Gospels of the New Testament were canonized because of their political usefulness ... Read review