I was recommended this book about 2 years ago by a colleague and I ended up finished reading it in THREE days. It is a story about the grail. Some people say it's the cup used by Jesus in the last supper and some say it's the cup that the Roman soldiers used to collect Jesus's blood. Instead of using these myths about the grail, Brown gives us a totally different explanation of what the grail is about.
Let me give you some background information. The idea of the cup is never mentioned in bible and it first appeared in a story written by a French novelist in the middle ages. Legends says that drinking from the cup will give you eternal life.
The story started off with a murder of an elder of a secret society. Then what follows is a series of puzzles that the main characters Robert and Sophie had to solve to find out the location of the grail. During the search, via the discussion between the characters, Brown details the historical background about the legends of the grail and the various myths associated with the grail. You can see the techique Brown used. He puts a thread through the various myths and makes a connection between the various events and facts and links them into a story. However, many of the facts mentioned are indeed true, such as the origin of the "black Friday". I also learned a lot about the famous Leonardo Da Vinci and a lot of the "decoding" skills.
I have to say I enjoy reading the story very much and it is one of the best adventure fiction I've read in a long time, a clue follows another. Sooner or later you will notice that you cannot put down the book!! Another thing which I get from the story is the crytex which is a mobile vault for keeping valuables-well I think this is a good tool for storing things like wedding rings or valuable gift.
A lot of you may think that the book contradicts many of the religious belief and it's blasphemy to the church. Well as a moderate catholic, I see this only as a good work of human-how can Brown imagine such a explanation, with facts that myths that fit in so well together?? Personally I do not care whether this "bloodline" of Christ exists, what matters to me is really his teaching and love to us.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: A page-turner, and may spark a new interest in all things art historical Disadvantages: A publishing editor has been through this with a fine toothcomb, eradicating subtlety
Jul 29th, 2008
(Jul 27th, 2008)
very helpful by (8%):
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