The Da Vinci Code

I've never been in Paris. I wasn't a DaVinci's fan and didn't know much about his works & paintings except Mona Lisa. When I picked up Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code to read, I did have a hard time to follow the Da Vinci's works and some sightseeings in Paris described in the book. Thus, I had my computer connected to Internet besides me to dig out different paintings and photos of what the book mentioned like Louvre, Pentacle, The Last Supper, Opus Dei Headquarters, etc. Luckily, The Da Vinci Code Special Illustrated Edition is just out.

I couldn't wait and purchased immediately regardless I have the regular hardcover edition of Da Vinci Code, which I plan to give it to one of my friends. This Special Illustrated Edition is not a cartoon or comic edition of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, nor it is an abridged version. It's a full original version embedded with over 126 colorful pictures & photos besides the text. It saves you lots of time & effort to search from Internet if you don't know how Château de Villette looks like, the overview map of the Louvre, and many other scenes, buildings, paintings mentioned in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. Overall, it's LOVELY!

Undoubtfully Dan Brown has done amazing jobs to his book "The Da Vinci Code". The story is powerful and magnificent. Mixing with a lot of traceable truth and facts, he made his novel sound extremely convincing and inevitably deluded you from what's real and what's fictional. However, please don't take it too serious, it's just a novel, not a research paper trying to make a breakthrough statement. Overall, the book has quite a lot of twists shocking you. Even the ending has double meanings. Make sure you read the Epilogue chapter, or you won't know where the Holy Grail rests that Dan Brown suggested as the poem below:

"The Holy Grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits.
The blade and chalice guarding o'er Her gates.
Adorned in masters' loving art, She lies.
She rests at last beneath the starry skies."

For people who love deciphering codes, Dan Brown wisely placed some codings on the regular hardcover edition's paper cover. If you pay attention you may find some bold fonts seemed appearing randomly. Link them up and you should see a hint to read.

(Reviewed by Otto Yuen, 21-Nov-2004)

I have read most of the reviews on this book, and I am glad I did so AFTER reading the book myself. I found this book EXTREMELY interesting and entertaining. It is fun to read a book that gets the ole juices flowing in the brain again. Like other reviews have said, I found myself putting down the book and running to the computer constantly to do research. It made me WANT to learn more about art, Christianity, history, etc. So what if a few of the facts are not 100% correct? I looked up on the computer what was important to me, and am enjoying all the new information and theories. It will be a fun topic of discussion and debate with my friends who are Christians, Buddists, Athiests, Agnostic, etc.

It is a novel, not a faith deciding textbook. If you don't agree with facts, go look it up yourself and find what YOU think is true! If that bothers you, then go read in the non-fiction department.

Don't get me wrong, I am a Christain, and am very comfortable in my faith. I think reading The Bible cover to cover can be more disturbing! Talk about contradictions...To all the people who gave it a one star vote, thanks for your reading suggestions of "The Purpose-Driven Life","Gospel", etc. I look forward to reading those too. An open mind is a happy mind.

No this is not "War and Peace." You will not need to put the book down to reflect on its moving prose.
HOWEVER, this book thrills and chills. I felt exhausted keeping pace with our hero and his companion as they navigated themselves through a night and a day in Paris, the French countryside and England.
In addition, this book also educates or re-educates the reader on the traditional view of Mary Magdalene in the bible. I actually surfed the web after I read the book to learn more about Jesus' supposed marriage-which many scholars support-and the possibility of a line of children.
I would recommend this book strongly for those individuals who enjoy the thriller genre. If you are dogmatic in your Christian beliefs or an Art History purist, then this book may not be for you. But if you want a fun, fast read for a few nights, you'll get it with The DaVinci Code.

I was introduced to the books of author Dan Brown only three weeks ago, but have quickly absorbed all four of his published works. It is easy to see why some are comparing the work of Dan Brown and James BeauSeigneur (THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY). Both Brown and BeauSeigneur deal masterfully with the more mysterious features of religion, politics, and science. Both bring to light amazing bits of information, which they weave into the intricate patterns of their stories. Both are highly imaginative and write with a ring of authenticity that makes for a compelling read. While Brown compresses labyrinthine plots into brief time periods to provide page-turning suspense, BeauSeigneur trilogy is of epic proportion, covering several decades. While Brown applies the mysteries of history to the drama of "today," BeauSeigneur uses both history and prophecy (from perhaps a dozen major world religions) to transport the reader from the world of today, to the very dawning of a new age in a story reminiscent of the scope of Asimov's classic, FOUNDATION.

One other difference is that BeauSeigneur has taken the novel (pun intended and forgiveness is asked) approach of including footnotes in his books of fiction. By doing so, he all but eliminates the necessity of suspending disbelief. Few authors employ such strong factual grounding as to make footnotes useful, but I believe Brown's work (and his readers) would benefit from BeauSeigneur's innovation.

Seldom in popular fiction do you find such intelligent writing as that produced by Dan Brown. In addition to the superbly crafted mystery that we are privileged to enjoy it is as though you have attended a seminar on in this case art and religious iconology.
As Brown states at the start of his book, "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate. When I am reading a book by Dan Brown I never feel that I am wasting my time. You might ask if all this information bogs down the story and the answer is a resounding "NO". Brown has the ability to take dry facts and present them in a fascinating way. He also brilliantly weaves together many diverse threads into a coherent and intriguing plot.

We first met Professor Robert Langdon in Brown's previous thriller 'Angels And. Demons'. This book continues our acquaintance with the compulsive and brilliant Langdon and introduces the equally clever Sophie Neveu. She is the estranged granddaughter of the curator of the Louvre, who is the victim of a savage murder. As he lays dying he leaves a cryptic message for his granddaughter and Langdon to decipher. Thrown together by the events that have occurred they must combine their considerable skills to solve the complex mystery before it is too late.

This book is a must read for mystery buffs and anyone who enjoys intelligent literature!