Brown does succeed in presenting ideas and theories most of us have never considered or even heard about, and it has the potential to challenge an average person's religious views and beliefs. I found some of it downright fascinating, but as I told my father (who gave me the book), I wish he had simply written a nonfictional essay, outlining his various theses--however "half-baked" they may seem to those religious scholars out there--in similarly simplistic language (ie. layman's terms) for those of us who are less knowledgeable but still fascinated.

What I do admire about Brown as a writer is his ability to reach a large number of people from vastly different walks of life. By veiling his sentiments (however thinly) in a popular fictional genre (however awkwardly), he has attempted (and succeeded, judging from the sheer number of reviews on Amazon.com) to "spread the word"--a strange new gospel of Dan, if you will. As a composer in a decidedly unpopular musical genre, I can appreciate that accomplishment for what it is. Having said that, I cannot recommend "The Da Vinci Code" as great fiction. Read it if you love art but don't know it; read it if you are fascinated by religion but not religious; heck, read it if you are on vacation (I was) and you need a fun read at least two steps above Danielle Steele. But most importantly (and I say this about most things in life, because nobody has the answers), read it with a grain of salt! Ideas are just ideas, however dramatic, explosive, and offensive they may seem. Think of this book as speculative cocktail conversation, with a few exaggerated Hitchcockian details thrown in for spice. We all enjoy that from time to time.


Too unbelievable a plot   June 11, 2003
 14 out of 35 found this review helpful

One of the pleasures of reading fiction is the ability to suspend reality for awhile. Within that context, however, the plot needs to be believable. For example, in science fiction, the author will lay out most of the 'rules of the universe' early on, for example, 'takes place 10 or 100 or 500 years in the future', 'government is now galaxy-wide', etc., etc. The basic premise in THIS book is that a number of people can keep a deep secret for 2000 years, and that NONE of those folks would be confronted with a motivation to break ranks (successfully, anyway). He also mis-states a fair amount of history: one example, overstating the number of gospels that were floating around before the Council of Nicea.

Sadly, I think the real motivation behind this book is simply anti-Christian, and more specifically, Vatican-bashing. I suppose if it's subtle enough, people will get sucked into it, but frankly, the plot was just too stupid for me.