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| The Da Vinci Code (Unabridged) | 
| Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: audible.com
Category: Book
List Price: $49.90
Buy New: $26.20
You Save: $23.70 (47%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  3866 reviews
Sales Rank: 5295232
Media: Audio Download
ASIN: B0000D1BWY
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great September 10, 2008
I finished this book in 3 days, while working for 8+ hours each day. This book refuses to be put down.
 The Da Vinci Code Book Review September 9, 2008
Dan Brown's popular, best selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, introduces the Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon who is suspected by Parisian police to have murdered the head curator of the Louvre. The curator is shot dead inside the museum, trapped inside one of the locked down rooms, and appears to have scrawled a message in ultraviolet ink next his own body. The message points to Robert Langdon and the Paris agent, Captain Bezu Fache, is dead set on arresting Langdon.
Sophie Nevue is a Paris cryptologist with the police force who receives a copy of the coded message left by the curator, who, in actuality, is her grandfather. She sees meaning in the message and immediately shows up on the crime scene to assist, though not in the obvious manner. She helps Langdon escape from the Captain and together they travel across France and Great Britain piecing together the tiny clues that end up guiding them on an epic quest to solve the curator's murder and ultimately uncover a two thousand year old secret; a secret that has been the cause of hundreds of years of war and bloodshed, kept hidden by a secret brotherhood.
The Da Vinci Code is a gripping story that moves from one puzzle to the next with surprising depth and reality. Amazingly enough Dan Brown creates a story that is not so entirely focused on characterization but keeps the reader's interest throughout the entire book. There is character development but it is not central to the story. Purely plot driven, this story takes you on a trip through the crusades to renaissance to the modern era easily with little awareness of time.
This story is well told, contains solid description, and is rife with historic and fictional details enough to almost convince you of this book being a true historic account. Truly a fictional tale it is told with a practical cadence that is undeniably compelling. The religious subject matter an obvious bone of contention for Christian believers that justifies the publicity the book has earned over the last couple years.
Over all, this is a very fast and entertaining book to indulge in, providing a thought provoking idea based in part on some truth, as the most believable lies can be. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an action novel with a twist and likes to follow deeply meaningful puzzles throughout a book. Definitely not one to put down.
 More Like "By The Numbers." August 20, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
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.
Dan Brown August 11, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
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.
Hard to put down. August 7, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found myself up very very late reading this book. The ending was ok, but overall a must read.
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