Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code

[Krystal]

Dan Brown

I read the book Angels and Demons in my vacation and I totally love it. At first I didn't think I would like it but decide to read it and definitely love it. It have a interesting story and plot, and I totally love the intrigue in it and the different angles of the novel.

Now I'm waiting for my copy of his other novel The Da Vinci Code.

Krystal


World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati...the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has resurfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy—the Catholic Church. And an unstoppable time bomb hidden underneath Vatican City is the chosen weapon.

With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome and join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.

Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals and even the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair...a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

Source:
Doubleday Book Club

 

[Annette]

hey krystal. i've bought his latest book The Da Vinci Code but not read it yet. it looks pretty good. once i have i will let you know what i think of it.

annette :wave:

 

[Krystal]

Cool, my copy was already send so now is just wait for the mail.

Krystal

 

[Krystal]

Well, I finish it. And have to say I love it, in my next round of books I'm going to buy his other two books. I can say without a doubt that I totally love his style. The characters he create, the stories and the intrigue in it. This was another excellent book and very interesting. It was just amazing.

Krystal :coolyello

 

[Dave]

I read the Da Vinci Code last year and I thought that it was a good thriller. I gave it to my mother and sister and they both liked it. I posted about it in the 'What book are you reading now' thread. I wouldn't really class it as SciFi but it seems most people do.

The plot is not very original. It's basically a catholic church conspiracy theory and it's been done before. Even 'Indiana Jones' solved the 'Holy Grail' puzzle.

The author needs to do more local research before he writes about places in the UK though: the Kent Police being called to Biggin Hill Airport, when it would be the Metropolitan Police; or someone thinking of buying an estate in 'Devonshire' - no one has called Devon, Devonshire since the nineteenth Century!

It seems the Catholic Church do not approve:

from SciFi Wire
Cardinal Blasts Da Vinci Code

A top Catholic cardinal has blasted The Da Vinci Code as a "gross and absurd" distortion of history and said Catholic bookstores should take the best-seller off their shelves because it is full of "cheap lies," the Reuters news service reported.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in an interview with the Milan newspaper Il Giornale, became the highest-ranking Italian churchman to speak out against the book, an international blockbuster that has sold millions of copies, Reuters reported.

"[It] aims to discredit the church and its history through gross and absurd manipulations," said Bertone, the archbishop of the northern Italian city of Genoa and a close friend of Pope John Paul. "This seems like a throwback to the old anti-clerical pamphlets of the 1800s."

The central claim of the book, written by American Dan Brown, is that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children. The Bible says Jesus never married, was crucified and rose from the dead, the wire service reported.

A central storyline of the book is that the Holy Grail is not the cup Christ is said to have used at the Last Supper, but rather the bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Bertone calls this idea "a perversion," Reuters reported.

The Da Vinci Code is being adapted into a film that will star Tom Hanks.

 

[Krystal]

When I was reading it I was sure there will be controversy surrounding it. But I think they giving the book a lot of publicity, the opposite effect.

Krystal

 

[Dave]

What is the crazy fascination with this book?

The Catholic church and the Anglican church are up in arms about it. They banned filming in Westminster Cathedral and a nun chained herself to railings in Lincoln, where they went instead.

Meanwhile, people are claiming it a classic that will outlive Dickens, Austin and Hardy. The bookshops are full of other books that help you solve the code yourself, and tourists are going on guided tours of the places mentioned in the book.

I mean, to quote William Shatner "Get a Life!" It is only fiction! It wasn't particularly accurate in my opinion either, and no way can it be compared to the classics that it has been.

 

[Krystal]

I don't understand it either, I always have see it as a fiction novel. A very good one but fiction anyway. Maybe they should read the other two and begin to feel paranoid of the agencies.

Krystal

 

[squire]

I saw the movie before reading the book. Id heard from everyone that the book is awesome, so I thought Id see the movie first, that way I wont be dissappointed. And I wasnt. Not by the movie or the book. Im just over half way thru the book. Its so good, I cant put it down.

Im definitely gonna read Angels and Demons after this!