Da Vinci Code

Um livro longo, mas que vale a pena ler.O Código Da Vinci anuncia a chegada de uma nova raça de raios-passeado, inteligente emocionante… absolutamente imprevisível até a sua conclusão deslumbrante.Um homicídio na silenciosa-hora depois de salas do Museu do Louvre revela um sinistro enredo para descobrir um segredo que foi protegido por uma sociedade...more

Um livro longo, mas que vale a pena ler.O Código Da Vinci anuncia a chegada de uma nova raça de raios-passeado, inteligente emocionante… absolutamente imprevisível até a sua conclusão deslumbrante.Um homicídio na silenciosa-hora depois de salas do Museu do Louvre revela um sinistro enredo para descobrir um segredo que foi protegido por uma sociedade secreta desde os tempos de Cristo. A vítima é uma alta patente este antigo agente da sociedade que, nos momentos antes de sua morte, consegue deixar pistas horríveis na cena que só sua neta, observou cryptographer Sophie Neveu, e Robert Langdon, um famoso symbologist, pode untangle. O duo se tornar ambos os suspeitos e detectives procurando não só Neveu do avô do assassino, mas também o segredo de atordoamento dos tempos ele foi acusado de proteger. Meras passos à frente das autoridades e da concorrência mortal, o mistério leva Langdon e Neveu em um vôo através da respiração França, Inglaterra, e da história em si. Brown (anjos e demônios) criou uma página de viragem emocionante que também proporciona uma surpreendente interpretação da história ocidental. Brown's herói e heroína enveredar por um nobre e intrigante exploração de alguns dos maiores mistérios da cultura ocidental - a partir da natureza do sorriso de Mona Lisa é o segredo do Santo Graal. Ainda que alguns vão quibble com a veracidade das Brown's conjecturas, é aí que está a diversão. O Código Da Vinci é um enthralling ler que fornece alimento rico para o pensamento. -- Jeremy Pugh."   hide

You know what's in store for you when one of the reviews on the back-cover of a book says "Umberto Eco on Steroids"... Where Eco’s writing is wonderfully original, Mr. Brown gives us quite a pedestrian piece of literature. Personally, I was not expecting anything great- anything more than disposable and forgettable thrills. And I am glad there weren't any surprises. It made my reading of...more

You know what's in store for you when one of the reviews on the back-cover of a book says "Umberto Eco on Steroids"... Where Eco’s writing is wonderfully original, Mr. Brown gives us quite a pedestrian piece of literature. Personally, I was not expecting anything great- anything more than disposable and forgettable thrills. And I am glad there weren't any surprises. It made my reading of the book much easier over a brain-dead weekend that I wanted to have. First of all, it is not one of the best written books. In fact, at times I wonder if there were two authors who actually did the writing. While this theory might sound as fluffy and badly presented here as most of Brown's theories in the book, I think this argument might have some merit. For, to give Brown his due, some of the facts do come from thorough research and are well presented, and do invite a bit of attention. But then there are times in the book where you wonder if the writer actually took a second look at the text at all, or if the "facts" were even researched... Someone as intelligent in his ability to connect things to "encode" and "decode" as Brown, should have paid attention to basic nuances such as: the fact that the Italians do not call a mobile phone a cell-phone, even when they are talking to an American; or how many times is a Harvard teacher likely to use the expression "shit!" in his conversations. Brown’s attempt at providing a fringe romantic benefit in this thriller is quite feeble, and basic dialogue and character construction, it seems, is also not one of his strong points. The Da Vinci Code is a story of Robert Langdon - a teacher of Symbology at Harvard (a discipline that does not, yet, exist at Harvard!), who has spent his life researching the connection and history of various symbols. He lectures at various Universities, and is at the brink of becoming a celebrity in his own right due to his inspiring insights on the subject. In this book, he ends up helping the daughter of the murdered curator at the Louvre museum in solving a mystery involving the search of, hold your breath, The Holy Grail! From then on, a series of coded messages and clues lead them to the ultimate reality and truth about the Grail. Robert Langdon, it seems, would become the main character of Brown's upcoming books, as he has already featured in one earlier. While it may be far from possible that Langdon goes down in the thriller and suspense history shoulder-to-shoulder with Perry Mason, or Mr. Holmes, he is quite likely to be remembered as one of its kind intellectual cow-boy. In some of the "Codes" the book presents, one cannot help but chuckle out with mild amusement. The Da Vinci code does have a readability factor after all: this book has the ability to make one feel like a true genius. It is understandable to feel like one when one is able to get to the gist of something that a Harvard symbologist and a royal historian struggle with for the next few pages... It adds a wow factor. At times, I wonder, if this is what's making the Da Vinci Code the real hype that it has become... It brings out the Langdon in everyone. Essentially, Brown is not the first one who has written such a book. In fact the person he is pretending to be, albeit on steroids, can perhaps be credited for one of the most brilliant books in this style of writing. Umberto's "Foucault's Pendulum" was perhaps a bit of a code for Brown itself, as he seems heavily inspired by the style of writing, and the book seems to be one of his major sources of research as well. Well to you all, the book is worth picking up. How else would one defend a better point of view? And tell the world that what is being read here is of very little real literature value...   hide

I got this book for my thirtieth birthday and nursed a hangover while reading it. I was unable to put it down, it was a real page turner and at that time i would have said i fully love this book. As a novel. Even at the time I felt i had to leave my brain at the door a bit but I enjoyed the trip. What has made me lose love for the book is the number of people who think that as a Christian I...more

I got this book for my thirtieth birthday and nursed a hangover while reading it. I was unable to put it down, it was a real page turner and at that time i would have said i fully love this book. As a novel. Even at the time I felt i had to leave my brain at the door a bit but I enjoyed the trip. What has made me lose love for the book is the number of people who think that as a Christian I should have my faith seriously challenged by this suspense and guns story. even worse are the ones who think that as a feminist I would find the book refreshing, liberating or true. As a christian, I can see that the church's (any church's) attitude to power is problematic, and in particular the role of women is an issue that interests me. The book didn't for me add anything new to that arena however. As a feminist I found the book to be the same old patriarchal tripe i am used to in 90% of what I read (maybe a degree worse than some). Women liberated by %&#*ing? Sounds like a man's fantasy to me. Mary Magdalene "elevated" from discipleship to being a love interest and incubator. PLEASE. Women have often in history been worshipped for their receptivity (likeness to a grail) and childbearing but this is a form of exclusion/oppression. Nothing very groundbreaking here. If you read it, read it for the fast-paced plots and suspense. Preferably lie in bed with a wicked hangover surrounded by empty bottles and let it entertain you A good hangover book but not a great one for truth. No new material really and I do not understand therefore why any church got its knickers in a knot.After all the hype my response is - yawn   hide

Dan Brown hates the Catholic Church. His books - and the movies - has created waves of ignorant readers and moviegoers who believe that his work of fiction has any factual merit. "It's a work of fiction - get over it." Sure, it's a work of fiction - a work systematically attacking the very foundations of Christianity and specifically casting the Catholic Church as the greatest villain in...more

Dan Brown hates the Catholic Church. His books - and the movies - has created waves of ignorant readers and moviegoers who believe that his work of fiction has any factual merit. "It's a work of fiction - get over it." Sure, it's a work of fiction - a work systematically attacking the very foundations of Christianity and specifically casting the Catholic Church as the greatest villain in history. Let's not even discuss what he does to Opus Dei. The book itself read flat. Many of the plot twists are ringers - the reader is never given enough information to reach the conclusions the protagonist can - this annoys me. A good thriller is one that lays out everything I need to out-sleuth the sleuth. His characters are one-dimensional and contrived, his dialog reads like a high school literary arts rejected submission. It is telling that Brown's first books were dead on arrival. Tapping into the popular anti-Catholic undertow in the American pseudo-intellectual 'elite' - now, THAT'S a ticket to a bestseller. Brown has made millions assaulting the Church. I would love to see him try this with Islam.   hide

“I heard a ton about this book before I read it, but made sure when the movie came out that I read it before I saw it. I didn't get around to it until last summer. I really enjoyed it though, more than I would have if I hadn't read the prequel. I caught up with Robert Langdon again, his former lover disappearing like she was a James Bond girl after her starring movie. Again he's plunged into an...more

“I heard a ton about this book before I read it, but made sure when the movie came out that I read it before I saw it. I didn't get around to it until last summer. I really enjoyed it though, more than I would have if I hadn't read the prequel. I caught up with Robert Langdon again, his former lover disappearing like she was a James Bond girl after her starring movie. Again he's plunged into an adventure filled with symbology, danger, and a woman way out of his league. I wasn't surprised to find out that Langdon wasn't really called to help solve the case, but because he was a suspect. The guy in the elevator seemed a little shifty. I didn't expect that he would have to run so fast though. The clues in the Louvre were really interesting, and the way he evaded the tracker was also. I wondered if the high tech bank exists somewhere, or was at at least based off of something. But the bottom line is that this book, with its albino Opus Dei assassins and its double crossing scholars and Christian conspiracies was a fast paced action filled ride, that I really liked. The end surprised me, I really didn't see the double cross coming. And even less the museum owners being long lost relatives.Anyway, 5 stars.”   hide

Truly one of the worst books I've read in the last twenty years, I've been consistently puzzled how any professional critic could fawn over it the way so many did. The book suffers from bad prose, broken grammar, B-grade dialogue, cardboard characters, and Dan Brown's infamous unfamiliarity with his own subject matter. His command of art and church history resembles not so much the impeccable...more

Truly one of the worst books I've read in the last twenty years, I've been consistently puzzled how any professional critic could fawn over it the way so many did. The book suffers from bad prose, broken grammar, B-grade dialogue, cardboard characters, and Dan Brown's infamous unfamiliarity with his own subject matter. His command of art and church history resembles not so much the impeccable research of James Michener as it does an afternoon spent in front of Google. The most glaring example screams out right from the cover: the man's name is Leonardo, NOT da Vinci, as any first-year art student -- let alone Brown's "art historian" spouse -- should have told him. More puzzling still is how any decent editor could have let this one by. (Oh, and, by the way, Opus Dei doesn't have monks.) Most of the puzzles Brown set for his protagonist were simplistic enough that I sometimes spent half the book waiting for Langdon to realize the obvious. This not only undercut the respect I was supposed to be according Langdon's intellect, it reduced many of Brown's plot-driving cliff-hangers to ennui. At the core of the Da Vinci Code lies an intriguing idea that, in the right hands, might have blossomed into a genuine historical thriller. Unfortunately, those hands don't belong to Dan Brown.   hide

تعتمد الرواية على نظرية المؤامرة بأن الكنيسة الكاثوليكية تخفي القصة الحقيقية للمسيح وأن الفاتيكان يغطي على تلك الحقائق من أجل ضمان بقائه في السلطة. البطل هو روبرت لانغدون نفس البطل في ملائكة وشياطين، يكتشف لانغدون...more

تعتمد الرواية على نظرية المؤامرة بأن الكنيسة الكاثوليكية تخفي القصة الحقيقية للمسيح وأن الفاتيكان يغطي على تلك الحقائق من أجل ضمان بقائه في السلطة. البطل هو روبرت لانغدون نفس البطل في ملائكة وشياطين، يكتشف لانغدون ألغاز تدل على وجود منظمة سرية " منظمة سيون" مقدسة امتد عمرها إلى مئات السنين وكان من أحد أعضائها البارزين العالم مكتشف الجاذبية اسحاق نيوتن والعالم الرسام ليوناردو دا فينشي. وغيرهم سمعت ان الفاتيكان اعترض اعتراضاً شديداً على محتويات الرواية، ذلك لأنها تتناول علاقة المسيح بـمريم المجدلية بطريقة منافية لما هو مذكور بالكتب المقدسة... بقصد انجيل متى فيها حقائق اعجبتني والفكرة العلمية والهندسية معروضة بشكل اقل مما في رواية ملائكة وشياطين كتاب جيد للقاريء وبنصح بالقراءة مع عدم التأثر بالمكتوب خصوصا ما يسمى بالنسبة المقدسة وتقيد الرب فيها بخلق الكون .. بقصد العدد 1.618 رواية تحترم عقل القاريء ولكن بنصح بقراءة رواية ملائكة وشياطين للمؤلف قبل شيفرة دافنتشي محمد لؤي شعبان   hide

In Dan Brown's latest page turner tragically haired Tom Hanks leaves the comfort of the college swimming pool and his absurdly tight speedos and flies to Paris to team up with the old guy who played Gandalf. Together they battle to uncover a mystery that will bring the vatican to it's very knees. Along the way the get in a fight with evil priest named Father O' Fondle, who has a secret. A secret...more

In Dan Brown's latest page turner tragically haired Tom Hanks leaves the comfort of the college swimming pool and his absurdly tight speedos and flies to Paris to team up with the old guy who played Gandalf. Together they battle to uncover a mystery that will bring the vatican to it's very knees. Along the way the get in a fight with evil priest named Father O' Fondle, who has a secret. A secret so terrifying it forces the church to move him from his chapel in Little Codswollop to a cooshy desk job at the Vatican, away from the temptations of 12 year old boys. In the climactic last chapter Tom Hanks battles the very pope himself on the steps of the vatican using a combination of Jiu-Jitsu and Jedi magic. Father Ratzi the Nazi summons demons from the very depths of hell as he seeks to fulfil the church's destiny of buggering every teenage boy in the world.....It's Tom Hanks vs The Vatican...and exposition be damned, Dan Brown will get all preachy, use big words like he's the smartest kid in class with a dictionary, and needlessly explain the obvious over 12 pages taking us completely out of the plot...NY Times bestseller and Oprah's "Books I read on the Shitter" bronze medal winner.......   hide

I am the sort, I should tell you, who will read a much-publicized book just to see what all the fuss is about, and that's why I picked up this novel. Having put it down just minutes ago... honestly, I'm still not sure what all the fuss is about. A murder in the Louvre museum draws Robert Langdon, an American professor of symbology, is drawn into a desperate race to either find or protect...more

I am the sort, I should tell you, who will read a much-publicized book just to see what all the fuss is about, and that's why I picked up this novel. Having put it down just minutes ago... honestly, I'm still not sure what all the fuss is about. A murder in the Louvre museum draws Robert Langdon, an American professor of symbology, is drawn into a desperate race to either find or protect incredible secrets hidden for millennia. Langdon and the victim's granddaughter, cryptographer Sophie Neveu, are forced to unlock last-minute clues left by the dying man, which in turn point them to other clues, which in turn point them to OTHER clues, and so on and so on. The good first -- Brown crafts an easy read, a quick page-turner that presents a lot of interesting facts and theory regarding the Holy Grail, the ancient Church and all the mystery and symbols that surround it. The ending is also fairly satisfying -- not quite what one expects, but in character with the rest of the book. However, much of Brown's structure is infuriating. This book, by necessity, is packed with exposition... I can deal with exposition, but Brown frequently lapses into long passages that feel like he's writing a textbook instead of a novel -- dry explanations of the meanings behind symbols or words that feel as though they were lifted from an encyclopedia. Even worse are passages where he has characters flash back to previous occasions where the delivered these dry passages to other people who aren't even in the book. Brown even, on occasion, lapses into one of these tangents that has NOTHING to do with the plot, but just seemed interesting at the time. Worse than that, however, is the way Brown crafts his mysteries. This is a book full of one mystery, one puzzle, one riddle after another -- which is all well and good. The problem is, Brown cheats his readers. The fun of reading a mystery is to give the readers and the characters the clues together, then racing to see if you can solve it before the characters in the book. Brown, on multiple occasions, deliberately withholds information from the reader (for example, the last two lines of a four-line verse) until the character themselves crack the code, then goes back and gives the readers all the clues as he explains how they stumbled upon the solution. He does this over and over again, frequently following it by commenting on how clever the characters are to have solved his mystery or, alternately, how clever the man who created the puzzle in the first place was to do so. It's not a terrible book, and in fact has a lot of the elements I like about a good old-fashioned treasure hunt story, but in the end, I feel that Brown's writing leaves a lot to be desired. I can't help but think this is a case where a book became a huge hit because of the controversy, not because of the quality.   hide