The Da Vinci Code

I was offended by the book's many presumptions about the audience concerning the Bible. I have heard of the Holy Grail, but I do not know what is it. I did not know who Mary Magdalene was and what the Knights Templar was as well. Yet the book claimed that this is knowledge "almost everyone in the world" would know.

Furthermore, the book depicted a mathematician as a person who gets really really REALLY excited about phi.................................... Is that how literature authors think about mathematicians: socially enthusiastic about the subject, laughs at math jokes even I don't get..., make a fool of themselves?

Dan Brown noted in an interview that 99% of the facts in the story were historically accurate, but yet, the majority of historians have agreed that Priory of Sion was merely a prank made up by some random person who thought this would be interesting (Dan Brown noted in the first page that the Priory of Sion indeed existed). However, seeing how the book implicated the power of the Church, I think he ultimately wanted to implicate that the Church influenced most the historians, courts (the random person confessed in court that it was all a prank), and significant figures to release false information about the existance of the Priory of Sion. However, to distinguish my line between conspiracy theorists, I retain my doubts but also am cautious about the mainstream opinion. In short, I am indifferent about the truth, since it does not affect me at all!

From the above criticism, it appears that I depise the book, but this was not the case! It was really entertaining to read (the reader must take into consideration that I have not had much experience with mystery books)!

The book took a rather unexpected twist (I was expecting a twist, but later on, I thought that the twist did not exist, so I no longer expected the twist...) near the end and I was shocked at the moment the author wanted me to be shocked at, quite effectively, too! The storyline fitted in so perfectly that it was very scary.

Another ingenious element was the double entendres. Seriously, they were so incredible that I applauded every time the "2nd meaning" unveiled. Although I must say, the final double entendre was the best one of all =) The last few chapters were extremely climatic and it did not slow down even to the end.

Surprisingly, I must say that the main characters did not have much character development, but the side characters had an unbalancing amount development. The historian had the moral dilemma between truth and humanity, and the cryptologist appeared to have degraded as time went on despite this book celebrating feminity. In addition, the amount of masculinity was rather shocking; I expected more from one of the central themes that the characters revolved around. Meanwhile, the albino monk, the bishop, and the chief officer fell from the heights of power to regret.

I give this 8.2 stars out of 10!