On The Da Vinci Code

[Hypes]

Eco's characters serve a purpose beyond simply narrating the story, they are a vital part in its point, and the journey is as much within them as it is in the world they go through in search of the plot's elusive thread.

Brown... well, Brown doesn't know diddly **** about anything.

[Alexa]

Originally Posted by Hypes

Brown... well, Brown doesn't know diddly **** about anything.

I suspect he knows a lot about marketing. Da Vinci Code sells are crazy.

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Yep. The latest stunt is to sell almost any other book in existece by claiming a connection to the Da Vinci Bore. That's the fun bit about marketeers - they get so carried away over-exploiting any reasonably effective idea they're bound to overdo it and roger themselves in due course.

[Alexa]

You mean, the sharks. Yeap, I saw at least two books to explain the secrets of Da Vinci Code. Crazy people !

[McMurphy]

I picked and finally read this book last week, and I have a few thoughts on it that reflect the general opinion expressed in this thread.

Brown, as a professional author, writes The Da Vinci Code in the same fashion as some other writers accused (and probably rightly so) of supermarket paperback writing: cardboard characters and little frills when it comes the actual narrarition of the book. When reading The Da Vinci Code, I couldn't help recalling Clancy, Grisham, or Crichton. Pieces by these authors seem to hinge incredibly on whether or not the idea or information put forth is interesting and their mastery over plugging in storytelling formulas.

That said, I really liked Da Vinci Code because I found myself interested in the subject matter, and I have always been a sucker for a good conspiracy theory. The characters and even the story itself felt like they were there merely to play out the theory that Dan Brown was presenting, which could be why the final act of the book felt the weakest. At that point, it was more about resolving the conflict that Brown tied all the characters together with.

Aside from the golden nuggets of trivia facts, how much historical accuracy does this piece of fiction actually have? I must admit that, while, like all good conspiracies, the author takes the thesis a bit too far. Not everything around us can be read as an ancient symbol for the pagan knowledge of the balance of male and female deity worship.

[dwndrgn]

I agree that the subject matter is interesting. Sadly, though there are tons of books out there on the same subject, actual facts are few and far between and when they get mixed up with fiction, they just get farther from the truth.

[nixie]

Book club sent me a copy...then someone lent me Angels and Demons...not bad reads but nothing special.Although I did choose a bad time to read Angels and Demons...the same week the pope died

[Shoegaze99]

Originally Posted by McMurphy

Brown, as a professional author, writes The Da Vinci Code in the same fashion as some other writers accused (and probably rightly so) of supermarket paperback writing: cardboard characters and little frills when it comes the actual narrarition of the book.

...

That said, I really liked Da Vinci Code because I found myself interested in the subject matter, and I have always been a sucker for a good conspiracy theory. The characters and even the story itself felt like they were there merely to play out the theory that Dan Brown was presenting

I couldn't agree more, on both comments. As I say in this post over here, Brown simply doesn't have the ability to offer a pleasant turn of phrase and his dialogue is dreadful. He's far worse even than the other popular authors you mention. However, The Da Vinci Code was designed and written in such a way that the pages just keep turning; he lets "his" theory unfold one revelation after another; short bit of plot, cliffhanger, short bit of plot, cliffhanger. The pacing was well done this way. Despite cringing at Brown's prose, I still felt a need to plow through the story, in part because it's a decent thriller and in part because it's a pet subject matter of mine. I can't say I'd ever offer this book up as an example of good writing, but for people who like page-turning thrillers or who enjoy the subject matter being dealt with, you could do worse.