I just read Davinci Code
 

This is totally unbiased as I never read any of the reviews for this book. I've heard the movie is rotten, but obviously I'll see it anyway.

I haven't read a book in about a year, which is why I never got around to this. I'm going to start reading more, so if you want to suggest something, that'd be good.

***SPOILERS

I was hooked before I opened the cover. The marketing campaign is brilliant and most of that is a credit to Brown who selected such an easy sell to start with. His premise is so simple, and yet not really done in this way before.

Plotting is his strength, and he bounces between the characters at just the right times. The main character, Langdon, was probably the least interesting of the group. He seemed to have no faults and that doesn't make for good development. Silas was probably my favorite.

I never knew where it was going, even though the quest is so obvious, and the ending took me by surprise. (Although the italicized lines we thought were in the heads of the characters were sometimes only there to lead us astray.)

It is certainly not a masterpiece. The puzzles were way too simplistic. (I got about half of them before the cryptologist and the symbologist could.) And the idea that Teabing would involve Langdon and Sophie in the end is kind of preposterous.

Brown's text is logical and unpoetic, but the book has a saving grace: its setting. The Louvre is described in such detail, I felt like I was inside it. The history, the artifacts, etc.

Plus, Brown deserves credit for keeping the integrity of the subject matter. He didn't make up some phony code embedded in the paintings that isn't there in reality.

I'm more familiar with movie ratings so I'll give it [img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img][img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] out of 5.

By the way, I would never want to tackle this book as a screenwriter. It is not cinematic in the least, outside of the setting. The best parts take place in the characters' minds as they solve the puzzle. The best way to make it into a movie would be to include a more personal look into Langdon. That would involve dragging the story out a bit, but it's very hard to make a conflicted hero out of this character. Another option would be to make Sophie the protagonist...but these things would never happen in Hollywood.

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

If you liked it, Deception Point is another good one by Dan Brown. I would leave Angels & Demons on the shelf though.

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

I think I might be the only person in the world that didn't really like this book. I found it a mildy entertaining read, but didn't think the plot was all that great. The characters were kind of bland, and it seemed kind of rushed.

I thought the ending was a major disappointment. I truly hated the last 40 pages or so, and that may be what is colouring my assesment of the entire story.

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

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If you liked it, Deception Point is another good one by Dan Brown. I would leave Angels & Demons on the shelf though.

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Wow. You may be the first I've ever heard say that. Everyone else I know that read his books (including me) puts Angels & Demons way higher than Da Vinci Code. Although, I will say that A & D drags on for 100 pages longer than it has to.

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

A and D > Digital Fortress > DaVinci > Deception Point...imo...

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

***Angels + Demons Spoiler***

I thought it was slightly better than the Da Vinci Code and I really liked DVC. But does it bother anyone that Langdon jumps out of a helicopter from thousands of feet up and survives the incident with nothing but a few scratches?

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

matador, yeah, that was kinda lame, but didn't ruin the whole story for me...

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

I'm in the A+D > DC camp. Although neither of them are literary masterpieces they're both fun quick reads.

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

[ QUOTE ]
A and D > Digital Fortress > DaVinci > Deception Point...imo...

[/ QUOTE ]

Digital Fortress was the worst by far.
-James

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

[ QUOTE ]

I'm in the A+D > DC camp.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

I finally gave in and read DVC last week, it wasn't bad and I had a long layover so I picked up Angels and Demons right after. Angels and Demons was much better in my opinion but dragged on far to long at the end. I borrowed Deception Point after and enjoyed it the best, but started to pick up a theme for Dan Brown books. While they all have some amaingly researched details the plots all seem so similar and start to resemble an action film where the hero dodges twenty machine guns etc...

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A and D > Digital Fortress > DaVinci > Deception Point...imo...

[/ QUOTE ]

Digital Fortress was the worst by far.
-James

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah, this is the one that i have had the most disagreements with others over...people ive talked to liked one or the other, but rarely liked both regarding Deception Point and Digital Fortress...

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A and D > Digital Fortress > DaVinci > Deception Point...imo...

[/ QUOTE ]

Digital Fortress was the worst by far.
-James

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that whichever one you know most about ends up being the worst by far. Pretty much anyone in software will be throwing up in their mouth at several points during DF.

The biggest problem I have with Brown is that he'll get a lot of things right, and then really miss the boat on some fundamental "fact" and discredit everything else he has to say (unless you're already familiar with the material, and can pick out what's right and what's not on your own).

I can either give the guy credit for being smart, and call him intellectually dishonest by throwing around a ton of falsehoods after creating an environment that is supposedly factual, or call the guy an idiot who doesn't know most of what he's trying to talk about. Either way I'm not too happy.

That said, I read all 4 books. In order of story quality, I'd rank them as AD, DVC, DP, DF. But maybe DF was a better story than I'm giving him credit for, and was just sickened by so much of it being blatantly absurd.

~D

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

[ QUOTE ]
***Angels + Demons Spoiler***

I thought it was slightly better than the Da Vinci Code and I really liked DVC. But does it bother anyone that Langdon jumps out of a helicopter from thousands of feet up and survives the incident with nothing but a few scratches?

[/ QUOTE ]

There's some aspect of suspending disbelief whenever you're going to read a work of fiction, and that's a much smaller leap to take than pretty much every other fake fact in the book. Hell, at least Dan Brown knows what drag is.

~D

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

FWIW, I thought the speech by the camerlengo near the end of A&D was maybe the best 'argument' for religion I have ever read. I'm about as atheist as they come and even I was ready to start tithing after reading that.

Re: I just read Davinci Code
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A and D > Digital Fortress > DaVinci > Deception Point...imo...

[/ QUOTE ]

Digital Fortress was the worst by far.
-James

[/ QUOTE ]

I think that whichever one you know most about ends up being the worst by far. Pretty much anyone in software will be throwing up in their mouth at several points during DF.

The biggest problem I have with Brown is that he'll get a lot of things right, and then really miss the boat on some fundamental "fact" and discredit everything else he has to say (unless you're already familiar with the material, and can pick out what's right and what's not on your own).

I can either give the guy credit for being smart, and call him intellectually dishonest by throwing around a ton of falsehoods after creating an environment that is supposedly factual, or call the guy an idiot who doesn't know most of what he's trying to talk about. Either way I'm not too happy.

That said, I read all 4 books. In order of story quality, I'd rank them as AD, DVC, DP, DF. But maybe DF was a better story than I'm giving him credit for, and was just sickened by so much of it being blatantly absurd.

~D

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I totally agree with what you are saying. Brown, of course, backpedals out of this by saying that 'he' isn't saying these things, and that his characters are. This of course seems like total BS because his characters present this information as cold hard historical or technological fact as opposed to their own opinions, but I am still able to enjoy the books from a plot standpoint simply because I tie it in with other suspensions of disbelief.
-James