Spoilers: Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code

[pauljholden]

Just finished reading this ... it's er.. I dunno ... a bit rubbish? I really enjoyed all the historical/conspiracy/grail/alterntive history of the church stuff but ... you know ... the action seems to stop every two minutes so you can get a lecture on all the cool stuff Dan has discovered in his research (including a sideways ramble about the little mermaid). And the villain turns up in the end to explain everything in a Bond villain manner. (Albino Monk is also a very Bond type villain)

Lots of the conspiracy stuff turns up in Preacher (and is better written). And I've seen at least one documentary about Christ's marriage to Mary Magdelene (granted in that version Christ was also the reincarnated Buddha)

So ... who else has read it and liked it and why? (And whatta think Brown's magic ingrediant was to get this to be the big thing it seems to have been).

- pj
(or am I, as always, two or three years behind the ball?)

[Max Kon]

You should read Q by Luther Blissit. it's got what you enjoyed about DVC but it's really good

Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0099439832/qid=1121112590/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/202-5172480-3679004" target="_blank">On amazon

[GermanAndy]

"(And whatta think Brown's magic ingrediant was to get this to be the big thing it seems to have been). "

I guess it?s either in the water supply or the air.

Otherwise it can?t be explained :-))

[skurvy]

Agree with Max that you should read 'Q', one of the most difficult books that I've read (but then I'm an idiot) but well worth it in the end. Don't know how it compares to the Da Vinchi Code though.

[Satanist]

"it's er.. I dunno ... a bit rubbish?"

Totally agree.  Every time I stopped reading I thought it was crap but still couldnt wait to find out what happened next. I'd compare it to those old Doug Mclure films. You know its shit but you just cant stop.

[judge dreddd]

big coz he pretended it was true, its like chariot of the gods init, oooo its all trueeee

based on a thriller with same idea published years before apparently, but that time the guy admitted it was fiction

[opaque]

It's well written, you can totally see how it will be made into a film for one thing. I read Da Vinci, then read Deception Point, then Angels and Demons. Both of which are just as well written and both of which read like a screenplay.

All this stuff has been around for ages but this is the first time it's in the mainstream. I certainly wouldn't call Preacher mainstream (in terms of overall media that is) and a lot of documentaries like that are ignored by lots of people anyway. It's only the englightened ones like us that take in everything.

[Carlsborg Expert]

Steven King formula?

By listening to comments I think we've been focussing on the hoax machina too long. With it being written in the style of picture narrative,this wants to be in pictures so badly.

Can anyone who read it say why or why not its in the same league Harry Potter or Steven King? Is there a niche in the GN market for it?

[paulvonscott]

I think it's succesful, because not only do people wnat to believe there's some sort of universal or hidden truth to our everyday lives, they also expect to be able to read it all in paperback form.  If only Al-Hazred had done a paperback run, over the traditional skin bound copy.

And I'm sure it's an entertaining enough read, hugely popular at the library.

[m-hawk]

Opaque, well written, seriously? Say what you like about Dan Brown's books (the word 'bollocks' comes to my mind) its impossible for me to see anything good about his prose. Its the worst kind of airport trash and I didn't know whether to cry or laugh that someone who obviously has no talent at all with a pen makes so much money out of it.

[Carlsborg Expert]

M-hawks I'm gonna come from this with the Surmise that you are looking for whats right and have never felt a true emotional pain,and ask;




Have you ever stopped aman seeing his children?

[Max Kon]

Is the Va Dinchi Cod any good?

[Carlsborg Expert]

"Is the Va Dinchi Cod"
that was on purpose wasnt it you little tinker;)

[Max Kon]

Yes it was, i was wondering whether the Va Dinchi Cod is a good book, it really exists too.

[ukdane]

Luther Blisset, didn't he used to to play for Luton Town in the 70's?