Rob’s Book Reviews

Dan Brown – The Da Vinci Code Reviewed

March 10th, 2006 at 9:17 am (Fiction: Thrillers)

I don’t know what can be said about Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code that hasn’t been said already. Since it’s the bestselling thriller of all time, or at least billed as such, chances are you’ve probably read it, or at least have a copy waiting to be read. If not, I suggest you buy it now, as like it’s predecessor Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code is a fast-paced page turner that keeps you hanging on the edge of your seat (or bed, or beach, or wherever you happen to read it!). A mixture of Art History, Detective Story, code breaking and religion, The Da Vinci Code once again features Robert Langdon in his unlikely role of Harvard Professor and unwilling James Bond! I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Da Vinci Code for a second time over the last few days.

Well, this is going to be one of my shorter reviews, since this book needs little introduction. However, I must say quickly how dismayed I am by the current court case, where the author Dan Brown has been taken to court by two other authors, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, claiming that Brown stole ideas from their book, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail. Leigh and Baigent are suing Brown and publisher Random House for breach of copyright. I sincerely hope they don’t win, because if they do it will lead to authors spending more time in court than doing what they do best, writing novels. If these guys win, imagine how many scientific text authors may crawl from the woodwork and claim Michael Crichton stole their idea, or how about if someone does a new biography on Dickens – will previous biographers be able to sue because the same ground is being covered? Perhaps this is just a case of sour grapes – the authors of The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail are certain not to have made a fortune with their historical theories, and so perhaps resent the clever way in which Brown has turned The Da Vinci Code into a publishing phenomenon through the ingenuity of his imagination and skill of his writing. Who knows. I’m just glad they didn’t have copyright in Shakespeare’s day, since he based pretty much all of his works on stories and plays previously written by others – he just did them a lot better! Imagine a world without imagination, where authors must spend years making sure that nobody else has ever even thought about the ideas in their synopsis – it will be a world, I’m afraid, without great novels such as The Da Vinci Code, so I dearly hope Brown and Random House pull off a victory!

The judge was this week given some reading time to read both books, why not decide for yourself and purchase them both today for some great holiday or weekend reading!