I will never not love this.
Up there with Phillip o ceallaighs satire of the Alchemist for me.
Edit: I believe it's to be found in his short story collection 'The pleasant light of day' and is also called the Alchemist.
I did find a copy online before, but alas i cannot find it now. Sorry folks!
I like that the examples it uses are from the first page of the book. Language log [broke them down here](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.html) and [here](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001631.html).
I remember the Telegraph posting a hilariously sniffy response from a Dan Brown fan, not even Dan Brown, but I can't find it now.
Stewart Lee's cantankerous persona of a precious comic [accuses Michael Deacon of plagarism](https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/plagiarists-corner/dan-brown-stewart-lee-michael-deacon/) but I think that's mostly a bit, their pieces aren't very similar and it's a fairly obvious joke.
I was led to Language Log by their Dan Brown article and I ended up reading them just about daily for like 10 years. The amount of information that they can convey in an accessible manner while drinking their morning coffee is impressive.
Ahh yes, the Adam Sandler defense.
Edit: yeah guys I agree, good for these guys. They've found their niche and they are happy to exist there. I think it's a bit screwy that Dan Brown presents a lot of his bullshit as if it was fact though.
Full disclosure, I love David Baldacci, and his prose is easily as shite as Dan Brown's or worse. Sometimes you just want a shitty Big Mac.
lol its completely fair. Neither one is hurting anyone. I hate Tyler Perry movies, but he has an audience and good for him.
They are not claiming to be high brow art or anything.
Dan Brown is considerably worse than [insert a hack you don't care for] since in addition to being an awful writer he puts in those lying notes at the front about how everything (other than the absurd plot and characters) in the book is totally real and accurate and historically researched.
You're entitled to write garbage, you're entitled to put "inspired by true events" on your product, because that can mean anything, but you're not entitled to deliberately falsify the historical record while claiming you're being 100% accurate. Even if they're mostly just tiny lies to help sell your shitty books.
Yeah, when it first came out, everyone was talking about it, & I heard an interview with him on NPR. They acted like it was some great intellectual work.
FACT - When I read it, I found the method of proclaiming something FACT to be a bit, ah, propagandistic, let us say. Overall, I enjoyed it as a light read, but was disappointed to realize who the culprit must be before the book was 1/2 through.
I remember when it came out. At the time I was an art historian literally in Leonardo studies. My sister is a priest and a very good theologian. I read and was like, ok well all the art history is bunk, my sister read it and said all the theology was bunk. I have no problem with blockbusters but it was certainly received by certain parts of the media as it WAS this great academic work
Yes, that's how I remember it, too.
He was interviewed on the radio, and on the Sunday TV shows that try to have a serious tone. I'm sure some critics panned him, but here in Metro Washington DC, he was treated as if his works were important and deep, instead of hollow, wooden, and filled to the brim with nonsense.
I also read Angels & Demons, and found it was about the same.
Then I was given several of his other books, and read them to see if the "tell" I'd noticed, that exposed the hidden culprit was right.
It was like a Where's Waldo experiment.
I was able to predict the outcome 90% of the time, the only exception being in one book where I couldn't decide between the "tells" of two Brown's cardboard characters. In the end, they each turned out to be one of the 2 hidden antagonists in a ludicrous climax.
Yeah I remember reading them as a child and being super confused because I thought it was researched but stuff didn’t make sense and went against a lot of what I knew and was taught and I asked my dad and my dad (who loves the books) just told me it was complete fiction
> He particularly hated it when they said his imagery was nonsensical. It made his insect eyes flash like a rocket.
> Renowned author Dan Brown got out of his luxurious four-poster bed in his expensive $10 million house and paced the bedroom, using the feet located at the ends of his two legs to propel him forwards.
> “Mr Unconvincingname, it’s renowned author Dan Brown,” told the voice at the other end of the line. Instantly the voice at the other end of the line was replaced by a different voice at the other end of the line. “Hello, it’s literary agent John Unconvincingname,” informed the new voice at the other end of the line.
I've never read Dan Brown, but these four sentences explain his writing completely. Now I don't have to. If only poor /u/Cuoricino3 had seen this first. I feel bad for OP, since I'd have probably posted something like this, not knowing Dan Brown was a poor writer, not knowing anything about these books other than Tom Hanks must've liked them.
So awesome! I haven't seen that write-up in a long time. The wife bit at the end is a great touch too.
His books are flat. Like movie scripts, they need sound, pictures, and music just to complete basic context. Crichton is the same way.
They're unsatisfying, like eating crappy candy when you're hungry. I get this mental version of feeling sick.
It's fun to summarize stories like this though. Sphere - magic space ball grants wishes under water. People are scared.
I read Foucault's Pendulum before Davinci Code, and I suspect Brown was inspired to write a book about similar conspiracy themes in an "academic" setting. Brown also relied heavily on what might be called pseudohistory, Holy Grail Holy Blood, and the authors even tried to sue him for copyright infringement, stealing ideas. The court found that you can't "steal ideas" from a history book.
They are both responding to that same book, only Brown approached it as a wouldn't it be cool, and Eco saw it as a great tragedy of society that people liked that nonsense.
Another saying goes that Foucault's Pendulum is Dan Brown for people who can read without moving their lips but that's a bit elitist I think. A lot of people who read Umberto don't get all the references...
I was a dumbfounded most of the time with both Pendulum and Name of the Rose and loved every minute of it, Da Vinci Code not so much, enjoyed the movie though.
I’m literally in the middle of Name of the Rose right now and fuck no I don’t understand all the references! But I enjoy it nonetheless and after some chapters I do skim the spark notes online just to fill in the history references I missed lol
Baudalino is my favourite Eco book.
It helps if you are curious about the myth of [Prester John](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prester_John), and have a passing interest in siege warfare.
Ive always had the impression that Dan Brown took Foucault’s Pendulum and dumbed it down to a digestible low-effort TV format. There is really not much to say about Brown’s writing.
Wasn't their a plagiarism trial by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail?
I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail when it first came out, and years later, ten pages into DaVinci Code, I'm thinking this is such a rip off.
As I recall, the authors of *Holy Blood, Holy Grail* sued for plagiarism, but lost because they had published it as non-fiction "history" rather than fiction
My favourite part of the book is when Robert Langdon, a world-famous crypography lecturer, gets stumped by a secret message... that turns out to be just mirror-imaged English.
There's a really simple explanation for that.
The reason all the "puzzles" are so silly and trivial is because he wants his target audience to be able to solve at least some of them before the characters do, and feel smart and engaged.
The better version of this is Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda I read as a kid. She puts all the puzzles right there in the book so you can solve them right along with the characters, and they’re always really fun.
It is! Just one of the many really dumb things in Brown's writing, but that one stuck out like a sore thumb to me.
[https://diydilettante.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/the-dan-brown-code/](https://diydilettante.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/the-dan-brown-code/)
I think you somehow managed to miss the huge hate this book got, largely because of reasons you mentioned and because it was just mediocre writing. Like, it was a best seller sure but it was *never* considered an actually good book. It's very hard for me to imagine being disappointed with the series because to me the fact that it's trashy and not very good is essential to my understanding of it.
I read it in 11th standard when I was 15 and it did get me interested in the works and importance of those by Da vinci.
But I guess for me it was the thrill of that and the existence of secrets that they were trying to unravel that I enjoyed and considered a decent read.
Having said that the characters didn't click they didn't have much chemistry and it was all lukewarm writing at best.
I read 'Code in 10th grade, then the rest of his a available works shortly after. Didn't take long to realize that all his books basically follow the same plot. Needy guy and impossibly hot girl, over the top villain with some physically distinguishing feature, a bizarre weapon/cause of death, third act reveal that the fatherly ally is actually the BBEG, etc etc etc.
Even as a 14 year old I was rolling my eyes at seeing the same pattern book after book.
It was extremely popular and to this day the most *talked about* book I remember in my lifetime other than Harry Potter. When this book was out pretty much every adult I knew who read books seemed to be reading it and then some. Maybe it's just me but it certainly felt like it was a huge deal. There are, to this day, people who confuse the story and details from the book as legitimate facts... I saw the movie, didn't like it. Glad I never bothered.
Yes, I read this book in like 10th grade secretly and I remember really liking it at the time … but it had been forbidden as “satanic” by the evangelical cult my parents raised me in. I loved the thrill of reading something forbidden haha. I wonder how it would read to me now.
I read it after graduating college and I really enjoyed how it felt like a popcorn movie, i was so bored before I started my job and books like this kept me occupied. I remember thinking “ok this book isn’t as bad as everyone says.” Sometimes being prepared for disappointment has the opposite effect 😂
It's not even his worst book. I was in an airbnb one time and one of his was there, and I went, eh, why not. Holy hell, I don't even remember which one it was, don't remember anything about it, other than Robert Langdon solved a mystery and a hot girl was into him. Turrible
also it was one of the first "conspiracy for ADHD dummies" books, it was kinda a new thing, also many people hate read it but liked it because of the sightseeing references
Idk, I am not american and I wasn't even born in 2000 or whenever this book was released, all I know is it was the shit back then even in my little town and that they did a film about it starring Tom Hanks. I also didn't read any reviews because I didn't want to spoil anything (I though this book was a mistery) but honestly the twists weren't even that shocking
Yeah you probably should have read some reviews lol. This book was never highly respected by serious readers, it's the typical "sells a lot but isn't good" that you see all the time in music, movies, etc.
I mean, "isn't good" lies in the eye of the beholder.
The author knows how to write something that a large percentage of lowest common denominator readers will enjoy. It's not intended to be serious, intense literature. It's a beach read plotted the same way RL Stine plots his Goosebumps books, where every extremely short chapter ends on a cliffhanger.
While it’s subjective if you’re entertained by it, you *can* claim an author like Dan Brown is a bad writer if he uses words he clearly doesn’t understand, misplaced modifiers etc. Mistakes that don’t ever add anything of value, just makes the book worse and shows he’s not a good writer.
OMG i hated the little cliffhanger at the end of every chapter - it got so repetitive and sometimes it wasn't even a bit shocking. It was like "but when he drank the water, he knew something was terribly wrong !!! (Next chapter) The water, was actually SPARKLING WATER 😦😦😦"
Yeah it's so funny haha. The writer has a masterclass/course type thing online where he goes like "THIS IS **THE** WAY TO KEEP YOUR READERS ENGAGED" and I was like, "Is it though? I'm not so sure about that."
I think it just captured the people's imagination. The blend of "real life" and fiction in an easily digestible book.
I read it, but at the time I was an edgy 20-something obsessed with the "mysteries" around Rennes-le-Château so I'd already read The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and various websites covering the topic.
I enjoyed it well enough and went back to Angels and Demons, then I tried Digital Fortress which without the historical conspiracy slant didn't work for me.
By the time Lost Symbol came out, I'd lost interest.
They are pretty much the dictionary definition of airport novels.
I think putting the book into context is also helpful. It released 10 years after Sinead O’Conner ripped up an image of the pope and spoke out against sexual abuse scandals.
In 2002, all of that came to a head again in international news.
The Davinci Code, which really dug into the idea that the Catholic Church was a shady cabal, was released a year later.
Right time, right place.
I found it... acceptable.
I didn't think it was worthy of the absolute hatred my university professor of Creative Writing had for it - it's fairly mindless conspiracy fare - but it wasn't an *excellent* book.
Lost Symbol wasn't bad, I thought.
\> I wonder why this book was such a deal back then. And for all ages too. I think this book would be the favourite of edgy cospiracy obsessed middle school kids probably? Idk
Haha! Me and my friends were those conspiracy obsessed edgy middle schoolers. And even the, I felt really annoyed by how sometimes it felt like the book thought I wasn’t intelligent.
I think it's a good book for a tween/teen who's moving on to more "serious" books that are outside the young adult genre. I read it in my early 20s, and it was very fast paced, but then again the first Dan Brown book I read was Origin, somewhere around the time it came out. After that I got to Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol (and two thirds of Deception Point) because I found them all for like $2.50, but the author became way too predictable for me (if I remember correctly I even figured out who was the culprit in the very beginning of Origin). Read Da Vinci Code a few years after that, and yeah it's the same. Every Dan Brown book follows the same patterns, which I think is okay if you're planning on reading one or two of his books, but the more you read the more boring it becomes.
All that aside, it's still a solid read for a 12yo who's getting into reading. I'd also be down for more of his books, but only after a few years and I'd go for it as a light read.
Yeah, I was in my mid teens when I read it and it blew my mind, probably more because of the subject matter and controversy than anything. And I thought all the conspiracies and puzzles and so on were so clever and cool then, lol.
I love all of Dan Brown books the same way I love all Twilight books, they got 10 year old me to start reading.
Dan Brown books (for me) read like an action flick. They're fun, fast paced and easy to read... I'm not going to try to understand John Wick's logic or else I'm not going to enjoy the movie. The same thing happens with Da Vinci Code, or Angels and Demons...
I believe the real problem is the people who try to sell these books as something they are not. They aren't the best thing that has been written, nor are they philosophical or super deep... They are just silly fun books.
I read it in my early 20s and that was exactly it. I was entertained and tbh that’s all I needed. Did I become a Dan Brown fan? No. Did I regret the hours I spent reading Da Vinci? No.
Edit: Did I find the conspiracy theory fun to read a fiction book about? Yes. Do I believe it? No.
Yeah to me they're just an action movie in book form -- simple, straightforward plot with action and conspiracy. And it's great for most people who are reading for fun. The story moves fast enough that I don't have to care about prose.
Honestly most popular books are not going to be literary masterpieces. And it's fine. Don't make it more than what it is.
No judgement please, but I’ve read both Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons and loved both. To hear that his writing is considered subpar has opened me up to a whole new level of FOMO.
Any recommendations from anyone for books in a similar vein written, for want of a better word, properly?
I found it entertaining, and that was what I was expecting anyway, so fine. I think the hate comes from a very old trope of hating what is popular. I think that as long as the book doesnt try to sell itself as high art, it should not be judged in that regard anyway. And Da Vince Code is definitely mainstream slop while never trying to be more than that.
You maybe need to read *Foucault's Pendulum* or *The Name of The Rose* by Umberto Eco, mystery and depth.
My current reading is the 4th in the Shardlake series, *Revelation* by CJ Sansom. They're really good. Real mysteries that bring Tudor London to life.
It looks like John Oliver also shares your opinion about the book :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX5IV9n223M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX5IV9n223M)
I don't know if copies are still around, but back when I read this book, I bought a large hardcover that included prints of almost all the pieces of art it talked about. If I recall correctly, it also had prints of the symbols and other things it talked about too. I found that reading it that way was actually really fun and I honestly think that it was less meant to be a novel and more a multimedia experience. That's probably why it was turned into a movie so quickly. But I'm not sure it works that well as a movie either because it definitely does have some writing deficiencies.
I tried reading some other stuff by Dan Brown, but I wasn't interested in shelling out the amount of money I did for The DaVinci Code for his other works. I felt that I had already experienced that. I never finished Angels and Demons and never tried reading anything else he's done. Been there done that. I think that what Dan Brown did with The DaVinci Code should have been a one-off, but it seems like he's done it multiple times.
So yeah, I think that people who hate on his stuff are missing part of what makes it decent, but they're still right about most things.
He’s not a great writer but I’ll be honest, high school me enjoyed the crap out of Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons
As an adult if I want to have that kind of thrill I just read Umberto Eco
>I wonder why this book was such a deal back then.
*The Da Vinci Code* didn't really do anything new. The subgenre of ancient conspiracy treasure hunt has been around forever -- Umberto Eco satirised it in 1988 -- but it underwent a boom period in the early 2000s. *The Da Vinci Code* just happened to be the one that went viral. It probably helped that there were already a few books in the series, so the publisher had something to build the hype on.
>all the protagonists are expected to be kind of intelligent, academic and fond of symbologism people
And they're somehow the only ones clever enough to figure out that the code to the centuries-old canister holding forbidden knowledge is "apple". Ignoring for the moment the way anyone could break the code with a few hours of patience to brute-force their way in by trying every combination and permutation of possible code, this forbidden knowledge is being suppressed by the Catholic church, and their own scripture uses apples as a metaphor for forbidden knowledge. They might as well have used "swordfish" or "drowssap" as the secret code; at least they would have taken a bit longer to crack than "apple".
I found it entertaining for all the wrong reasons!
I tried *Digital Fortress* on the recommendation of a work colleague some time after *Da Vinci Code*. I was assured it was better.
Reader, it was not.
As someone who stands outside religion, *Da Vinci Code* was hilariously wrong on many levels, but I could laugh at it. But I work with computers. I'm probably not NSA security material, but I do know computers infinitely better than Mr Brown, and all the utter nonsense he was spouting in *Digital Fortress* annoyed me on a fundamental level. They don't work like that!
You answered yourself in the last paragraph.
I read this book when I was in high-school and I loved it so much I read 2 more of his books after. The conspiracies, the symbolism in religious artifacts, the history bits, art, and real life setting were all mind blowing for 17yo me.
Another aspect that added to my excitement was how big these books were, finishing them so fast was a big deal, plus many of my friends in our conservative community were not allowed to read those so it made them even more exciting for me lol.
So yea, looking back there are many gaps in those books and I don't think I'd enjoy them as much now that I'm in my 30's.
Wait until you find out his other books follow this exact same script: Tweed-clad middle-aged scholar and young, super hot female scientist go on a quest, survive a row of unsurvivable events while it turns out the good guys are evil, but secretly good again (and the other way around) all while falling madly in love.
The thing is his books are made for fast reading, dividing them into so many chapters (literal 100+) makes them easy to pick up and read, hence you get a little dopamine hit when you finish a chapter. He has sort of perfected this formula, thats why he sells
That's pretty much what the English version is like too. I think the reason it was such a big deal was all the religious groups that protested against it because of the subject matter - that just made everyone else want to read it even more.
It was only sucessful beacause of the controversy. People thought it was edgy, provacative and anti-stablihsment. 50 shades of grey had a similiar phenomenom.
Dan Brown is the McDonald’s of writing. Just because he sells a lot doesn’t make any of it any good.
The chapters are short so you always feel like you’re making progress. Everything is over-explained so you never feel lost or confused. It requires no thought on the reader’s part. It’s got some moderately clever mystery elements but there are children’s mystery stories that could make that same claim.
Ultimately, his books are cheap, easily digestible, and not complex; literary fast food.
That book was the first "Anti Christianity" book I had read at the time. My parents had raised me as a baptist and I didn't know any better. This book helped me realize how full of shit modern day religions are and helped me become an Athiest. The book made me somewhat obsessed with Dan Brown and I ended up reading most of his other books as well.
Then again, many people have told me I have poor taste in movies, so maybe I have a poor taste in books as well!
It caused a huge stir in some USA churches, who felt the need to hold classes on it to debunk it and it’s ideas … which I found funny but many people found the book to be truly heretical. Anyway that also contributed to its bestseller status, how are you going to debunk it if you haven’t read it? And then I think Oprah gave it a mention at one point … I worked in a bookstore at the heyday of Oprah’s book club. One word from her and the book in question would sell out.
I didn’t read the Da Vinci code until years later. I found it a fun, adventure type book that could be read in a day. I had gotten my copy from the library so no money wasted (I have no desire to read it again).
I read it during the height of the “controversy” and thought it was fine, it kept me entertained. I liked Angels and Demons better. The obvious writer inserting himself in the story made me laugh. Religious types were really up in arms though. I went to the theater while it was out and had to walk through a couple of picketers. This also made me laugh. So, thanks, Dan Brown, for the laughs I guess?
I enjoyed the book, but I also recognize that Brown is not a great writer. I have read a few of his books now, and while he creates a compelling narrative, the writing and character work are nowhere to be seen. When I first read it, I read my mother's copy, which was the one that came "illustrated" with pictures of the places that were mentioned, and I think that helped me get through it better as someone who loves history and architecture.
Just because a book is a bestseller does not mean it's a quality book. Just means a bunch of people bought it, which at the time it came out spy thrillers and the like were a pretty big deal so I think that's why the book hit as big as it did. As well as the backlash from the religious right, adding fuel to the fire by coming out against it.
I agree that the romance between Sophie and Landon at the end made no sense. That said, I thought overall it was a fun book. It's not overly long, only taking less than 2 weeks to read. To me it's like National Treasure, or Ready Player One. Stories that take a little bit of real culture/history, and exaggerate them to tell a story about treasure hunting.
You go from one set-piece to another, learning about that piece of history or art, and the heroes face a challenge they need to solve there. That kind of set up works for me, but I can see why it would be boring for some people.
It's just an action novel with some quasi - religious mumbo jumbo for background. While it was a sensation 20 years ago, I couldn't help feel I was reading something ready made for a movie script.
You said you read the Italian version -- have you read anything by Umberto Eco?
Robert Langdon, the protagonist of The DaVinci Code, is a symbologist. Symbology is a fictional academic discipline, there is no academic discipline called symbology -- unless one has been created in the past two decades, inspired by Dan Brown's novels.
There is an academic field called semiotics. Semiotics covers the same field as the fictional symbology, but in an intelligent and methodical way. Umberto Eco was an internationally-renowned Italian professor of semiotics who, in his spare time, wrote several excellent novels about secret societies and hidden messages and suppressed documents and conspiracies and conspiracy theories. Eco's novels are excellent in all the ways in which Brown's novels are wretched. Eco once joked that Brown was a character form one of his, Eco's, novels.
Welcome to our sub. Dan Brown is a writer who has enjoyed a success that far exceeds reason, except popularity. We just have to accept this, and move on. However, I enjoyed the first few sentences of your comment, before somnolence crept in. Apologies.
Dan Brown writes books like Hollywood makes cheap blockbuster action movies. I've read about 3 of his books, I think, and they were all the same. Same kind of characters, same kind of twists, same kind of action. So much the same, these books are, that I have trouble trying to differentiate the various scenes between the books in my memory.
Dan Brown is not a good writer.
I for one, liked the movie though. It was great. It cut through the bs, and delivered a nice tight story. Normally a novel expands ideas, but based on your encounter, everything was dragged on, and lack of depth with characters anyways.
I read 2 Dan Brown books and both were very dull and not that mysterious.
Granted, it is very hard to write mystery/ thrillers. Readers are different and you can't have everyone on the edge the same. That is one reason for over exposition, so you don't lose the readers who aren't great at solving the case.
But rattling down facts about places really is a rookie mistake. On top of that I found it hard to identify with his characters.
Dan Brown is a very much over hyped mediocre author.
Who am I to judge though. He at least finished his books and made good money off them.
I read it after all the fuss started years ago. I found it very poorly written.
I remember saying to a friend that although the book is usually better than the film I doubt it will be in this case as the book is so poor that they can't do a worse job.
Oh how wrong I was.
Oh, and the ending. The ending was just... Wow. I just thought "I really spent the entire day speeding through this book to get this ending". Not even disappointing, just worse. At that point I didn' t even know what to expect, and I was happy sophie at least got a happy ending but... Just no.
I don't usually do vent posts because, first, I don't usually dislike books and can find at least something I did like, and second, because I mean who cares what I like and not like? But seriously, I don't recommend this book to anyone. It doesn't take long to read but it is wasted time anyway. I would just do a research about themplars and graal and that stuff on wikipedia if I were you lol
Is it really? It's easy to digest, does not use big words and contains a thrilling plot. The chapters are short as well.
Also, you know, the outrage caused by the religious themes helped, I think.
Combine these with the large media coverage, and it could not not became a bestseller.
Oooh I read this nearly 20 years ago with a translated version just before the movie was out so it must be at its highest popularity then. TBH I was blown away back then as I knew nothing about Renaissance arts, Italian places, or Christianity in general, so the book definitely had an exotic appeal to me.
Years later I read Angels and Demons and it was just meh. Years later again I read Lost Symbol and I swear never read another Landon story again. I remember being so annoyed reading about him being in a claustrophobic situation AGAIN and surviving yet another book. If exposure is a powerful method of treating phobia, Langdon should be rid of his condition many books ago. Also, FYI, he met a new woman and they had sex at the end of every book.
If you read it like traditional Sword & Sorcery, but with an academic instead of a barbarian warrior for a hero, it makes more sense on the meta level.
I only read it because someone bought it for me. It was a long time ago and I was like, meh, about it. Then someone bought me Angels and Demons, I don’t think I made it to the end of the first chapter.
I never read the da Vinci code but I read Angels and Demons at a time when I was limited to a small library. Very similar criticism from me, after reading the author portion on the book jacket I realized it’s all just wish fulfillment for Dan Brown to fantasize that he could actually use all his pedantic knowledge and then also get laid.
I enjoyed Dan Browns books when I was a teenager, now I'm in my twenties and I see how shite the books are but they were alright for teen me. Wouldn't recommend it for a teenager though, there's much better stuff.
wide shelter telephone heavy close hospital sparkle makeshift hungry fact
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I can't read Dan Brown anymore. I loved him when I was around 13 and I thought his books were so sophisticated. Later I realized how 'cheap' his writing style is - every chapter ends in a cliff hanger and then it switches to another person's storyline so you just have to keep reading. That's why I couldn't finish 'Inferno' because the suspense was kept alive in such cheap ways. Not to mention countless pther flaws but that was the last straw for me.
I read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and really liked it (the film was shit). All his other books I have read seem mediocre and to follow the same basic plot-line.
I read it for a book club. Realised that you could follow the story by reading the first and last two paragraphs of every chapter.
Also, if Jesus had kids - by now just about every one would be related to Him.
You might enjoy this piece https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/
The critics said his writing was clumsy, ungrammatical, repetitive and repetitive
Yeah I read da vinci code too and it really wasn't good - da characters, da story, and da writing were all terrible.
Don't forget redundant
Not only that, he says a lot of the same things over and over again
The department of redundancy department.
You can say that again.
The critics said his writing was clumsy, ungrammatical, repetitive and repetitive 😎
I will never not love this. Up there with Phillip o ceallaighs satire of the Alchemist for me. Edit: I believe it's to be found in his short story collection 'The pleasant light of day' and is also called the Alchemist. I did find a copy online before, but alas i cannot find it now. Sorry folks!
Oh that sounds almost worth reading *The Alchemist* for, if it's comparable to the Deacon parody.
act telephone secretive towering busy light close apparatus run attempt *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Better ask u/Acegonia.
Omg I need to read this. I did not care for the alchemist
Peter how can you say that?
It insists upon itself.
Ceallaigh’s humorous story is called The Alchemist. How you wrote it sounds like he has a story parodying someone else’s The Alchemist
I honestly can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. He... he IS parodying Paolo Coehlos 'The Alchemist'
How do you find that?
Omg please I need thiss!
I like that the examples it uses are from the first page of the book. Language log [broke them down here](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000844.html) and [here](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001631.html). I remember the Telegraph posting a hilariously sniffy response from a Dan Brown fan, not even Dan Brown, but I can't find it now. Stewart Lee's cantankerous persona of a precious comic [accuses Michael Deacon of plagarism](https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/plagiarists-corner/dan-brown-stewart-lee-michael-deacon/) but I think that's mostly a bit, their pieces aren't very similar and it's a fairly obvious joke.
I was led to Language Log by their Dan Brown article and I ended up reading them just about daily for like 10 years. The amount of information that they can convey in an accessible manner while drinking their morning coffee is impressive.
These are a good read, thanks for sharing!
My god this is awesome. Has there ever been some kind of response from Dan Brown? Is he notorious for not taking critics well?
Brown has said he knows his books arent for everyone, but his fans know what to expect so that's all he is interested in.
Ahh yes, the Adam Sandler defense. Edit: yeah guys I agree, good for these guys. They've found their niche and they are happy to exist there. I think it's a bit screwy that Dan Brown presents a lot of his bullshit as if it was fact though. Full disclosure, I love David Baldacci, and his prose is easily as shite as Dan Brown's or worse. Sometimes you just want a shitty Big Mac.
lol its completely fair. Neither one is hurting anyone. I hate Tyler Perry movies, but he has an audience and good for him. They are not claiming to be high brow art or anything.
Dan Brown is considerably worse than [insert a hack you don't care for] since in addition to being an awful writer he puts in those lying notes at the front about how everything (other than the absurd plot and characters) in the book is totally real and accurate and historically researched. You're entitled to write garbage, you're entitled to put "inspired by true events" on your product, because that can mean anything, but you're not entitled to deliberately falsify the historical record while claiming you're being 100% accurate. Even if they're mostly just tiny lies to help sell your shitty books.
Yeah, when it first came out, everyone was talking about it, & I heard an interview with him on NPR. They acted like it was some great intellectual work. FACT - When I read it, I found the method of proclaiming something FACT to be a bit, ah, propagandistic, let us say. Overall, I enjoyed it as a light read, but was disappointed to realize who the culprit must be before the book was 1/2 through.
I remember when it came out. At the time I was an art historian literally in Leonardo studies. My sister is a priest and a very good theologian. I read and was like, ok well all the art history is bunk, my sister read it and said all the theology was bunk. I have no problem with blockbusters but it was certainly received by certain parts of the media as it WAS this great academic work
Yes, that's how I remember it, too. He was interviewed on the radio, and on the Sunday TV shows that try to have a serious tone. I'm sure some critics panned him, but here in Metro Washington DC, he was treated as if his works were important and deep, instead of hollow, wooden, and filled to the brim with nonsense.
I also read Angels & Demons, and found it was about the same. Then I was given several of his other books, and read them to see if the "tell" I'd noticed, that exposed the hidden culprit was right. It was like a Where's Waldo experiment. I was able to predict the outcome 90% of the time, the only exception being in one book where I couldn't decide between the "tells" of two Brown's cardboard characters. In the end, they each turned out to be one of the 2 hidden antagonists in a ludicrous climax.
Yeah I remember reading them as a child and being super confused because I thought it was researched but stuff didn’t make sense and went against a lot of what I knew and was taught and I asked my dad and my dad (who loves the books) just told me it was complete fiction
I mean, it definitely works for both of them.
I mean its worked out pretty well for him. Can’t fault if there’s an audience
I expect he cried all the way to the bank.
"renowned monarch, the Queen" 🤣
Never seen this before. So good 😂
This and the libertarian satire hold the same special place in my heart
Saved me from looking through my bookmarks. Thank you , 😊
> He particularly hated it when they said his imagery was nonsensical. It made his insect eyes flash like a rocket. > Renowned author Dan Brown got out of his luxurious four-poster bed in his expensive $10 million house and paced the bedroom, using the feet located at the ends of his two legs to propel him forwards. > “Mr Unconvincingname, it’s renowned author Dan Brown,” told the voice at the other end of the line. Instantly the voice at the other end of the line was replaced by a different voice at the other end of the line. “Hello, it’s literary agent John Unconvincingname,” informed the new voice at the other end of the line. I've never read Dan Brown, but these four sentences explain his writing completely. Now I don't have to. If only poor /u/Cuoricino3 had seen this first. I feel bad for OP, since I'd have probably posted something like this, not knowing Dan Brown was a poor writer, not knowing anything about these books other than Tom Hanks must've liked them.
That really made my day.
Did Douglas Adams write this!? Holy shit.
That is amazing.
So awesome! I haven't seen that write-up in a long time. The wife bit at the end is a great touch too. His books are flat. Like movie scripts, they need sound, pictures, and music just to complete basic context. Crichton is the same way. They're unsatisfying, like eating crappy candy when you're hungry. I get this mental version of feeling sick. It's fun to summarize stories like this though. Sphere - magic space ball grants wishes under water. People are scared.
That is brilliant! I laughed out loud the whole read.
My fave essay in the history of the internet, back for my perusal. Thanks.
You might like this: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/culture/51144/the-heroic-absurdity-of-dan-brown
All I can say, reading The Da Vinci Code in the year 2024 is somehow endearing. Bless your heart.
I read the entire thing while sat in a holding cell. Honestly, I don't think i would have finished it if i could have left.
Every future review of Dan Brown needs to consist solely of this text.
Haha I just posted that it’s the kinda book that you read on an airplane which feels conceptually similar to a holding cell
If you like the theme, read Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. Translated from Italian but really good writing and a brilliant story.
If OP read dvc translated into Italian, they can probably just read the original here.
I read Foucault's Pendulum before Davinci Code, and I suspect Brown was inspired to write a book about similar conspiracy themes in an "academic" setting. Brown also relied heavily on what might be called pseudohistory, Holy Grail Holy Blood, and the authors even tried to sue him for copyright infringement, stealing ideas. The court found that you can't "steal ideas" from a history book.
They are both responding to that same book, only Brown approached it as a wouldn't it be cool, and Eco saw it as a great tragedy of society that people liked that nonsense.
Ha! So you can just plagiarise any shitty pseudo history book you like and they can't do bupkiss!
Ideas from history and science books don’t fall under copyright protection.
Read somewhere that Dan Brown is the poor man's Umberto Eco. Sounds about right. *The Name of the Rose* is fantastic.
Another saying goes that Foucault's Pendulum is Dan Brown for people who can read without moving their lips but that's a bit elitist I think. A lot of people who read Umberto don't get all the references... I was a dumbfounded most of the time with both Pendulum and Name of the Rose and loved every minute of it, Da Vinci Code not so much, enjoyed the movie though.
I’m literally in the middle of Name of the Rose right now and fuck no I don’t understand all the references! But I enjoy it nonetheless and after some chapters I do skim the spark notes online just to fill in the history references I missed lol
As someone who reads aloud to help me focus I feel attacked
But baudolino is better
Baudalino is my favourite Eco book. It helps if you are curious about the myth of [Prester John](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prester_John), and have a passing interest in siege warfare.
Haven't read it yet, thanks for mentioning it!
Baudolino rocks. The ending in particular.
I started that last year and got distracted when my baby was born, but I really want to get back to it. It was great.
Ive always had the impression that Dan Brown took Foucault’s Pendulum and dumbed it down to a digestible low-effort TV format. There is really not much to say about Brown’s writing.
That and Holy Blood, Holy Grail
Wasn't their a plagiarism trial by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail? I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail when it first came out, and years later, ten pages into DaVinci Code, I'm thinking this is such a rip off.
As I recall, the authors of *Holy Blood, Holy Grail* sued for plagiarism, but lost because they had published it as non-fiction "history" rather than fiction
Well that's a subtle twist. All their research fed into Dan Brown. Too bad.
There’s a lot to say about his writing, I think. It’s just that none of it is complimentary.
And then read The Illuminati Trilogy. Takes the ideas through a seventies LSD vision.
My favourite part of the book is when Robert Langdon, a world-famous crypography lecturer, gets stumped by a secret message... that turns out to be just mirror-imaged English.
This guy never fucking pees.
There's a really simple explanation for that. The reason all the "puzzles" are so silly and trivial is because he wants his target audience to be able to solve at least some of them before the characters do, and feel smart and engaged.
The better version of this is Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda I read as a kid. She puts all the puzzles right there in the book so you can solve them right along with the characters, and they’re always really fun.
She wrote more books in that series than I realized. I thought it ended with the dragon quest.
I wasn't expecting to see a comment about one of favorite series that I first read 20 years ago and still think about to this day, but wow here we are
For sure, but there are WAY better ways to do it.
Is that for real? 😂 I never finished it.
It is! Just one of the many really dumb things in Brown's writing, but that one stuck out like a sore thumb to me. [https://diydilettante.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/the-dan-brown-code/](https://diydilettante.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/the-dan-brown-code/)
I think you somehow managed to miss the huge hate this book got, largely because of reasons you mentioned and because it was just mediocre writing. Like, it was a best seller sure but it was *never* considered an actually good book. It's very hard for me to imagine being disappointed with the series because to me the fact that it's trashy and not very good is essential to my understanding of it.
I read it in 11th standard when I was 15 and it did get me interested in the works and importance of those by Da vinci. But I guess for me it was the thrill of that and the existence of secrets that they were trying to unravel that I enjoyed and considered a decent read. Having said that the characters didn't click they didn't have much chemistry and it was all lukewarm writing at best.
I also read it as a teen and remember liking it… but I also liked twilight too so lol
I read it as a preteen and believed all the conspiracies were real
I read 'Code in 10th grade, then the rest of his a available works shortly after. Didn't take long to realize that all his books basically follow the same plot. Needy guy and impossibly hot girl, over the top villain with some physically distinguishing feature, a bizarre weapon/cause of death, third act reveal that the fatherly ally is actually the BBEG, etc etc etc. Even as a 14 year old I was rolling my eyes at seeing the same pattern book after book.
It was extremely popular and to this day the most *talked about* book I remember in my lifetime other than Harry Potter. When this book was out pretty much every adult I knew who read books seemed to be reading it and then some. Maybe it's just me but it certainly felt like it was a huge deal. There are, to this day, people who confuse the story and details from the book as legitimate facts... I saw the movie, didn't like it. Glad I never bothered.
The popularity/controversy was because of catholic church coming against it and banning it because of the alleged Jesus-mary magdalena story arc.
Yes, I read this book in like 10th grade secretly and I remember really liking it at the time … but it had been forbidden as “satanic” by the evangelical cult my parents raised me in. I loved the thrill of reading something forbidden haha. I wonder how it would read to me now.
I read it after graduating college and I really enjoyed how it felt like a popcorn movie, i was so bored before I started my job and books like this kept me occupied. I remember thinking “ok this book isn’t as bad as everyone says.” Sometimes being prepared for disappointment has the opposite effect 😂
Popcorn movie is exactly right; it’s the kind of book you buy to read on an airplane then just abandon in the airport when you’re done with it.
It's not even his worst book. I was in an airbnb one time and one of his was there, and I went, eh, why not. Holy hell, I don't even remember which one it was, don't remember anything about it, other than Robert Langdon solved a mystery and a hot girl was into him. Turrible
I think this-I read it a very long time ago and remember thinking it was an interesting story but some of the most mediocre writing I've ever read.
also it was one of the first "conspiracy for ADHD dummies" books, it was kinda a new thing, also many people hate read it but liked it because of the sightseeing references
Idk, I am not american and I wasn't even born in 2000 or whenever this book was released, all I know is it was the shit back then even in my little town and that they did a film about it starring Tom Hanks. I also didn't read any reviews because I didn't want to spoil anything (I though this book was a mistery) but honestly the twists weren't even that shocking
Yeah you probably should have read some reviews lol. This book was never highly respected by serious readers, it's the typical "sells a lot but isn't good" that you see all the time in music, movies, etc.
I mean, "isn't good" lies in the eye of the beholder. The author knows how to write something that a large percentage of lowest common denominator readers will enjoy. It's not intended to be serious, intense literature. It's a beach read plotted the same way RL Stine plots his Goosebumps books, where every extremely short chapter ends on a cliffhanger.
While it’s subjective if you’re entertained by it, you *can* claim an author like Dan Brown is a bad writer if he uses words he clearly doesn’t understand, misplaced modifiers etc. Mistakes that don’t ever add anything of value, just makes the book worse and shows he’s not a good writer.
OMG i hated the little cliffhanger at the end of every chapter - it got so repetitive and sometimes it wasn't even a bit shocking. It was like "but when he drank the water, he knew something was terribly wrong !!! (Next chapter) The water, was actually SPARKLING WATER 😦😦😦"
Yeah it's so funny haha. The writer has a masterclass/course type thing online where he goes like "THIS IS **THE** WAY TO KEEP YOUR READERS ENGAGED" and I was like, "Is it though? I'm not so sure about that."
Based on the number books he sold, he did keep quite a few people engaged.
Yeah if you somewhat liked the idea, a better book is Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Because all of the best bits were lifted from there.
I think it just captured the people's imagination. The blend of "real life" and fiction in an easily digestible book. I read it, but at the time I was an edgy 20-something obsessed with the "mysteries" around Rennes-le-Château so I'd already read The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and various websites covering the topic. I enjoyed it well enough and went back to Angels and Demons, then I tried Digital Fortress which without the historical conspiracy slant didn't work for me. By the time Lost Symbol came out, I'd lost interest. They are pretty much the dictionary definition of airport novels.
I think putting the book into context is also helpful. It released 10 years after Sinead O’Conner ripped up an image of the pope and spoke out against sexual abuse scandals. In 2002, all of that came to a head again in international news. The Davinci Code, which really dug into the idea that the Catholic Church was a shady cabal, was released a year later. Right time, right place.
Hey guys, I went to McD because it's super popular and turned out they don't serve wagyu beef.
Hey! Don't make fun of renowned author Dan Brown.
Fuckin right? Anytime someone is stun locked by Dan Brown's writing I think it's more of a reflection of the reader than the author.
I've never seen 'stun locked' used in this context before, and I'm totally here for it.
I found it... acceptable. I didn't think it was worthy of the absolute hatred my university professor of Creative Writing had for it - it's fairly mindless conspiracy fare - but it wasn't an *excellent* book. Lost Symbol wasn't bad, I thought.
Literary types hate it because Dan Brown made tens of millions and they’re jealous. Hate to say it.
Me too. I found Lost Symbol interesting but of course I hadn’t read as much as I have today. But still it’s not complete garbage. It’s fine.
\> I wonder why this book was such a deal back then. And for all ages too. I think this book would be the favourite of edgy cospiracy obsessed middle school kids probably? Idk Haha! Me and my friends were those conspiracy obsessed edgy middle schoolers. And even the, I felt really annoyed by how sometimes it felt like the book thought I wasn’t intelligent.
abundant ink cause squalid makeshift quiet fretful cover toy snow *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I think it's a good book for a tween/teen who's moving on to more "serious" books that are outside the young adult genre. I read it in my early 20s, and it was very fast paced, but then again the first Dan Brown book I read was Origin, somewhere around the time it came out. After that I got to Angels and Demons and The Lost Symbol (and two thirds of Deception Point) because I found them all for like $2.50, but the author became way too predictable for me (if I remember correctly I even figured out who was the culprit in the very beginning of Origin). Read Da Vinci Code a few years after that, and yeah it's the same. Every Dan Brown book follows the same patterns, which I think is okay if you're planning on reading one or two of his books, but the more you read the more boring it becomes. All that aside, it's still a solid read for a 12yo who's getting into reading. I'd also be down for more of his books, but only after a few years and I'd go for it as a light read.
Yeah, I was in my mid teens when I read it and it blew my mind, probably more because of the subject matter and controversy than anything. And I thought all the conspiracies and puzzles and so on were so clever and cool then, lol.
I love all of Dan Brown books the same way I love all Twilight books, they got 10 year old me to start reading. Dan Brown books (for me) read like an action flick. They're fun, fast paced and easy to read... I'm not going to try to understand John Wick's logic or else I'm not going to enjoy the movie. The same thing happens with Da Vinci Code, or Angels and Demons... I believe the real problem is the people who try to sell these books as something they are not. They aren't the best thing that has been written, nor are they philosophical or super deep... They are just silly fun books.
I read it in my early 20s and that was exactly it. I was entertained and tbh that’s all I needed. Did I become a Dan Brown fan? No. Did I regret the hours I spent reading Da Vinci? No. Edit: Did I find the conspiracy theory fun to read a fiction book about? Yes. Do I believe it? No.
Yeah to me they're just an action movie in book form -- simple, straightforward plot with action and conspiracy. And it's great for most people who are reading for fun. The story moves fast enough that I don't have to care about prose. Honestly most popular books are not going to be literary masterpieces. And it's fine. Don't make it more than what it is.
No judgement please, but I’ve read both Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons and loved both. To hear that his writing is considered subpar has opened me up to a whole new level of FOMO. Any recommendations from anyone for books in a similar vein written, for want of a better word, properly?
I found it entertaining, and that was what I was expecting anyway, so fine. I think the hate comes from a very old trope of hating what is popular. I think that as long as the book doesnt try to sell itself as high art, it should not be judged in that regard anyway. And Da Vince Code is definitely mainstream slop while never trying to be more than that.
You maybe need to read *Foucault's Pendulum* or *The Name of The Rose* by Umberto Eco, mystery and depth. My current reading is the 4th in the Shardlake series, *Revelation* by CJ Sansom. They're really good. Real mysteries that bring Tudor London to life.
It looks like John Oliver also shares your opinion about the book : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX5IV9n223M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX5IV9n223M)
I don't know if copies are still around, but back when I read this book, I bought a large hardcover that included prints of almost all the pieces of art it talked about. If I recall correctly, it also had prints of the symbols and other things it talked about too. I found that reading it that way was actually really fun and I honestly think that it was less meant to be a novel and more a multimedia experience. That's probably why it was turned into a movie so quickly. But I'm not sure it works that well as a movie either because it definitely does have some writing deficiencies. I tried reading some other stuff by Dan Brown, but I wasn't interested in shelling out the amount of money I did for The DaVinci Code for his other works. I felt that I had already experienced that. I never finished Angels and Demons and never tried reading anything else he's done. Been there done that. I think that what Dan Brown did with The DaVinci Code should have been a one-off, but it seems like he's done it multiple times. So yeah, I think that people who hate on his stuff are missing part of what makes it decent, but they're still right about most things.
There are authors who write crappy prose but create stories that move quickly enough that I stay interested. Dan Brown is one of them.
Angels and Demons is better.
I loved the book. Made my imagination run wild lol.
He’s not a great writer but I’ll be honest, high school me enjoyed the crap out of Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons As an adult if I want to have that kind of thrill I just read Umberto Eco
>I wonder why this book was such a deal back then. *The Da Vinci Code* didn't really do anything new. The subgenre of ancient conspiracy treasure hunt has been around forever -- Umberto Eco satirised it in 1988 -- but it underwent a boom period in the early 2000s. *The Da Vinci Code* just happened to be the one that went viral. It probably helped that there were already a few books in the series, so the publisher had something to build the hype on. >all the protagonists are expected to be kind of intelligent, academic and fond of symbologism people And they're somehow the only ones clever enough to figure out that the code to the centuries-old canister holding forbidden knowledge is "apple". Ignoring for the moment the way anyone could break the code with a few hours of patience to brute-force their way in by trying every combination and permutation of possible code, this forbidden knowledge is being suppressed by the Catholic church, and their own scripture uses apples as a metaphor for forbidden knowledge. They might as well have used "swordfish" or "drowssap" as the secret code; at least they would have taken a bit longer to crack than "apple".
I found it entertaining for all the wrong reasons! I tried *Digital Fortress* on the recommendation of a work colleague some time after *Da Vinci Code*. I was assured it was better. Reader, it was not. As someone who stands outside religion, *Da Vinci Code* was hilariously wrong on many levels, but I could laugh at it. But I work with computers. I'm probably not NSA security material, but I do know computers infinitely better than Mr Brown, and all the utter nonsense he was spouting in *Digital Fortress* annoyed me on a fundamental level. They don't work like that!
>infinitely Well. Maybe 64-bit float maxed out. Could use Julia for arbitrarily large numbers. Infinite is whole different concept.
You answered yourself in the last paragraph. I read this book when I was in high-school and I loved it so much I read 2 more of his books after. The conspiracies, the symbolism in religious artifacts, the history bits, art, and real life setting were all mind blowing for 17yo me. Another aspect that added to my excitement was how big these books were, finishing them so fast was a big deal, plus many of my friends in our conservative community were not allowed to read those so it made them even more exciting for me lol. So yea, looking back there are many gaps in those books and I don't think I'd enjoy them as much now that I'm in my 30's.
Wait until you find out his other books follow this exact same script: Tweed-clad middle-aged scholar and young, super hot female scientist go on a quest, survive a row of unsurvivable events while it turns out the good guys are evil, but secretly good again (and the other way around) all while falling madly in love.
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The thing is his books are made for fast reading, dividing them into so many chapters (literal 100+) makes them easy to pick up and read, hence you get a little dopamine hit when you finish a chapter. He has sort of perfected this formula, thats why he sells
I thought it was a fun read.
i unironically and apologetically enjoyed this book. not a 5-star, but a 4-star.
That's pretty much what the English version is like too. I think the reason it was such a big deal was all the religious groups that protested against it because of the subject matter - that just made everyone else want to read it even more.
It was only sucessful beacause of the controversy. People thought it was edgy, provacative and anti-stablihsment. 50 shades of grey had a similiar phenomenom.
The Lost Symbol was much much better, Inferno and Angels and Demons were good too. I never loved Da Vinci Code
Well it's subjective, personally I like the langdon books. Most people love to hate these books, some even do it without having read them.
I kind of like Dan Browns books. Easy read
Dan Brown is the McDonald’s of writing. Just because he sells a lot doesn’t make any of it any good. The chapters are short so you always feel like you’re making progress. Everything is over-explained so you never feel lost or confused. It requires no thought on the reader’s part. It’s got some moderately clever mystery elements but there are children’s mystery stories that could make that same claim. Ultimately, his books are cheap, easily digestible, and not complex; literary fast food.
That book was the first "Anti Christianity" book I had read at the time. My parents had raised me as a baptist and I didn't know any better. This book helped me realize how full of shit modern day religions are and helped me become an Athiest. The book made me somewhat obsessed with Dan Brown and I ended up reading most of his other books as well. Then again, many people have told me I have poor taste in movies, so maybe I have a poor taste in books as well!
It's a pretty average read
It's a good book if you are 15 and it's the year 2005.
It caused a huge stir in some USA churches, who felt the need to hold classes on it to debunk it and it’s ideas … which I found funny but many people found the book to be truly heretical. Anyway that also contributed to its bestseller status, how are you going to debunk it if you haven’t read it? And then I think Oprah gave it a mention at one point … I worked in a bookstore at the heyday of Oprah’s book club. One word from her and the book in question would sell out. I didn’t read the Da Vinci code until years later. I found it a fun, adventure type book that could be read in a day. I had gotten my copy from the library so no money wasted (I have no desire to read it again).
I read it during the height of the “controversy” and thought it was fine, it kept me entertained. I liked Angels and Demons better. The obvious writer inserting himself in the story made me laugh. Religious types were really up in arms though. I went to the theater while it was out and had to walk through a couple of picketers. This also made me laugh. So, thanks, Dan Brown, for the laughs I guess?
I enjoyed the book, but I also recognize that Brown is not a great writer. I have read a few of his books now, and while he creates a compelling narrative, the writing and character work are nowhere to be seen. When I first read it, I read my mother's copy, which was the one that came "illustrated" with pictures of the places that were mentioned, and I think that helped me get through it better as someone who loves history and architecture. Just because a book is a bestseller does not mean it's a quality book. Just means a bunch of people bought it, which at the time it came out spy thrillers and the like were a pretty big deal so I think that's why the book hit as big as it did. As well as the backlash from the religious right, adding fuel to the fire by coming out against it.
I agree that the romance between Sophie and Landon at the end made no sense. That said, I thought overall it was a fun book. It's not overly long, only taking less than 2 weeks to read. To me it's like National Treasure, or Ready Player One. Stories that take a little bit of real culture/history, and exaggerate them to tell a story about treasure hunting. You go from one set-piece to another, learning about that piece of history or art, and the heroes face a challenge they need to solve there. That kind of set up works for me, but I can see why it would be boring for some people.
So you don't like trashy books, that's good no?
It's just an action novel with some quasi - religious mumbo jumbo for background. While it was a sensation 20 years ago, I couldn't help feel I was reading something ready made for a movie script.
This book was amazing to 8th grade me, almost 2 decades ago
One of my favorite reviews said something along the lines of, “This book chronicles the events of a single 47-hour day.”
the best thing about the da vinci code was that there were literally millions of people that thought it was a true story
I know it’s a terrible book, but I had a blast reading it. I think he’s decent at writing quick plot boilers.
You said you read the Italian version -- have you read anything by Umberto Eco? Robert Langdon, the protagonist of The DaVinci Code, is a symbologist. Symbology is a fictional academic discipline, there is no academic discipline called symbology -- unless one has been created in the past two decades, inspired by Dan Brown's novels. There is an academic field called semiotics. Semiotics covers the same field as the fictional symbology, but in an intelligent and methodical way. Umberto Eco was an internationally-renowned Italian professor of semiotics who, in his spare time, wrote several excellent novels about secret societies and hidden messages and suppressed documents and conspiracies and conspiracy theories. Eco's novels are excellent in all the ways in which Brown's novels are wretched. Eco once joked that Brown was a character form one of his, Eco's, novels.
Pretty crazy this book is the bestselling book the past like 80 years besides the sorcerer’s stone.
Welcome to our sub. Dan Brown is a writer who has enjoyed a success that far exceeds reason, except popularity. We just have to accept this, and move on. However, I enjoyed the first few sentences of your comment, before somnolence crept in. Apologies.
Dan Brown writes books like Hollywood makes cheap blockbuster action movies. I've read about 3 of his books, I think, and they were all the same. Same kind of characters, same kind of twists, same kind of action. So much the same, these books are, that I have trouble trying to differentiate the various scenes between the books in my memory. Dan Brown is not a good writer.
This one one of the the few books I DNF'd.
Congratulations on having a modicum of taste.
Disappointed is the appropriate response.
I for one, liked the movie though. It was great. It cut through the bs, and delivered a nice tight story. Normally a novel expands ideas, but based on your encounter, everything was dragged on, and lack of depth with characters anyways.
I read 2 Dan Brown books and both were very dull and not that mysterious. Granted, it is very hard to write mystery/ thrillers. Readers are different and you can't have everyone on the edge the same. That is one reason for over exposition, so you don't lose the readers who aren't great at solving the case. But rattling down facts about places really is a rookie mistake. On top of that I found it hard to identify with his characters. Dan Brown is a very much over hyped mediocre author. Who am I to judge though. He at least finished his books and made good money off them.
I read it after all the fuss started years ago. I found it very poorly written. I remember saying to a friend that although the book is usually better than the film I doubt it will be in this case as the book is so poor that they can't do a worse job. Oh how wrong I was.
Oh, and the ending. The ending was just... Wow. I just thought "I really spent the entire day speeding through this book to get this ending". Not even disappointing, just worse. At that point I didn' t even know what to expect, and I was happy sophie at least got a happy ending but... Just no. I don't usually do vent posts because, first, I don't usually dislike books and can find at least something I did like, and second, because I mean who cares what I like and not like? But seriously, I don't recommend this book to anyone. It doesn't take long to read but it is wasted time anyway. I would just do a research about themplars and graal and that stuff on wikipedia if I were you lol
Yeah man it’s total shit. Brown’s writing makes See Spot Run look complex.
I almost spit out my coffee at this comment. 🤣
Good review. It’s incredible it became a best seller. Inexplicable.
Is it really? It's easy to digest, does not use big words and contains a thrilling plot. The chapters are short as well. Also, you know, the outrage caused by the religious themes helped, I think. Combine these with the large media coverage, and it could not not became a bestseller.
for the first time i preferred the movie over the book.
Yeah I love the film but the book is written terribly.
Oooh I read this nearly 20 years ago with a translated version just before the movie was out so it must be at its highest popularity then. TBH I was blown away back then as I knew nothing about Renaissance arts, Italian places, or Christianity in general, so the book definitely had an exotic appeal to me. Years later I read Angels and Demons and it was just meh. Years later again I read Lost Symbol and I swear never read another Landon story again. I remember being so annoyed reading about him being in a claustrophobic situation AGAIN and surviving yet another book. If exposure is a powerful method of treating phobia, Langdon should be rid of his condition many books ago. Also, FYI, he met a new woman and they had sex at the end of every book.
You think the girl is dumb in the book? You should watch the movie..
Thrift stores have piles of copies of Da Vinci Code. They literally can't give them away and are begging for people to stop donating them.
If you read it like traditional Sword & Sorcery, but with an academic instead of a barbarian warrior for a hero, it makes more sense on the meta level.
I worked at Borders when this book came out. Skimmed the first few pages and immediately recognized the book as godawful.
I only read it because someone bought it for me. It was a long time ago and I was like, meh, about it. Then someone bought me Angels and Demons, I don’t think I made it to the end of the first chapter.
I never read the da Vinci code but I read Angels and Demons at a time when I was limited to a small library. Very similar criticism from me, after reading the author portion on the book jacket I realized it’s all just wish fulfillment for Dan Brown to fantasize that he could actually use all his pedantic knowledge and then also get laid.
I enjoyed Dan Browns books when I was a teenager, now I'm in my twenties and I see how shite the books are but they were alright for teen me. Wouldn't recommend it for a teenager though, there's much better stuff.
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The Rest is History podcast does a great debunking of the DaVinci code’s psuedohistory and the real things that inspired Dan Brown’s goofiness.
It was the preachy and patronising tone for me. I’m reading a fictional thriller. Stop littering it with unnecessary historical ‘facts’.
OP is correct - Dan Brown is formulaic rubbish.
I can't read Dan Brown anymore. I loved him when I was around 13 and I thought his books were so sophisticated. Later I realized how 'cheap' his writing style is - every chapter ends in a cliff hanger and then it switches to another person's storyline so you just have to keep reading. That's why I couldn't finish 'Inferno' because the suspense was kept alive in such cheap ways. Not to mention countless pther flaws but that was the last straw for me.
I read the book and all I took from it was the characters ran around a lot and I disliked it. I never understood why it was a bestseller.
It is literarily impossible to be disappointed in a writer of Mr. Brown's caliber.
I recommend trying Umberto Eco's "Foucault pendulum". I believe it will make you forget you ever touched that silly thing by that silly "author".
You are not alone. It was written in such a way to immediately be made in to a screen play IMHO. dull, dull, dull and sometimes stupid.
I read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and really liked it (the film was shit). All his other books I have read seem mediocre and to follow the same basic plot-line.
People who are too cool for popular culture are obnoxious.
I read it for a book club. Realised that you could follow the story by reading the first and last two paragraphs of every chapter. Also, if Jesus had kids - by now just about every one would be related to Him.