Really nice book of about 450 pages. I think I payed about $19 including taxes. It was 30% off at Borders. I bought the book and was going to read it, but it just lay on my bookshelf for several months. My oldest daughter who is currently 14 years old was looking for something to read during free moments at school so she picked it up and became immediately engrossed. She insists it's the best book she's ever read. It *IS* a very good story.
Right from the start, he grabs you. I started reading the book on Saturday morning during a swim meet and read it sporadically througout the day, then stayed up late till 2am on Sunday to finish it.
I'm a little pissed off by the ending. I did not think the criminal mastermind - who is called 'the teacher' - was a very feasible choice. And I was particularly pissed off that there was strong evidence given that it was someone else throughout. I feel somewhat cheated by the author.
Another thing I have trouble swallowing is the whole story of the granddaughter, Sophie. The reason she refuses to see the grandfather is because she comes upon him in what appears to be some sort of satanic orgy. Somehow I have trouble swallowing that a french woman would find this quite so repugnant. After all, she is raised by her Mithraist grandfather. It seems unlikely that should would have been educated at a convent. On the contrary, one might expect that she had watched some French TV, heard an offhand remark from her grandfather pertaining to the excessive prudery of the church, or maybe even have done a little clubbing. I could see her being confused or angry, but I think the DB has stretched this to the point it's broken. It just doesn't seem feasible. It doesn't work.
Nevertheless, he does know how to tell a story, and the book is filled with esoteric factoids. The vast majority of christians are happily oblivious to the facts surrounding their faith and this book conveys a great many of them - the millions of accused witches who were killed through the dark ages, the lack of evidence for Jesus' divinity, the attempts of the church to smear Mithraism, and many others. The greatest irony is this: there's this group of people called apologists who practice a branch of pseudo-philosophy (more like sophism) called "apology." Their program is very simple and it has nothing to do with the search for truth. Rather, they believe they already have the part of the truth that is relavent and are out to prove the truth of the bible, hereinafter refered to as the CRM (Christian Reference Manual). Now the real evidence for divine origin of the CRM is scanty to say the least, but the ironic part is that SOME of the same christians who believe the literal truth of the CRM based on such a comical lack of evidence are unequivocally opposed to the teach of evolution - a theory for the origin of species so well- supported by the evidence that no serious scientists have any doubts about it. It's utterly amazing - the literalist, apologist types will present the pusilanimous refutations of great luminaries of science such as Dembski and Wells whose contributions to their fields I can only characterize as "paltry" and reject the well-grounded, deeply-considered theory of evolution which is supported by the great body of the highest tier of scientists - nobel laureates, members of the academy of sciences. It's quite literally staggering.
Suffice it to say these are people who have not done their homework.
OTOH, it's difficult to tell from the book where Brown leaves off the facts and tends towards wild speculation, or just story-telling. The story is quite seamless - and this is sufficient and desirable for a story. There is just the right amount of fact to keep us interested, but not so much that we get bogged down in grimy details.
The book is not historical fiction and doesn't present itself as such. It's a fictional story that uses historical fact as a background into the story, similarly perhaps to the way that N. Stephenson brings historical fact into the modern thread of his story, "Cryptonomicon." But the historical thread of Cryptonomicon IS historical fiction.
Anyway, I give it two thumbs up. On a scale of one to ten, I'd give it maybe 4. (This is pretty good on my scale.)
