So I've finally started the Da Vinci code (possible spoilers)

[Taelorn76]

No sour grapes from I thoroughly enjoyed this book as well as his 3 others. I am also eagerly antcipating his next novel. They are just good quick fluff reading.

 

[takyris]

I think it's possible to dislike something without it being sour grapes. I specifically read it because it had been on the NYTimes bestseller list forever, and I wanted to see what made it so popular, and whether I could use some of his conventions to help me become a better writer.

To massively condense my earlier post, it boiled down to using lots of funky ideas, not being afraid of the little cheating tricks they warned me not to use in writing class, and keeping my plot familiar and comfortable despite whatever funky ideas I'm using. Those are good things for me to take away from the book, and I'm glad I read it for those. I didn't enjoy it, per se, but I've got no problem with anyone making money from writing.

I do have issues with his wink-and-nudge "this is just fiction" disclaimer, for the reasons I mentioned above at some length. But that's not sour grapes, either. That's just a difference of ethical opinion.

 

[Desdichado]

I also thought Angels & Demons was better -- although that wasn't more than a fairly typical thriller with Catholicism thrown into the mix.

 

[Bobitron]

Boy, lots of negative thoughts about the book in here.

I thought it was a blast to read. It was a page-turner, that's for sure, and I am awful at solving mysteries so I always get blindsided with the outcome of this sort of book, even when it seems obvious to everyone else. Same for Angels & Demons.

It's not literature, it's religous conspiracy theories made into a easy-to-digest pop culture bedside table read meant to keep you up late and want to read the next chapter.

 

[Taelorn76]

easy-to-digest pop culture bedside table read meant to keep you up late and want to read the next chapter.

Best description I have read about this book. I know it kept me up till all hours

 

[Bobitron]

Best description I have read about this book. I know it kept me up till all hours

I was really sleepy at work for a couple days, hehe.

 

[Dagger75]

I was really sleepy at work for a couple days, hehe.

Kept me up to. I went to work early so I could read it at my desk.

I liked Angels and Demons better as well.

 

[Fast Learner]

Just a note: it kept me up, too, as it's a real page-turner. I love that in a book. (Just disliked everything else.)

 

[Steve Jung]

I've not read the DaVinci Code, but it didn't seem to have anything in it that I hadn't see previously in various Discovery/History Channel shows.

I have read some of his military novels and have to agree with him being a hack. He pimps the Air Force shamelessly in them and big bombers are the solutions to all problems and can do anything.

Sorry to interrupt, but are you thinking about Dale Brown?

 

[MonsterMash]

Just started reading it to see why its so popular - combines a lot of things which seem to add up to a large seller (in a similar way to say Thomas Harris) - conventional thriller plot, lots of infodumps of research on semi-esoteric areas, fairly simple vocabulary and sentence structure, high degree of page-turnability so lots of small cliffhangers). I remember seeing an interview with Bernard Cornwell (author of the Sharpe novels) where he said he'd worked out the structure from the novels he'd enjoyed and it seems to have worked for him.