One of those books in recent times, that has picked up wide sales, for both reasons as a readers delight and as a controversial best seller. Now dont missunderstand me but, for the idea it puts forward, this book surely has ruffled a few conservative feathers.
The writing style the author has employed for this book can be summed up in one word, CAPTIVATING.
The reader of the book will definitely be glued to it and in the first read, I guess there will be a certain extent of mesmerisation and awe. The author on the other hand has been successfull in another aspect, and that is in keeping the book’s tempo constant. Even in parts where the characters are going over historical data, both spiritual and factual, the interest does not die down and in the acive parts of the book you get a good equivalent of a nail biter.
There has been a lot of speculation on the factual accuracy of the book, a few of them I have come across, I have listed below.
1) The information about the painting ’’Madonna Of The Rocks’’ has a small descrepancy, according to art historians, John the baptist was always depicted as carrying a reed cross over his shoulder and in the actual painting the baby beside Virgin Mary carries a reed cross, hence the authors inference that the baby beside Virgin Mary was Jesus and the ensuing controversial data, might be wrong. (Please refer to page 191 of ’’The Da Vinci Code’’, Corgi Books’’.
So In effect Da Vinci might have painted it factually correct but the raw and contrasting nature of the painting must have caused the commisioners of the painting to force Da Vinci to paint the second version i.e The Virgin Of The Rocks.
2) If Agent Neveu’s Smart Car can give a 100 Kilometres per litre of fuel, (Starting of chapter 32, Page 189.) then maybe I’ll buy a a dozen and start a car rental in my place. The actual Car is supposed to give 67 kilometres per gallon.
3) In page 227, Robert Langdon finds trouble in driving Agent Neveu’s smart car, because he drives an automatic back home, yet inconceiveably he manages to drive an armoured truck belonging to The Depository Bank Of Zurich a few pages later!!!! ’’*^%$#@!.....errr’’. (Page 289) .
The list of factual errors is big, but either way one thing I must say, this book is classified as Fiction, so a few descrepencies in details is fine, but the third one I mentioned above, now that is unpardonable. It is writers Hara Kiri, making simple mistakes like that. And oh by the way, for people who have read all of Dan Brown’s book will notice something odd, all of his books begin with a murder and a secret society or organisation.....
( The Priory Of Sion {The Da Vinci Code} , The Illuminati {Angels And Demons} , The Delta Force {Deception Point} The Portugese Assassin {Digital Fortress})
So The Final conclusion I can give can be summed up as follows:-
Reading Quality:- Very Good and holds the reader’s interest throught.
Writing Style:- Smooth, tactfull and a nail biter from the word Go!
Character Portrayal:- Excellent and fitting the plot.
The Plot:- Very imaginative and refreshing.
Author’s Factual accuracy:- Well the material is contreversial and he has taken one side of the truely existing controversy, so I can neither go for or against it.
Logical Blunders:- Quite a few of them present, but they go unnoticed in the excitment of the plot.
And now the part where the author shows sheer brilliance is with the cryptology and the ambigrams, BEAUTIFUL is a word I choose to describe this part of the book. He really has excelled in giving the readers a very imaginative read.
Another detail in which he has paid excellent attention is in listing out the precise safety measures and protocols the ’’Geldschrank’’, i.e. The Depository Bank Of Zurich and similar banks use. Down to the official protocol implemented for Cargo vehicles in the bank to the Electronic Security system, he has produced an accurate description of these banks (Makes me wish I had the money to own an account in one of those darned banks.... Someday maybe! hehehe).
So folks all I can say about this book is, read it, definitely read it!