Deception Point

• "Deception Point" opens in Washington, DC, during a tight Presidential campaign. The incumbent, a man of strong principles, is a major NASA supporter. His opponent, who is basing his campaign on turning NASA into a private, non-governmental agency, thus saving the US taxpayer billions of dollars annually, is way up in the polls. He is also accepting enormous illegal campaign contributions from private aerospace companies who have billions to gain from the privatization of NASA. After many failures & much spending, NASA is badly in need of a success.
  
  Then a NASA satellite detects a large, high-density rock buried 200 feet below the Milne Ice Shelf on Ellesmere Island, high in the Arctic Circle. NASA scientists determine the rock to be a meteor containing fossils proving that life exists elsewhere in the universe.
  
  To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House sends a team of independent experts to the NASA habisphere, built over the meteor in the Arctic Circle. One of these experts is the intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton, the daughter of Senator Sedgewick Sexton. Senator Sexton is the man running for election against the President of the United States. The plot thickens.
  
  Rachel, while in the Arctic, uncovers what could be scientific trickery - an incredible deception that could cause political and scientific upheaval and cost the President his bid for re-election. When she & her colleagues attempt to investigate further, they are plunged into life threatening danger. To escape assassination they flee for their lives. Their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this extraordinary plot and expose the truth.
  
  Dan Brown has proven to be one of the top writers in the suspense-thriller genre. The originality of his plots, his amazingly accurate research, and his ability to catch the reader's interest from the get-go and hold it until the last word in the last sentence of the last page, make him an exceptional author. Plus, after completing each of Dan Brown's books, the reader usually comes away from the experience having learned much more than a storyline. I loved "Deception Point" - couldn't put it down.
  
  I also highly recommend "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons."
  

• After reading the INCREDIBLE 'Da Vinci Code' and the equally exciting 'Angels & Demons' I figured I couldn't go wrong with 'Deception Point' and I was 100% RIGHT. Dan Brown is fast becoming one of my all-time favorite authors.
  
  After becoming familiar with Brown's religious thrillers, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that 'Deception Point' was entirely different--but JUST as much fun. If you enjoy stories about conspiracies that are as big as they come, this story is definitely for YOU.

• For my first review, Deception Points lends itself beautifully. It has political double-crossing, space and oceanic exploration, love, sex and the high expectation of turning the page quickly to find out what else could possibly happen in this jam-packed thriller.
  
  President Zackery Herney is approaching running for reelection with a strong new opposition in Senator Sexton. Both are divided on the issue of huge spending for NASA to continue with government involvement and control or to be left to the private sector to finance. Someone is feeding information to Senator Sextons assistant that NASA is failing when the President announces that NASA has made a huge discovery.
  
  The story line keeps your adrenaline pumping and the pages turning whether you believe the findings or not! Dan Brown adds in well researched data and tosses in a bit of love and sex and you find yourself sad when the book comes to a close so quickly. A great thrill ride and worth your time.
  

Angels & Demons

• My first introduction to Dan Brown was through his incredible thriller, 'The Da Vinci Code' and figured that I had missed out on his previous works, so I picked up 'Angels & Demons' the day after I finished TDVC. This is in every way it's equal. Every bit as compelling. Every bit as entertaining. Every bit as FUN. If you enjoy solving puzzles -- especially REAL ones, than Dan Brown is an author you NEED to get to know and F-A-S-T.

  One of the things which made this book so instantly enjoyable was one of the main characters. Robert is suddenly awakened early in the morning by the Director of the worlds leading science center, CERN in Switzerland asking for advice. Robert is less than interested and hangs up when his fax machine spits out a picture which makes his blood run cold Within a few hours, he is on a QUICK trip to Europe.
  
  A murder has been committed. The victim, one of the most gifted scientist in the world has been brutally killed and the mysterious brand of the secret brotherhood of the Illuminati is left on his chest.
  
  NOT just ANY brand either, an Ambigram, a word which can be read the same right-side-up as well as upside-down.
  
  Somehow Dan Brown has introduced the element of Antimatter into the story in such a way as to be totally believable. In this case when some of this material is stolen from a lab in Geneva and turns up hidden somewhere inside the walls of the Vatican, the chase is on to find it before it decimates the headquaters of the worlds largest Christian Religion.
  
  Oh! the Pope has recently died and the worlds senior Cardinals have gathered for Conclave, to decide who will be elected Pontiff. Along the way, 4 of the Senior Cardinals were kidnapped and threatened to be murdered one-by-one until the Antimatter goes critical, the stakes suddenly are as serious as the Church has ever faced.

• Let me tell you this: NOTHING is as it seems, and NOBODY is safe from suspicion. I was absolutely convinced that one character was involved in the conspiracy and BOY was I WRONG. The surprises are fast and many, and the trip was one well worth taking. Catholics take note: You MAY be a little unsettled at how the Church is portrayed in 'Angels & Demons' but ultimately I believe the basic idea the author conveys is one of hope, and the Church provides that in many ways. I will be recommending this book (as well as 'The Da Vinci Code') to ALL my friends. HIGHLY recommended, and absolutely INCREDIBLY fun.

• Next to Britt Gillette's "Conquest of Paradise", this is the best book I've read in a long time. I'm a first time Dan Brown reader but I'm hooked! I stayed up all night and didn't quit until I finished, blurry eyed and sleepy. I found myself believing every word and had to stop and remember that it's just fiction! I was amazed at the inside information about the Vatican (especially the library), and I finally got out a map and books from my trip to Rome to see if I could find all the churches. Anti-matter, illuminati, choosing a pope - all of it was fascinating. When I finished, I had to laugh thinking about the fact they never ate, slept or made comfort stops and neither could I. The ending was a total surprise! Anyone who enjoys non-stop action and information shouldn't miss this one.

The Da Vinci Code

• The Da Vinci Code begins with a murder in Paris's famous Louvre museum, home to Venus De Milo and the Mona Lisa. A famous American scholar becomes a suspect in the crime and must solve the mystery in order to save himself from the authorities. Full of twists and chases, the story behind the crime reaches all the way back to the days of Christ and deals with a secret society whose job it has been for two thousand years to guard the most precious secrets of Jesus's life and the formation of the Church.
  
  Now, you are waiting for me to explain my title "Indiana Jones meets Scooby Doo". Ok, here it is:
  
  The best parts of the book remind me of the first and third Indiana Jones films (Temple of Doom sucked). Dan Brown builds his fictional story on just enough truth about Christian history to spark imagination and plant in his readers a kernel that will lead to conversations, research and a deeper understanding of the life of Christ, the Church and the role mankind has played in muddying up the religion. We shouldn't read his book as "The Gospel According to Dan", and I would bet Mr. Brown would say the same thing. But it is a wonderful starting point for someone unfamiliar with the formation of the early church and the political/social choices of the first leaders that have shaped the evolution of the faith. I have yet to talk to any reader of the book who did not immediately locate a copy of The Last Supper and look for the clues the book suggests exists amid its scene.

• Undoubtfully Dan Brown has done amazing jobs to his book "The Da Vinci Code". The story is powerful and magnificent. Mixing with a lot of traceable truth and facts, he made his novel sound extremely convincing and inevitably deluded you from what's real and what's fictional. However, please don't take it too serious, it's just a novel, not a research paper trying to make a breakthrough statement. Overall, the book has quite a lot of twists shocking you. Even the ending has double meanings. Make sure you read the Epilogue chapter, or you won't know where the Holy Grail rests that Dan Brown suggested as the poem below:
  
  "The Holy Grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits.
  The blade and chalice guarding o'er Her gates.
  Adorned in masters' loving art, She lies.
  She rests at last beneath the starry skies."
  
  For people who love deciphering codes, Dan Brown wisely placed some codings on the regular hardcover edition's paper cover. If you pay attention you may find some bold fonts seemed appearing randomly. Link them up and you should see a hint to read.

• I found this book EXTREMELY interesting and entertaining. It is fun to read a book that gets the ole juices flowing in the brain again. Like other reviews have said, I found myself putting down the book and running to the computer constantly to do research. It made me WANT to learn more about art, Christianity, history, etc. So what if a few of the facts are not 100% correct? I looked up on the computer what was important to me, and am enjoying all the new information and theories. It will be a fun topic of discussion and debate with my friends who are Christians, Buddists, Athiests, Agnostic, etc.

  Don't get me wrong, I am a Christain, and am very comfortable in my faith. I think reading The Bible cover to cover can be more disturbing! Talk about contradictions... An open mind is a happy mind.

• Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is an interesting book for a number of reasons. It is entertaining yet essentially light reading. It is also filled with tantalizing bits of information about the history of Christianity and a miriad of other related topics including paganism, Gnosticism, The Knights Templar, art history, and the Holy Grail.
  
  The most fascinating aspect of this novel is the overwhelming public interest and controversy surrounding many of the assertions Brown makes in this book. It may be safe to assume that most people have little or no previous exposure to these topics and it certainly has generated extreme controversy in Christian circles.

Da Vinci Code Decoded

• If you are looking for the expert dope on all things Da Vinci Code, this is it - no need to look elsewhere. Henry Lincoln, Dan Burstein, Picknett and Prince and even Dan Brown - basically everyone you'd want to explain the back story of The Da Vinci Code. The only omission is anything the naysayers who wrote lots of books denouncing the novel as anti-catholic, etc., but that's not to say that the people who are interviewed, especially Holy Blood Holy Grail's Henry Lincoln, don't question some of the wilder leaps made by some enthusiasts.
  
  It's really well produced, and organized so that you can drop in or out of any chapter on the DVD to learn about whichever topics interest you most. If there was a criticism it would be that some of the talking heads really go into detail, perhaps more so than you might want - but that depends on your level of interest.

• I picked up the Da Vinci Code about a year ago to read on a long train ride, and of course I wasn't disappointed-as we all know it was immensely entertaining and exciting, a great read all around (and now I can't wait to see Tom Hanks in the movie!) But then my husband Bernie, who noticed how much I liked the book (don't you just love it when men pay attention for once?) bought this DVD for me for my birthday. There was so much new information inside that I had to watch it several times, so I was glad that I owned it. I had never heard of "Gnosticism" before or any of the other stunning data contained inside, it was like a whole treasure chest opened up of stuff they never told you in Sunday school that makes religion exciting all over again. Now I've got Bernie reading the Dead Sea Scrolls! A great value for the money

• It's hard for me to describe the 9 million Americans and growing who have read The Da Vinci Code as a cultural cliché - Dan Brown's novel has resonated with many people in this country who are curious about the roots of Christianity and its development throughout history.

• The DVD is divided into two sections, Chapters and Extras, the first having five topics, and the second, Extras, nine topics of discussion ... The running time for these topics are anywhere from 37 minutes to 3 minutes depending on the material discussed. Actually, the difference between the Chapters and the Extras is ONLY the fact that the Chapters are dedicated to more specific discussion of Dan Brown's book and the Da Vinci references in the book.
  
  Certainly one of the central themes of the DVD, and the book, is the 'sacred feminine' and the proposition that Jesus was, in effect, married to Mary Magdalene, and he had children by her.
  
  For those viewers that have studied the the works of Da Vinci, the bible, theology or the history of the Christianity the authors in this DVD, particularily, Henry Lincoln, author of Holy Blood Holy Grail, will most certainly be known to you...
  
  Certainly the origins of Christianity and the important role that the Roman General Constantine, having to fight with mostly very pacific Christian soldiers, is discussed in some detail and makes the viewer think about all those things that perhaps the Church never wanted us to think about. Constantine was one of the first that set the dates of Christian holidays so that they may more accurately fall at the same time as the pagan and sun worshippers of Rome, Greece and Egypt of the time. For example, there is no proof that Jesus was born on December 25th, nor is there any specific reason that if the birth of Jesus was pinned to one specific day, His the death and resurrection is also not a specific day, but rather a floating holiday that is pegged to crop and fertility cycles and, a Sunday after the first moon of the solstice... or something like that .... The Christian holidays fall on the same days as the old Sun and Pagan worshippers timetable ......
  
  Just think, back in the days of Jesus, the most powerfull people were all considered the 'Son of God', most of them in Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology were born of virgin mothers, since as you know many Greek fables .... where the gods used to come to earth and take advantage of the most beautifull virgins.... and of course as well the pagan religions of the day most certainly belived in the resurrection of the dead after 3 days .... The fact that the Christian God is monoeithic, God is still described as multiple with The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ... HMMMMMM