The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons

[Frodo]

Has anybody read these books? They are incredible and everybody here who is interested in religous/philosophical thrillers must read these books. Dan Brown has proven to be an excellent author with these two books. If you've read them, post your ideas here about what you think about them.

[ordos45]

I've read Angels and Demons. It was well written, but I'll wait for The Da Vinci Code in paperback.

Spoilers:

[hide]I loved the way Brown built up the mythos of the Illuminati the whole time in A&D. Then at the very end we discover that the Catholic Church destroyed it centuries ago.

For the Pope's son/assistant to have plotted all of it, and still not seem obvious...brilliant. Truly a misguided yet great villain.

Brown captures the layout of the Vatican quite well. One can tell, even without the acknowledgements, that he has taken a trip there from the sheer level of descriptions. (Aside from the Archives. I doubt he got the clearance for them.)

Overall a great read.

[/hide]

[Caid Ivik]

15th century renaissance was not only rebirth of ancient culture, but also time of rise of mysticism in whole christianity. Central inquisition was weaker and had time to work only on political enemies, while their theological research stagnated. That's why we had Eckhard, Wycleff or Cusanius without a mention, tough their work is undoubtely inspired by neoplatonic thoughts. Or why there were so many demonologists after them - hell was simply a thing no one ever dared to think about.

[thomas]

was reading the paper and "stumbled" across the comics page (BS that's the only part I really read) and in the comic "Get Fuzzy" by Darby Conley he was reading a book and on the side was "the Davinci code"