Free: DaVinci Code by Dan Brown (US Kindle/Sony/Kobo/iTunes )

[KentE]

Davinci Code, by Dan Brown, is free today at Amazon US (at least) and B&N, might drop at other vendors since it's a publisher's promo.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FA675C

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/da-v...=9780385504218

This edition includes an excerpt from Brown’s forthcoming new novel, Inferno, due in May.

Brown's latest thriller (after Angels and Demons)is an exhaustively researched page-turner about secret religious societies, ancient coverups and savage vengeance. The action kicks off in modern-day Paris with the murder of the Louvre's chief curator, whose body is found laid out in symbolic repose at the foot of the Mona Lisa. Seizing control of the case are Sophie Neveu, a lovely French police cryptologist, and Harvard symbol expert Robert Langdon, reprising his role from Brown's last book. The two find several puzzling codes at the murder scene, all of which form a treasure map to the fabled Holy Grail. As their search moves from France to England, Neveu and Langdon are confounded by two mysterious groups-the legendary Priory of Sion, a nearly 1,000-year-old secret society whose members have included Botticelli and Isaac Newton, and the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. Both have their own reasons for wanting to ensure that the Grail isn't found.

KentE

[BelleZora]

Thank you!

[MmavisO]

Thanks!!

[ATDrake]

Also free @ Sony & Kobo & iTunes (all available to Canadians).

I admit to a certain morbid curiosity, but probably even "free" isn't enough to get me to actually read this after being turned off by years of overhype and the notorious inaccuracies and plot holes and clunky writing, as noted in various sporking blogposts which will probably in the end give me more actual entertainment than the source.

[KentE]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

I admit to a certain morbid curiosity, but probably even "free" isn't enough to get me to actually read this after being turned off by years of overhype and the notorious inaccuracies and plot holes and clunky writing, as noted in various sporking blogposts which will probably in the end give me more actual entertainment than the source.

I didn't read it for quite some time, partially because of the hype, and partially because my library never had it available. But, I found the book enjoyable.

I imagine that it depends on your tolerance for such things-- Once you accept a book as 'fiction', is there really a problem with a possible additional 'fiction' in the plot? I certainly didn't notice any glaring problems of the "that violates the laws of physics" type, and I suppose my knoweldge of the time period isn't complete enough to be offended by the 'notorious innacuracies'.

[BelleZora]

It was the excessive hype that sparked all the criticism. I read it hoping simply to be entertained and it definitely met all expectations. Like KentE, I accepted it as fiction and wasn't bothered by any historical inaccuracies. I understand how it upset many religious people and would recommend that people likely to feel offended by negative church portrayals stay away. But for most of the rest of us, it is a fun read.

[hwlester]

Odd. Showing $9.99 at Amazon now, but free everywhere else you posted. Thanks.

[koland]

The amazon price keeps changing on me - free, then 9.99, then free a bit later. Too bad it won't let me actually buy it when it is showing as free... (I get an error msg about prices in other countries).

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by koland

The amazon price keeps changing on me - free, then 9.99, then free a bit later. Too bad it won't let me actually buy it when it is showing as free... (I get an error msg about prices in other countries).

Probably Amazon's automated price matching engine. Hopefully it will settle down at free soon.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by BelleZora

It was the excessive hype that sparked all the criticism. I read it hoping simply to be entertained and it definitely met all expectations. Like KentE, I accepted it as fiction and wasn't bothered by any historical inaccuracies. I understand how it upset many religious people and would recommend that people likely to feel offended by negative church portrayals stay away. But for most of the rest of us, it is a fun read.

Not all the criticism was just from the hype, IIRC, nor from the pseudo-religious content. There were and remain some very valid points about the sheer sloppiness of the poor non-historical research done and WTF portrayals thereof*, glaring situational illogic within the storyline, and some very substandard prose quality, which are fairly well represented with examples over at TV Tropes and the Language Log.

I'd be willing to gloss over stuff like that for a subgenre I know and like, at least for the first few chapters, but conspiracy thrillers have never really done it for me, so that probably considerably lowers the likelihood of my personally finding it entertaining, even in a So Bad It's Good way like I do for a lot of Sturgeon's Law-tastic cheesy sci-fi/fantasy.

Originally Posted by KentE

I imagine that it depends on your tolerance for such things-- Once you accept a book as 'fiction', is there really a problem with a possible additional 'fiction' in the plot? I certainly didn't notice any glaring problems of the "that violates the laws of physics" type, and I suppose my knoweldge of the time period isn't complete enough to be offended by the 'notorious innacuracies'.

I'm afraid that for me, there's just this difference between the simple suspension of disbelief, and the hanging of it by the neck until very very dead, and then swatting the remains like a piñata in the hopes that additional dubious goodies will burst forth like candy instead of spilled entrails to try and interpret the significance of, haruspex-style. And everything I've read about TDVC or excerpted from it tends to indicate that it just doesn't hang together well enough internally, even after the initial premise has been accepted.

Anyway, thanks both for your thoughts and recommendation. Certainly a lot of people did enjoy it over the years.

* CRYPTOANALYSIS DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY, as Morbo from Futurama would put it. And neither do ideographic scripted Asian languages, which are not interchangeable, kthnxbye†.

† Both of which happen to be things I apparently know far more than Dan Brown about, despite his having made them fairly significant in his novel and my only having been a vague amateur hobbyist for either subject some years ago. But it seems I still did more reading than he did, even though I have yet to make any money off of it (or just flat out making up untrue stuff about it).

[bookratt]

I missed the free Amazon one too, but reported the $0.00 price on B&N

[Fluribus]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Not all the criticism was just from the hype, IIRC, nor from the pseudo-religious content. There were and remain some very valid points about the sheer sloppiness of the poor non-historical research done and WTF portrayals thereof*, glaring situational illogic within the storyline, and some very substandard prose quality, which are fairly well represented with examples over at TV Tropes and the Language Log.

The hype response would not have been nearly so severe had Brown not vociferously proclaimed his in-depth historical research. Add to that, as you point out, the many errors in non-historical stuff...

A ruthless assassin who goes out to kill a bunch of people...takes a single revolver...takes no spare ammo. This same killer makes numerous other major errors.

My main complaint about the book, however, was that it was boring. Very little happens in this thriller. Most of the book consists of characters giving lectures on the "true" history (most of which is bogus). I got the book from a Goodwill bargain table for about 30 cents and felt cheated.

Holy Blood, Holy Grail (the book where Brown got most of his "history") was equally bogus but I enjoyed it much more.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

* CRYPTOANALYSIS DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY, as Morbo from Futurama would put it. And neither do ideographic scripted Asian languages, which are not interchangeable, kthnxbye†.

That's about how I felt when watching Jurassic Park for the first time when Ariana Richards' character sat in front of a Silicon Graphics workstation and said "This is Unix. I know Unix." At the time, I had a Silicon Graphics machine as my workstation and the interface was nothing like what they showed.

As you say, entertaining for the masses, but not for the people who have more in depth knowledge about the subject matter.

[bookratt]

Amazon US currently free again!

[caleb72]

This was panned so badly by my mother that I was pretty sure I wanted to have nothing to do with it. Incidentally, her criticisms certainly didn't come from any religious sensitivity as she has none.

However, free is free, so it can't hurt to have it on the virtual shelf. Maybe one day I'll have a look and see if I have a similar response.