Dan Brown recomendation?

[Patrick Skelton]

Thinking of starting a Dan Brown book.  Which is his best? Which is his worst?  I've heard a lot of mixed reviews on all of Dan Brown's books. 

[Alle Meine Entchen]

The only one of his books I liked was Angels and Demons, which is the 1st in the Robert Langdon series.

[Tom Schreck]

Although sometimes I think its uncool to admit this but I thought The DaVinci Code was entertaining and suspenseful...There's a reason it sold a gazillion...

[history_lover]

My favorite was Da Vinci Code. Second favorite is probably Lost Symbol, then Angels and Demons. Digital Fortress and Deception Point were good but since they didn't deal with history, they aren't among my favorites.

[MariaESchneider]

I thought the Da Vinci Code was a decent read.  If you've read a lot of Templar mysteries or Holy Grail stuff, you will probably find it a decent story and middle of the road (I think The Adept is a much better series and for a more modern take on Templars I really liked The Heretic by Joe Nassise.) 

[Stephen T. Harper]

I enjoyed the Da Vinci Code because of the pace and interesting subject matter.  But, like a lot of people have said in the past, it wasn't the best written book I've ever read.  Brown writes novels a bit too much like he's writing a screenplay for me.  In fact, I recall almost putting that book down early on when he described the hero as "Harrison Ford in a tweed jacket" or something like that.  Sounded more like an elevator pitch than an actual book.  I'm glad I stuck with it though because it really was a well put together story.  Then again, I was also intrigued because he had clearly read many of the same non-fiction books I've read for his research.  I knew the answers to all his puzzles very early in the book because of that, but I was still pulled along by the great pace of the story.
 
Angels & Demons, on the other hand, I just couldn't get  through.  It was written before Da Vinci and is a lot less polished and skillful.  So many unnecessarily silly elements to it.  Almost like he was throwing everything he could think of at the wall to see if any of it was good.  Some of it was, but the overall result felt really forced.   The super fast secret jet that whisked Langdon off at mach 4 in the first few pages would have been goofy in a Tom Clancy novel.  It was much more so in a story about a history professor/detective.  Just my opinion though.  Obviously he's a really popular writer so mileage may vary.  If you like puzzles and history though, Da Vinci Code is pretty much everything it's cracked up to be.  A fun, fast, cerebral thriller that doesn't really challenge too much, but poses some very interesting questions.

[C. Culver]

I liked The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.  They were fast-paced and well plotted.

It's been a couple of years, but I tried reading Digital Fortress and had to put it down.  It's a techno thriller that was dated four years ago when I tried to read it, and it's even more so now.  Worse than that, Dan Brown didn't seem to have much grasp of the technical material he was writing about.  If you know nothing about cryptography or computers, it might be worth reading; I don't know because I didn't get that far. If you know even just a little, it might be hard to suspend your disbelief enough to get into the story. Just my 2 cents.

[meggjensen]

I liked Angels & Demons more than DaVinci Code. I still have Last Templar sitting on my bookshelf ... need to read it!

[Wintings]

I have read only one Dan Brown book - The Da Vinci Code. Actually I managed to read only about half of it before tossing it in the bin. I can honestly say it is the worst written book I've ever read.

So my "Dan Brown recommendation" is: DON'T BOTHER!

[history_lover]

I liked Angels & Demons more than DaVinci Code. I still have Last Templar sitting on my bookshelf ... need to read it!

The Last Templar wasn't written by Dan Brown, it was written by Raymond Khoury, who is arguably better than Brown.

[kindlegrl81]

I have read all of his books and my favorites where Angels and Demons and The DaVinci Code. 

His first couple of books were good but they where more about science and math mystery.  I prefer the history and religion that came out in the Robert Langdon series.  The Lost Symbol, while still dealing with Religion and History wasn't nearly as good as the first two novels IMO.

[drenfrow]

I always embarrassed these days to even say I read Dan Brown because people love so much to hate him.  He is not a great writer but he writes very fast-paced, suspenseful books.  I agree with Stephen T. Harper that his writing often seems like he's writing a screenplay.   I read him though because the plots are so interesting.  I think Angels and Demons is his best, followed by The Da Vinci Code.  I didn't really enjoy The Lost Symbol.

[Basilius]

While The Da Vinci Code isn't the best-written book in history, to be sure, it is incredibly well constructed.

If you're wondering how to put together a novel that sells, break that one down. All the turning points are in their proper places, the finish starts at just about the right time, and the sub-plots all wind together.

[Patrick Skelton]

Stephen,

I hear what you're saying about Angels and Demons. I got halfway through it a year ago and couldn't finish it. Too wordy.  Some of his scenes went on for 20 or 30 pages.  Hoping he has some better books out there, but it's sounding like they're all pretty so-so.

Patrick

[Neekeebee]

I've only read The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol; I liked both but IMHO The Da Vinci Code was much better.  Maybe because Dan Brown's style was all new to me when I read it. 

I have to say that I read these two in the Special Illustrated Editions and believe that made me enjoy the stories a lot more.  I really loved seeing the art that was being written about right in the book.  The pictures showed up pretty well on the Kindle, but looked really good on the Kindle for PC.

N

[Stephen T. Harper]

Patrick,  Da Vinci Code is better than so-so.  I hope you don't skip it because of what I said.  Just because the writing isn't great, it's not really bad either.  But that's not a reason to read or not-read this particular book.  If you like thrillers, mysteries, and history, it's really quite good.  It also goes really fast.  Definitely a page turner.

[katie kitty]

Ugh! Dan Brown is the Kim Kardashian of writers.

[Basilius]

Ugh! Dan Brown is the Kim Kardashian of writers.

Probably closer to Katy Perry.

[evrose]

Thinking of starting a Dan Brown book.  Which is his best? Which is his worst?  I've heard a lot of mixed reviews on all of Dan Brown's books. 

It doesn't really matter - all of his books are pretty much the same.

[katie kitty]

Probably closer to Katy Perry.

Don't give him that much credit.

[evrose]

Don't give him that much credit.

I like to think of him as a cross between Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry, with a little Justin Bieber thrown in just to make the mix a bit more feminine.

[katie kitty]

I like to think of him as a cross between Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry, with a little Justin Bieber thrown in just to make the mix a bit more feminine.

Feminine? Women have more creativity than weaving the National Enquirer rumors into a story. "Man follows ancient clues left by the freemasons to find Bigfoot's under ground kingdom in the sandals of the Statue of Liberty" oh wow! I just wrote a Dan Brown Book!

[BlondeStylus]

I have to say although I have read much on the Knights of Templar, etc., I still didn't enjoy the Da Vinci Code.  Angels and Demons weren't a choice for me after that attempt at reading Da Vinci. 

[Shastastan]

I've read all of his books and liked "Deception Point" the best with Da Vinci Code 2nd.  I was more of a fan before I read "Lost Symbol" which I thought was way too wordy.

[evrose]

Feminine? Women have more creativity than weaving the National Enquirer rumors into a story. "Man follows ancient clues left by the freemasons to find Bigfoot's under ground kingdom in the sandals of the Statue of Liberty" oh wow! I just wrote a Dan Brown Book!

Yes, see I was saying that adding a dose of Bieber to a mix of two girly girls make it MORE feminine. It's a poke at Bieber. And Brown. But now that I've explained it, it's not as funny.  

I like your Dan Brown plot though - you should write it up... if you take twice as long as DB, it should only take you about a day to put together 400 pages! Hop to it.

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