The Da Vinci code

Title : The Da Vinci Code
Author: Dan Brown

This is the second Dan Brown book I've read and in short, I'm hooked!

This is one hell of a writer, no wonder he was compared to JK Rowlings in a recent review. The differance is that JK Rowling's Harry Potter series is a book for all ages while Dan Brown books are more for the matured and intellectual mind (perasan!!)

This time, the main character, Robert Langdon, last seen in Angels and Demons, gets involved in the search for the Holy Grail. Like the previous book, he too was awaken by a phone call that turned into a series of unexpected twists and turns.

It started with the murder of a museum curator. Left to die by an assasin who wanted to find the secret of the Holy Grail, the curator spent the last moments of his life leaving clues behind for his grand daughter, Sophia Neveu, in the museum with a final message for her so find Robert Langdon to assist her. Langdon hawever had become the prime suspect of the crime since his name was written on the curator's body.

With the help of Neveu, Langdon escaped the clutches of the French Police-something (I'm not sure about his exact rank but one of the highest), Bezu Fache and fled to the home of a fellow historian who has been on the trail of the Holy Grail all his life, Leigh Teabing. Together, they flew to Britian where the Holy Grail is believed to 'reside'.

The path to the Holy Grail is hidden in the cryptic poems left by the museum curator before his death but all of them have the expertise in this field that before long, they had already managed to decode it. However, as in his previous book that I read, Brown managed to twist the story around, making us feel just as frustrated as Langdon was when he realized there was a traitor within their circle <-- sense of deja vu here! But then again, good guys always win, no matter how twisted the plot is heheh..

However, suprise².. to me, I find the final parts of the book more interesting, especially when the bad guys have been caught (not gonna tell you who it is though!). I find these last pages more intruiging and fascinating. A true example to show how sometimes, we don't see the most valuable things that have been right under our nose and though at first I thought the cryptic poem were a bit boring compared to the clues given in Angels and Demons, when reading the last part, I suddenly see the beauty of it!

Now, as for this writer, either he's really been doing his homework or he's one hell of a story teller to make you believe all the 'facts' he presented in his books. I mean, the story about the Holy Grail itself is captivating enough. A few times I felt like searching for an encyclopedia just to verify the things Brown describes in these two books I've read and there are moments when I wish I could take a peek at these paintings that are commonly known but never really closely examined.

For the 2 books I've read, a few similiarities (except the ones about the mind boggling puzzles throughout it la, I love those part of the books)stand out

1. Must Langdon HAVE to be awoken from his sleep by PHONE CALLS!
2. Must some be MURDERED at the start of the book (ok, maybe that's how these kinda books should start anyway!)
3. Must the bad guys always have an assassin who's 'different' (an Arab, an albino).. omputih takde ke yg diorang bleh upah? Though I also know that usually these kind of people have had difficult chidlhoods so tu tak kisah la if told pun..
4. Must the WOMAN who assists him be a close REALATIVE of the DECEASED]
5. Must they all be INTELLECTUAL WOMEN (scientist, cryptologist).. tp tkpe gak, Langdon bukan terror sgt pun hahaha..
6. Must they always have a TRAITOR whom they TRUSTED originally
7. Can't think of anything else right now hehe..

All in all, its a great book though I love Angels and Demons a tad bit more ;-) Compared to Angels and Demons, I DO find this book a bit boring, and 'boring' in this sense still means a book I can't put down once I've started. Not the book's fault that I think Angels and Demons is more 'colourful' hehe.. But still, its a great book! I give it a 4-star rating. I'm really looking forward to read more by this author, but before that, pulangkan dulu buku ni kat tuan dia (",) Now I know another section to head to whenever I'm in Popular!