Book Review: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

     Religious symbolism expert Robert Langdon is urgently summoned to the Louvre to investigate a bizare murder.  The grandaughter of the deceased knows that it is a sting operation and Langdon is the prime suspect.  Sophie and Robert run through Paris and London, unravelling clues while staying ahead of the authorities.     
There are very few people in America who haven't heard of Dan Brown's best-selling thriller The Da Vinci Code.  The "conspiracy thriller" is based on the premise that the Church (meaning the Catholic church) has surpressed critical, non-Biblical facts about the life of Christ.
     If you claim that Jesus was married and had a child, you will get flack no matter how many copies you sell.
The Da Vinci Code is a well-spun mystery (I hesitate to call it a thriller) that makes big claims backed up with almost completely phony research.  Even liberal reviewers gave Brown a hard time.  When attacked by historians, Brown affirmed that every thing in the book was fact.
     I've gotten different opinions from Christian who have read the book or seen the movie.  Some feel threatened, but Brown's dull axe, if you will, is only a threat to those unwilling to research.  The majority of Christians I've talked to enjoyed the story and left the theology.
     The final word?  Read if you are willing to do some extra research.  If you decide to read or watch The DaVinci Code, add The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel and Cracking the DaVinci Code (or a similar book) to your home library.

Pros:

*Exciting plot

*Believable dialougue

*Decent prose style (those who bash Brown's style have had the luxury of never reading truly ban prose)

*Clues and riddles actually solveable by real people

Cons:

*Religious sexual content (the worst is at the end of chapter 74)

*Language (not horrible; probably one mild every other chapter)

*Mild alchohol

*Heavily unbiblical theology and world views

*Occasional clunky language (once again, it's not as bad as many negative reviews make out.

*Evil Albino trope is getting old

Fullmetal Alchemist [Hagane no Renkenjitsushi]

Humankind cannot gain anything without first sacrificing something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange.

It's like that myth about the hero. He made wings out of wax so he could fly...
But when he got too close to the sun...
To God...
The wax melted and he crashed to the ground.

In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one and only truth.

Look at me, Rose! This is what happens when you use alchemy on humans... This is what happens to sinners who trespass in God's domain!

Alchemy is the science of deconstructing, analyzing, and reconstructing matter; essentially, turning one thing into something else. The practice that makes you feel like you're magic. It can even turn lead into gold. However, alchemy is not an all-powerful art. One cannot make something out of nothing. Alchemy is a science and so must follow certain laws and rules, the most important being "Equivalent Exchange". To obtain, something of equal value is paid in retrobution. There is a taboo among alchemists, and that is human transmutation. It is forbidden. For what could equal the value of a human soul?

Two brothers, naiive and innocent, choose to challenge this law. In an attempt to resurrect their dead mother, Edward and Alphonse Elric learn the reason why human transmutation is forbidden. Alphonse, only nine years old, looses his body. Edward, the elder by a year, looses his left leg. Desperate, he sacrifices his right arm to bind his younger brother's soul to a suit of armor. Fitted with steel prosthesis called "automail" to replace his missing limbs, Edward and his brother journey to the capital city of Central, where 12-year-old Edward takes the State Alchemist's exam and becomes the youngest member of the military in the history of the military dictatorship of Amestris, earning himself the rank of Major, the title of Fullmetal Alchemist and Hero of the People, and Flame Alchemist Colonel Roy Mustang as his superior officer, one of the few men who knows the secret of their failed transmutation.

Fast forward three years. Edward is now fifteen years old, loud and obnoxious, with gaudy taste and the mouth of a sailor, but is still a prodigy and genius. We learn that he is searching for the Philosopher's Stone, a fabled object which is said to give alchemists the power to bypass the law of Equivalent Exchange, in order to return his Alphonse's body, as well as his own limbs (after all, automail has a lot of problems). While searching for this fabled stone, Edward and Alphonse meet all manner of people, including the doting father and crazed Lieutenant-Colonel Maes Hughes, the muscular and over-emotional Major Alex Louis Armstrong, "trigger-happy" Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, a mysterious serial killer called Scar, Twelfth Son of the Emperor of Xing, Ling Yao and his entourage, as well as an androgynous being named Envy, a deranged former state alchemist named Zolf J. Kimblee, and many others.

Finding the Philosopher's Stone, the Elrics soon realize, is the least of their problems. The two deal with love and loss, worrying over the life of their childhood friend Winry, who happens to be Edward's automail mechanic, Alphonse's "humanity", dealing with their estranged father, who left them when they were small, and the fate of their entire nation.

This unique fantasy is a manga, or a type of art-meets-literature sort of comic from Japan. Hiromu Arakawa's art is fantastic, her characters are unique and believable, the story is littered with witty moments, and the plotline is riveting and wonderfully complex. Arakawa's world, set in a post-industrial revolution-styled nation (rather similar to an eastern European nation, like Germany) is a balance of fantasy and reality, of history and modern culture, humor and drama, and mystery galore. Arakawa-sensei's whole idea of alchemy surpassing Newton's Laws is unique and clever and she brings a whole new light to the dead practice of alchemy.

Pros:
-brotherly love
-fast-paced plot
-Mustang's gloves
-Garfiel
-the Homunculi
-the relationships between characters
-Winry's wrench
-the art
-well-developed characters
-Alphonse and his kittens
-the age-old good vs. evil dilemma
-Edward
-witty humor
-action
-love
-the idea that "revenge only leads to more revenge" and should not be a justification for anything

Cons:
-language (nothing too bad, but enough to constitute a "rated T for teen" sticker)
-merciless slaughter
-some light sexual content
-war
-violence
-lots of character death

Other FMA Merch and Stuff:
-Fullmetal Alchemist (52-episode 2003 television series)
-Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa (2005 film based off of 2003 television series)
-Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (64-episode 2009-2010 television series)
-FMA: Brotherhood Untitled Movie Project (film to follow up FMA: Brotherhood)
-various Original Video Animations (side stories to go with the series)
-FMA spin-off novels