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[bobcatmoran]

Per the recommendation of my sister, who basically thrust the book into my hands and said, "Read," I'm reading The Da Vinci Code. It's pretty good so far, a definite page-turner, and although I know very little about secret societies, The Louvre, and France in general, Dan Brown gives the impression that he has done his homework before writing this, and so far it all hangs together quite nicely, with one exasperating exception.

The one subject that's been mentioned so far (out of the 194 pages I've read) which I have any first-hand familiarity with is GPS. And with that, Mr. Brown has made a rather glaring error. You see, there's a plot point in the first chunk of the book which revolves around the main character being tracked by GPS while he is inside The Louvre. This is, in fact, impossible. GPS signals cannot get through brick, stone, plaster, glass, and all those things which buildings are typically made of. It is impossible to use GPS indoors. The wavelength of the signals is such that they cannot penetrate (heck, they're even stymied by wet leaves). So, needless to say, Mr. Brown has managed to lose a heck of a lot of credibility in my eyes, and any statements which might be made in this book about secret conspiracies will be taken with entire spoonfuls of salt.

Comments

[mekkababble.livejournal.com]

Huzzah, the Da Vinci Code! I still have yet to read the book myself (it's been on my to-do list for a couple of months at least), but from what I understand it really is a bunch of hooey. A good read, but largely useless in the end. You're smart to be skeptical.

Bert Erhman (really hope I spelled that right) wrote a book called 'The Truth and Fiction of the Da Vinci Code' where a lot of this stuff is debunked. I've leafed through it and it's quite interesting.