I read books at night but love listening to audio books while I am working.
I have got two new audio books; Dan Brown's 'Angels and Demons' and also 'The DaVinci Code'. Which should I read first? Are they sequential or are they totally separate books?

Jade,

Each book can stand alone, but you might enjoy The Da Vinci Code a little more if you've already been introduced to Robert Langdon and his world. There are also a few references to things that have happened in Angels and Demons in The Da Vinci Code.  However it really doesn't matter all that much if you read the books out of order - like I did.

Thanks AirPrang. I will listen to Angels and Demons first. I'll let you know if I like it.

Quoted from Jade

Thanks AirPrang. I will listen to Angels and Demons first. I'll let you know if I like it.

There's awesome artwork in Angels and Demons (well I think it was this book)
Overall, the books are good, and are not overrated as some people may say

I loved DaVinci Code. It was fast moving all the way through and had some terrific surprises throughout. It really kept me guessing as to who might be a bad/good guy and when I thought I had it figured out, something happened to make me change my mind. Very impressed.
I wasn't quite so happy with Angels and Demons. The author seemed to have a whole lot to say about religion and it wasn't the right place to get on his soapbox. He could have quietly given his opinions all through the book without being so blatant about it. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it.

i've read deception point, da vinci code and angels and demons.
the best is deception point, cos i love stuff to do with sci and arctic type-ish thingys.
davinci was ok, but maybe not that good
angels and demons was a tad better.
but deception point is one of my favs

Quoted from hazysky

... cos i love stuff to do with sci and arctic type-ish thingys.

Have you read Ice Station by Matthew Reilly then? it's a sicence, artic type-ish thriller - a good yarn and definitely not boring...moves along at a cracking pace

YES! i have, and it was great. have you area 7 and scarecrow?

Quoted from hazysky

YES! i have, and it was great. have you area 7 and scarecrow?

I read area 7 but not scarecrow yet...I think Matthew Reilly has a good story telling ability - and I like to support the homegrown talent when I can

Brown did not copy the Da Vinci Code, lawyer says
Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:39 AM ET
By Mike Collett-White

LONDON (Reuters) - Author Dan Brown did not copy material from an earlier book when he wrote "The Da Vinci Code", his best-selling religious thriller at the center of a copyright case, a lawyer told London's High Court on Tuesday.

With over 36 million copies of his novel in circulation and a major Hollywood adaptation due for release in May, the stakes are high in a case brought against Brown's British publishers by historians Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh.

In opening arguments for the defense, publisher Random House said that much of the "central theme" of "The Holy Blood, and the Holy Grail", which the authors say has been plagiarized, did not in fact appear in The Da Vinci Code.

"A further difficulty for the claimant is that The Da Vinci Code doesn't actually have many of the points of the central theme," said the publisher's lawyer, John Baldwin. "We say that's fatal to their case."

On the second day of the trial, with Brown again present in court, Baldwin also argued that the ideas the historians were seeking to protect were too general.

"The claimants' claim relates to ideas at a high level of generality, which copyright does not protect," the publishers said in a document outlining their case.

They add that the complaint appears to center on the idea in The Holy Blood book that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, they had children who survived and married into a line of French kings, that the lineage continues today and that a secret society based in France aims to restore the lineage to the thrones of Europe.

"The claimants contend that their idea is protected by copyright, whereas Random contend there is no copyright in information of this nature, and that in any event there was no copying," the publisher said.

BROWN ACKNOWLEDGES SOURCE

The case has generated considerable media interest, both because it involves one of the world's most successful authors and because it pits the rights of an author to use existing research against protection of non-fiction writers behind it.

Commentators point out that a character in 41-year-old Brown's book, Sir Leigh Teabing, has a name that is an anagram of Leigh and Baigent. A third author of the 1982 book, Henry Lincoln, has decided to stay out of the action.

For more:
Source:

http://today.reuters.com/News/.....TS-DAVINCI-COURT.xml

Da Vinci Code ideas 'were not copied'
Staff and agencies
Tuesday February 28, 2006


The notion that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and their children married into a line of French kings is "at such a high level of generality" that it is not protected by copyright, The Da Vinci Code trial heard today.

Source:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/danbrown/story/0,,1720201,00.html

The last sentence quoted is exactly what I was thinking. It has been speculated for probably 2000 years that Jesus did marry, probably Mary Magdalene, that he did father children and his progeny lived in France. I have known that for many years. A supposition or speculation cannot be copyrighted.

burn both  

Cat