The Va Dinci Cod

by Adam Roberts

Something fishy is going on in the world of artistic scholarship. How can there possibly be a link between the hidden cod of Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings and the over fishing of the North Atlantic fish stocks? Could it be that Leonardo Da Vinci, the greatest genius of his age and inventor of the photocopier and mouse mat, had a chilling insight into European Union Fishing policies.Only one man can find out. Robert Hangdog, international scholar, master spy and action hero. Oh and Bezu Fish.

Genres: Humor, Fiction, Mystery

192 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Adam Roberts (born 1965) is an academic, critic and novelist. He also writes parodies under the pseudonyms of A.R.R.R. Roberts, A3R Roberts and Don Brine. He also blogs at The Valve, a group blog devoted to literature and cultural studies.

He has a degree in English from the University of Aberdeen and a PhD from Cambridge University on Robert Browning and the Classics. He teaches English literature and creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Adam Roberts has been nominated twice for the Arthur C. Clarke Award: in 2001, for his debut novel, Salt, and in 2007, for Gradisil.

Reviews

[BigTreesAndBigBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was a CRAZY book!!and it really moaked the original. i finished it in a couple of hours. it wasn't great, but it did have some funny lines.

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think The da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a pretty good page turner. I read it in a couple of days. But it isn't anything beyond that. It's just a thriller. Because of all the drama around the book, and the religious "theory" the plot is built up on, I have been certain from the time I read it that it is very open to parody.

This book almost proves that. It has a great beginning, very funny, and a very good parody of the beginning of the original. Then after that opening scene I felt it slowly started to run out of steam, and that it never really recovered. It even seemed longer than the original despite the fact that it is a short, little book.

I can't really recommend it, but because of that beginning I think I would like to read some other parodies by Roberts to see if I like them better.

[[ J o ] · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never read The da Vinci Code because I have taste and better things to do with my time, but due to the film and other things, I pretty much get what it's about.

This is riding on the back of the "success" of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings parodies that were in the same vain as this, but I think this one was done much better. It had funnier moments and didn't try too hard to be as sarcastic or as vile as the other ones. Still not brilliant but for quick humour escapism it's alright.

[Laiba Faheem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why this book received so much hate.
I, for one, loved the humor and enjoyed it through and through.
The satire was on point. And honestly, if Dan Brown releases a new book, reading that would never be the same.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-written parody of "The DaVinci Code". The author used wit and knowledge to write this satire. Some of his "facts" were "laugh outloud" funny and other times, I found myself asking, "really, is that true?" I now have the desire to reread the famous "Robert Langdon" novel.

[Gemma Nordmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice short witty read. Quite a clever comedy mystery parody. Not exactly a classic, but a bit of harmless fun. It provided entertainment, in a silly humor way. It's not laugh out loud funny, but more a 'Can't help but smile whilst reading'.

[Rui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, five stars.

Why?

Because the book set out to be e a "Da Vinci's Code" spoof and ended up going way beyond that.
It didn't go for the easy jokes (mostly), and it kind of ended up making a point about how any "conspiracy theory" might make sense, no matter how senseless it really is.

I've laughed out loud at the "reveal" of Eda Vinci's Code (pertaining, by the way, Cods, of course), but at the same time I could see how real, serious, non-nonsensical people could defend it in the real world.

So, yup, five out of five to the author and book, for having an easy target for a spoof, doing a rather decent deconstruct out of it, but choosing, at the same time to do something new, not leaching from the novel they were joking about but showing instead how nonsensical conspiracy theories could really get.

[Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ · Rating 4 out of 5]

ya ampun.... jika Anda berpikir buku parodi yg "suka ngasal" bahkan cenderung mengolok-ngolok karya asli, cobalah baca buku ini... unutk menulis buku ini, sepertinya penulis harus melakukan riset "seribet" Dan Brown dalam menulis DVC

Di suatu buku, pernah saya membaca bahwa dulu, para kristiani yang bersembunyi di bawah teror Roma suka menggunakan simbol ikan sebagai media komunikasi mereka dan di tuliskan di nisan makam. mungkin ini alasan, kenapa misteri Ikan Cod, menjadi bisa begitu rumit dan menarik dalam buku yang.... hehe.. bacalah sendiri :D

PS: nilai aslinya 3 bintang, ditambah 0.5 bintang untuk bumbu historisnya, dan 0.5 bintang untuk selera humornya yang aneh sekaligus cerdas--kalo gak dikatakan jenius

[Donny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ini parodi Da Vinci Code yang menarik dan gak sembarangan bikinnya. Penuh tanggung jawab historis dari penulisnya sehingga dapat melontarkan banyolan yang lucu dan segar tanpa kehilangan tanggung jawabnya sevagai plesetan sejarah!

[Bookzone_Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a fun bit of nonsense. Zany and very very silly. There's a place for this in life from time to time. I now also have The Soddit: Or, Let's Cash in Again to read by the same author, but I'm saving it for the next time I'm in this sort of silly mood again. The Va Dinci Cod certainly raised a distracting smile or two.

[Rutger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like reading a Mel Brooks movie.

[Adam Humphreys · Rating 1 out of 5]

An OK parody, but south park did it better.

[BooksAndFrogs (Mervi) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like the original book, this was a waste of time. The best part was the back cover.

[Ilkka Prusi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant parody of the most silliest book/movie in recent years.
You'll laugh, a lot. Recommended.

[Khalid · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Va Dinci Cod is a parody of The Da Vinci Code. This book is a crazy but hilarious parody that I enjoyed reading. In fact, I only got this book yesterday, and I could not stop reading it until I was done with it, which is not very common for me.

I have to start out by saying that I did not read the complete original novel, but rather listened to an abridged version of it (I did not know that it was heavily abridged until much later, and was not that interested in the book to go and get the full novel). The original novel was not the best there is, but I actually enjoyed reading it. It was, however, quite overdone, and after watching the movie version, I believe that I wouldn’t have liked it if I read it today.

The parody, however, was something else! It was silly, stupid, and just badly written, badly written in a really enjoyable way. The author made sure he made every stupid thing writers do, over and over and over, in a very stupid way. He especially made fun of Dan Brown’s know-it-all let’s over analyze the history style very well.

I do recommend this for anybody willing to read a crazy book, who has previously read The Da Vinci Code. It’s small and extremely funny; give it a try!

[BookAmbler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked this up because a couple of bits made me laugh... but having read half of it (on lots of trains on Saturday) it's getting a bit tiresome. Will finish it, probably.

From the back cover;
In his own blood, the dying man had written a single sentence in splashy, red letters. It was very much a red letter statement.

THE CHATHOLIC CURCH HAD ME MURDERED!

For long seconds Donglan stared at the mysterious message. ‘That, Doctor Donglan,’ said Tash, ‘is why we have called you at this time. That mysterious message.’

‘It may,’ said Robert, ‘be an anagram.’

’We wondered about that,’ said Tash. ‘Can you decipher it?’

Donglan smiled. ‘Of course, it is my speciality,’ he said. He tried to add ‘I am an anagram master’, but instead said ‘I amanana manna’ and ‘I am anamanna’ and stopped.

UPDATE: half the book was enough for me!

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very much a case of if you are bored out of your mind and literally have nothing better to do then read it. I found that the story VERY loosely was based around the da vinci code, and the jokes really didn't appeal to my humour, possibly if this was an experience rather than something you had to read it might be more humorous. The humour I found unintelligent and so much that you read in it was just things put in there to be random.

I wanted to see a reason this book was written but really found none. In saying that my father in law found it extremely funny. I read this book in less than one day so an easy read.

[Christiana Hadji · Rating 2 out of 5]

Όπως αντιλαμβάνεστε από τον τίτλο, πρόκειται για μια παρωδία του Da Vichy Code του Dan Brown. Δυστυχώς ήταν περισσότερο σαχλή παρά έξυπνη. Τα διαρκή λογοπαίγνια με τις αγγλικές λέξεις (π.χ. cod=God) θα πρέπει να ήταν εφιάλτης για τον μεταφραστή που προ��πάθησε να τα μεταφέρει στα ελληνικά όσο καλύτερα μπορούσε, αλλά δεν μπορούσε να κάνει και θαύματα.

[Alistair Pyke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am part of a rare breed that has never read The Da Vinci Code or seen the film, so I'm only vaguely familiar with the source material for this send up.
While there are a few humourous lines they are few and far between and the plot is kind of ridiculous, mind you that was the intention.
The saving grace is that it's quite short and easy to read.

[Juniar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even the parody was lame. But still better than the original, in that it admitted straight-facedly that it was a fiction.

[Pulung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wuahahahaaaa...

Komedi gila. Asik gak asik. Ceritanya ketebak gak ketebak. Pokoke gila. Baca aja sendiri...

Ha ha ha...

-Ria-

[Agustinus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a funny parody of The Da Vinci Code. I was laughing a lot when editing this Indonesian version of The Va Dinci Cod.

[Barbara Whittaker]

Hilarious - a great spoof

[Lisa Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pile of crap. I laughed once, at the line about pitch black being like the colour of a ps2, but otherwise, a total bore!

[Kristy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good spoof, I literally laughed out loud on each and every page :)

[Michael Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Someone clearly had far too much time on their hands, but I'm sure glad that they did! Funny and entertaining book that only takes an hour or two to read!

[amanda s. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nggak ngerti sama buku ini, dan sama sekali nggak selesai bacanya. Untung dikasih orang bukan beli sendiri. :)

[Faysal Subhani · Rating 2 out of 5]

I usually like ARRR Roberts' parodies. This however, was boring.

[Charity Rollorata · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little bit funny!

[Lupurk · Rating 4 out of 5]

una parodia divertentissima del Codice da Vinci, si legge in un paio d'ore e vi ritroverete a ridere più e più volte!

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