you know what, forget the characters and story, this is a great book for one reason - this book will open millions of people's eye to the fallacies and mistruths so heavily perpetuated in religion today. This book has educated me to facts that I never had a chance of learning (the golden mean, symbolism, da vinci's art work, the factual basis of jesus... to name a few) In short, it's opened my eyes, and I bet many other's also.
I guess I'm not getting the well rounded education I'd love to get in an Economics program, and this book will for sure influence which electives I'll be taking in the next few years.
great book, could care less about the story really, I just can't wait to get to the next fact that I'd never heard of before so give me something new to look up.
p.s. for those who don't know about it already, look into the number Phi, and it's ties to nature. Incredible stuff.