Its a story. A fantasy. Pure fiction. I saw the same intellectual energy wasted on Harry Potter.
The problem is, it is not really being treated as such, and as you will see below, Mr. Brown is trying to have it both ways. This excerpt from James P. Holding:
One the first things a reader of The DaVinci Code will see, in prefatory material and under a heading in bolded, capital letters, reading “FACT”, is this statement:
All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.
Mr. Brown tries to say "it's only fiction" while claiming that endless falsities and outright lies are "FACT", so it is hyper-simplistic to say it's just a work of fiction. He's trying to write something akin to a historical novel which will lead the uninformed to think, yes the main characters are fiction but, hey, this guy really knows what he's talking about! Maybe he's onto something! Here's some more from Holding, which says it better than I could:
Don't tell me that it's absurd to waste so much time "attacking" a fictional work. First of all, Brown claims that his book is ROOTED IN FACT, so he has claimed to mix fiction with non-fiction. Beyond that, great works of fiction have been known to cause massive social upheaval; if you doubt that, I have three words for you: Uncle Tom's Cabin.
I'm not the one who has problems seeing this is fiction -- other people do. That's who we're trying to inform. Where's your open mind? Second, Brown himself is quite plain about his intentions to challenge beliefs and compel changes of mind; as Olson and Miesel note in The Da Vinci Hoax [18] he plainly acknowledged positively an interviewer's question, on a June 9, 2003 interview on Today, on whether he wanted to "challenge certain long-held beliefs or truths about religion." Just fiction, my foot: Brown is out to start socio-religious upheaval. Tell that excuse to someone else.
For more details, here's the link: http://www.tektonics.org/davincicrude.htm