Book Review - Origin by Dan Brown

Dan Brown is an interesting author. He is best known for his Robert Langdon novels about a Harvard University professor of religious iconology and symbology (a made-up field of study). His knowledge ends up getting him pulled into five different life-or-death situations so far, all of which end up with religion being a major factor. The most famous of the novels is the second in the series, The Da Vinci Code.

Langdon is a unique protagonist more in the style of an Alfred Hitchcock character than, say, Jason Bourne. He’s a quirky academic with eidetic memory, a Mickey Mouse watch, and crippling claustrophobia. 

When it came time to cast Langdon on film, they went to our generation’s “everyman”, Tom Hanks. Three of the five books in the series have been turned into films: The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and the most recent film, Inferno.

The fifth book in the series, Origin, came out at the beginning of October and once again featured Langdon being pulled into a life-and-death situation alongside a beautiful, exotic woman where only his knowledge and ability can save the day and possibly condemn the church — all while a religious zealot of some extreme order is out to kill them. 

It’s a tried-and-true format that has worked for Brown so far — why change it? The change-up here is how Langdon gets pulled into the story.

It revolves around a former student and close friend, Edmond Kirsch, a 40-year-old tech genius billionaire that has made a world-changing discovery that answers the two greatest questions man has ever asked: “Where did we come from?” and “Where are we going?” 

Kirsch claims to have found the answer and is presenting it at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao when he is killed by an assassin, who is working for sect of the Catholic church called the Palmarian Church. They even have their own Pope.

The woman involved is Ambra Vidal, the curator of the Guggenheim, who helped Edmond put together the presentation. She’s currently engaged to Prince Julian of Spain (and the King is on his deathbed). Kirsch invites Langdon to the presentation and even includes one of his old professor’s lectures as part of it. 

But his actual discovery is not revealed due to his death. Fearing that this was a move by the church to keep the discovery from happening, Langdon and Vidal head out on a quest to release the information to the world. Aiding them is one of Edmond’s greatest creations, an artificial intelligence named Winston.

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Read original review on: www.bleedingcool.com