Origin: A Novel (Robert Langdon) Paperback – July 17, 2018

In 2003, I remember Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code's big release. It was met with immediate outrage. Churches opposed it. There were conspiracy theories, and accusations of blasphemy. The hype tsunamied across media outlets (this was a year before Facebook was even invented, and three years before Twitter struck). So naturally, everyone was reading it. Wonderful, wonderful news for Dan Brown. He had written a book that demanded Controversy!I tried reading it. The chapters were so long, and dry, and I didn't understand half what I was reading --or better put-- I just didn't care. The story did not hold my interest.Then the movies started coming out, and I loved them. But I never went back and re-tried the books.Until Origin. I bought a copy when it was released. I then proceeded to read it in three sittings. I devoured the book. Perhaps it is because of my love for the movies that I suddenly enjoyed Dan Brown's writing, or because of that love that I gave Brown a much more worthwhile chance this go-around. Regardless, I am glad I did. I found the writing so engaging, and instead of reading with the need for a thesaurus beside me, my computer and Google were used most often. I had to look up painters, and sculptors, architects, and locations . . . and I had so much fun following maps on Google while I read! (This, in case you hadn't realized, is NOT sarcasm. I am being dead, dead serious)!Origin is the 5th Robert Langdon thriller (and I assure you, I will go back and read the other four).Symbologist, Robert Langdon finds himself invited to a most unusual event. One of his former students is set to make a public announcement that will rock the world's foundation to the core. Edmund Kirsch has discovered the answer to two of the oldest questions around. Where do we come from? Where are we going?His revelation is bound to tear the fabric of religions to shreds. The known atheist has battled his life to prove that science is what is behind all of creation, and the believing in God is pure foolishness. If Kirsch's discovery is a world-altering as the man is claiming, then the religious leaders around the globe have every right to ... want him dead before the announcement is made!In a riveting, non-stop thriller, Langdon and Ambra Vidal team up after an assassination to uncover Edmund Kirsch's discovery and share it with the world. Forces are against them. The Royal Navy, the Palmarian Catholic Church, and quite possible religious leaders from every faith and background! With considerable help and guidance from an artificially intelligent being, (Winston), maybe Langdon and Vidal will live long enough to show the world what Kirsch had uncovered!As a side note, the actual answers to the two major questions )Where do we come from? Where are we going?) are given, as part of the book's climax, and while they are . . . interesting, they are neither mind-blowing, nor earth shattering (and yes, I know this is just fiction). But I do see how, if ever proven as true, they could be earth shattering, and mind-blowing. (The one question that was left unanswered, and continues to go unanswered is the same . . . which disproves science's vice-like grip on creation . . . but that is neither here, nor there).Origin was absolute fun. I find I am now a Dan Brown fan! While I am most familiar with Langdon (as portrayed by Tom Hanks) in the films, I believe this book can easily be read as a stand alone. So if you are not even familiar with Langdon as depicted by Tom Hanks, have no fear. You can read Origin, and never be the wiser!Phillip TomassoAuthor of Absolute Zeroand Assassin's Promise

From an Amazon book page, an excerpt of a description of Dan Brown's book: "Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science......Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust....before the world is irrevocably altered." Sounds exciting, right? But this was a blurb for "Inferno", Brown's previous book. In many ways it could also apply to 2017's "Origin"(OR).I'm not suggesting that Brown uses a cookie cutter framework to produce his books, but having read all of the Langdon series, I am struck by some common ingredients. So, off the top of my head, I have attempted below to list familiar elements common to some, if not all, of the five books. I would imagine that most Origin readers have read one or more of the preceding books and might enjoy a quick refresher, since it is seven years since the most recent release. Perhaps you will find a few I have missed...1) Treasure Hunt. Coded clues leading to other clues. Ultimate destination unknown. Via whatever transportation is available from private jets to a driverless Tesla (OR) - Brown does load up his books with latest technology.2) Travelogue. The focus in OR is Barcelona but we also get to visit Bilboa, especially the Guggenheim Museum there. I'm not a museum guy but check out Bing Images of that place or YouTube videos of the suspended ferry crossing the nearby river, and perhaps like me you will add it to your list of "Places to Visit Before...." Maybe you would also like to see Budapest's Szechenyi Chain Bridge to which lovers have secured padlocks professing their love. Or Parc Guell!3) An Attractive Woman as co-star. Young, Intelligent, Beautiful, somewhat virginal. No sex, no bad words in a Langdon. Just a few dead bodies, murders and suicides, maybe too many suicides in OR; the last was not credible for me.4) Bad Guys. Not always clear who they are, nor whom they work for. Often not the people you were expecting.5) Action Scenes. Especially ones that will look great on film. How about helicopters plucking surrounded heroes off the roofs of buildings? Not really great climaxes though - OR gets rather talky at the end.6) Teaching Moments. Usually art, science and technology, in OR lots on quantum computers and software advances to improve forecasting future events. Stay with it, very interesting. But also the Palmariana Church and their popes, and statistical physics.6) Religion/Theology. often the Catholic Church is the subject and not always kindly; sometimes clergy are suspects in the most convoluted of plots. But remember that Langdon thinks of himself first as a scientist. Toward the end of OR, Langdon is asked, "Do you believe in God?"7) Treating Readers like Mushrooms. A whispers something to B. B gasps. Totally blown away. Can't believe it. The scene ends, the Reader has no idea what was shared. But don't worry, 200 pages later all will be made clear. It felt to this Reader that occurred at least a half dozen times, and it started to get on my nerves. The good news is that as the end approaches, the reader has several open questions awaiting explanation and making for a certain amount of fun in making "educated" guess as to what all the secrets are, including who is the Regent?The plot of OR is fairly simple and straight forward. A former student of Langdon, a world renowned scientist, claims that he has the answer to the two basic questions that man has been searching for since the beginning of time: Where do we come from? and Where are we headed? (Given that the title of the book is "Origin", when I first heard the two basic questions I immediately assumed that Origin was the first of two books and that there would be a sequel titled "Destiny" But not to worry. Both questions are answered in "Origin". OR are they?) A worldwide presentation has been scheduled. But something happens, and the video with all the answers is not shown. Langdon and co-star must find it and share it with the World.Did I like it? Yes, but.Dan Brown books are always entertaining and I learn a number of new things - see numbers 2 and 6 on the list above. I look upon them though as entertainment, and I enjoyed making lots of footnotes, looking at other resources to check some of Brown's descriptions and claims. Critics love to rip him as a not very good writer but I think they miss the point. Check out recent reviews in the New York Times and Washington Post; they are very different. I feel one critic "gets" Brown and his audience and the other critic.... well, draw your own conclusions. (Hint to readers - don't waste your time going to a newspaper's website and trying to do a search. Go to Google and, for example, search for "NYT Origin review".I don't know if there'll be another Langdon - in seven years? - but if there is I'll probably read it. I wonder though how much longer Tom Hanks will play Langdon.