Where do we come from? Where are we going?

Wait, this is supposed to be a review and not one of those “meaning of life” lectures by your friendly looking next door neighbour who you would one day bring to a party and maybe after a couple of drinks he turns the entire occasion into a philosophical discourse to bring home some sense to you[I just came here to drink and dance good Sir].

I have been a huge fan of Dan brown’s books since my school days. My first encounter with them was in 9^th grade, when one of my friends was carrying “Da Vinci Code” to school and I saw him sifting through those pages during the interval. I wasn’t a reader during those times. Books bored the hell out of me. And the thoughts of reading the book after looking at its size? Fuhhgedabouditt.

At some point in my 12^th grade I read Angels and Demons and boom! I was hooked. Then came Da vinci code and the rest of the books followed. In no time I had read all the books of the Robert Langdon series. Here was an author who brought so much thrill and suspense with weird historical knowledge and conspiracy theories while taking the reader to famous cities and acting as the guide to the prominent buildings/places therein. Dan Brown is an underappreciated Travel Writer in my opinion. The experience of visiting the cities set in his stories would never be the same once you go through his books. And you definitely wouldn’t need to ask anyone for what you should see over there.

 After a few years I read the old ones, Deception point and Digital fortress and the experience had been underwhelming. I guess reading the old ones wasn’t such a good idea after getting so familiar with his writing style. Writing style. Yeah he has a distinct style wherein he initiates a story with a game of cat & mouse. Wherein you the reader are always left chasing the story. The urge to be ahead of the writer is enticing. After all you would want to look smarter than the author?

After being disappointed with my last Dan Brown books it took a lot of convincing to finally pick it up after a few years of its release.

Okay lets talk about Origin now. The title is fitting. The story tries to build a crescendo around the  mystical discovery by an “Elon Musk” like figured that has the potential to change the future of the world. Right from the start you expect a lot from this discovery and somewhere along the way you hope that it is going to be nothing but a huge disappointment. From the moment I had started reading the book I was prepared for disappointment. Talk about keeping an open mind huh?

Those 2 questions I posed at the start are what guide the story.

The world has evolved. So have the tools of Dan Brown’s Novels. Expect to be dazzled by the technological advancements in this book and get ready to face some philosophical dilemmas just when you least expected them.

I love that Dan Brown novels are pacy. And still they pack so much of information within. Every book of his has Easter Eggs packed in it. The name “HAL” in 2001 a Space Odyssey is a dig on IBM as every letter is ahead of the letter in “IBM” (Stanley Kubrick you are way outta line Sir). FedEx logo has an arrow hiding in plain sight. These were enough to tickle the quiz nerd within me. 

Halfway through the book I had made up my mind that it is a 2, at the most 3 star book. Don’t wanna give it all away now so do expect the ending to be worth the trouble.

Need an itinerary for Barcelona and Bilbao? Origin is your go to book.

Just one more question. Does anyone know what the age of Langdon is? Because if Hirsch was his student and he is 40 y/o then Langdon better not be doing those manoeuvres.

Thanks for sticking by.

Until next time.

-Manvendra