The other day I was at the library and I found Dan Brown’s book Origin on the shelf. When it came out last year, I thought it sounded interesting, so I decided to pick it up. I really enjoyed the puzzles in his book The Lost Symbol, and I was hoping for a book that had a similar feel to it. Sadly, I was disappointed in this book.
Our main protagonist, Robert Langdon, is a professor who was invited to an event by a former student and friend of his, Edmund Kirsch, who promises to unveil earth-shattering news that would destroy religion forever. Unfortunately, the event ends with a horrific crime, before the earth-shattering news could be delivered. Professor Langdon and the future queen of Spain, Ambra Vidal, need to find out a way to release this information to the world… before it is too late.
I didn’t feel the whole sense of puzzle-solving and excitement in this book that I thought I would. There was some symbology and some poetry to decipher, but there wasn’t as much in this book as I would have hoped. There were some drawings in this book, but the symbols printed weren’t really critical to solving the character’s problems.
The future queen, Ambra Vidal, didn’t really seem to be that interesting of a character, I thought. I just didn’t connect with her. When they finally are able to make the big reveal about the origin of life that was supposed to be so earth-shattering? That was a little disappointing as well. Rather than being an amazing discovery, it seemed to be something that futurists have been talking about for years… and as part of the presentation, the author made jabs at more conservative religious people, which I found to be unnecessary.
At the end, we find out who the criminal was that orchestrated the crime, and while it was surprising, it wasn’t incredibly shocking.
I did like some things about this novel. Since the novel is set in Spain, I like the liberal use of Spanish throughout the novel. It’s used in such a way that even if you don’t know Spanish, you can still figure out what is going on. I enjoyed translating it. If you’re an art lover, there is plenty of art talk. I found the buildings, description of architecture, and some of the concepts in here that are real (like the inclusion of the Palmarian church, for example) to be interesting as well. Even though the overall plot didn’t grab me, there were some elements that I found to be intriguing.
Although Origin wasn’t my favorite Dan Brown book, I think that there are people that will like it. It just wasn’t my favorite.