Origin by Dan Brown

The latest by Dan Brown in his Robert Langdon series Origin has been long time in coming from the time the publishers announced the pre-booking in January.

This book like all others in the series follow the similar pattern – Robert Langdon finds himself in a tight place being almost accused of a murder and traverses across cities, sometimes countries, racing a clue to unravel the mystery. So does this book in the quest of answering the basic questions : “Where do we come from? Where are we going?” Hence, the name Origin.

This time the thriller relies less on human ingenuity alone, there is a blanket of technology from the beginning to the end; not surprising given the fact that technology is encompassing in all aspects of life around us.

Now, Dan Brown is not Ishiguro – he is not a literary genius in the sense of Shakespeare, but I do confess that I have read all his books and once I start reading him I cannot put down. It just took me two late nights and little more surplus hours to finish the 450 plus pages suspense drama. He has a racy style, the thrill of chase gets translated through words, though this book was a little bit of muddle in the second half and probably could be 50 pages or so less. But what he is good at is linking religion, mythology with science of facts, symbols and codes. And I absolutely love his cultural connect – the way he describes architecture, art sometimes music that one is transported to the place itself and makes you want to visit.

So all Dan Brown fans do pick up the book if you do not want to miss the additional chapter in Robert Langdon series. To others, read it for beautiful journey through Spain.

Human creativity has different manifestations and Dan Brown’s signature style is just one of many. Godspeed!