Origin is the fifth book in Robert Langdon’s series of adventures. In this particular one, we follow Langdon to Spain, where he is set to attend a mysterious presentation by Edmond Kirsch— Langdon’s dear friend and former student.
As the story unfolds, it is obvious from the references to art and architecture, that once again, Brown has managed to write another extremely well researched book. That, along with his way of connecting different ideas, combines to form a style of writing that is truly unique to him. It is hard to come by a signature style, much less possess one and Brown makes it seem effortless.
Kirsch is an eccentric billionaire. Think of him as an Elon Musk of technology and coding. He is an inventor and with the help of his advanced technologies and complex data analysis skills, makes accurate prediction about the future. He manages to captivate the interest of VIPs all over the world via a handful of words inviting them to the Guggenheim Museum a day prior to his event. A flair for dramatics, he boldly states that his latest discovery and predictions are revolutionary and would have shattering effects of Copernican and Darwinian nature. He claims he has proof that ‘God is Dead’ and the information he posesses would shake and destroy the foundation of every religion. Apparently, he shouldn’t have made such a hue and cry about it because amidst his presentation, he was shot dead so that his findings are never revealed. It is up to Robert Langdon and the beautiful Ambra Vidal to evade the world and find a way to release Kirsch’s presentation.
His presentation aims to answer two questions that we have asked ourselves for eons, ‘Where Do We Come From?’ and ‘Where Are We Going?’ — Origin and Destiny. He says that the answers are distressingly simple. Kirsch is firmly opposed to the institution of religion. He finds the concept of believing in a ‘Creator’ ignorant. He is a firm believer in science prevailing all and that one must not jump to the supernatural due to the lack of scientific evidence at that point time.
There are elements of suspense throughout the book, with a few big reveals towards the end. I think the entire buildup to the answers was stretched and unnecessarily long. In the process of building suspense, Brown set impossible standards of blown minds for himself to reach. Due to that, I was not as impressed as I would have liked after the supposedly earth shattering presentation.
Brown is known for treading the fine line between ethics and practicality, religion and science, for challenging certain ideals, for giving solid backing to religious phenomena. Although Kirsch’s presentation was chock-full of information and well connected, I wasn’t as satisfied. It felt very safe. Being revered and having a large, manic following means expressing drastic views on sensitive topics is like being on a minefield waiting for a misstep that you couldn’t possibly see coming. The downfall to it is that you now have a diplomatic monograph. Diplomatic proclamations are not boring, however, giving the readers that big a build up and then a diplomatic answer is quite disappointing.
Overall, Origin was a fun read, it gives readers a better understanding of an abundance of topics and slips a reference to, as well as cautions the readers of a probable future event. It is not Brown’s best and not something I would go back to. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book if you like suspense, find gratification in being able to predict most of the big reveals and want to add to your general knowledge.