The Origin by Dan Brown.

Book Review by Cari Mayhew.

This is arguably the best Dan Brown book yet!

I had been a big Dan Brown fan up until I read The Lost Symbol, which is his most tedious Robert Langdon book.  But The Origin has made me a fan once again!

In the prologue, an accomplished computer scientist and atheist secretly meets up with 3 religious leaders, and there are 100 pages of build up before the scientist makes his announcement public – only to be assassinated a moment before his discovery is announced.

Central character Robert Langdon and his companion, the future queen of Spain, set out to unravel the mystery and make it public.  But, halfway through the book, conspiracy theorists go wild – Robert is made out to be a kidnapper and becomes a wanted man.

As you might imagine, Dan Brown enabled the scientist’s message to be revealed, and this involved a science lesson for the reader.  It was 2 chapters long, and to be honest I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dan Brown’s Robert Landon books usually contain a profound, revelatory lesson, but in this book, the message didn’t feel particularly revelatory, and the nature of it could well be guessed at during the early stages of the book. (No spoilers!)

Right at the very end, however, was a disturbing twist when the identity of the individual leaking info to conspiracy.net is finally revealed.  (Again no spoilers!)

I like how Dan Brown tells his tales through the minds of several of his characters in turn.  It really adds depth to the story, giving insight into the bad characters as well as the good.

This time around, the best elements of the story were told in the personal sides of the events, rather than the main thread of the story, for example in the relationships between the prince and his father and the prince and his fiancé.

Sometimes Dan Brown’s scenes are done an injustice by being described in words when the architectural pieces really belong on the big screen.  Whilst I don’t find fault in the descriptions as such, I found it hard to picture the details.

Although the book has just over 100 chapters, these chapters are very brief, and you’ll likely read them in quick succession.  If you decide to give the book a try, please stick it out to the end!