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Origin, by Dan Brown


Title: Origin
Author: Dan Brown
Series: Robert Langdon (Book 5)
Genre: Technothriller, Adventure Fiction

As with His Lady Mistress (Elizabeth Rolls), which I reviewed in my last post, this book was sprinkled with instances of easily-avoidable redundancy in phrasing, which I found surprising given the success of the author and the assumed expense of production budgeting worthy of a storyteller of this caliber. However, despite my Christianity and therefore unsurprising irritation at Brown's continuing use of fiction to send daggers of doubt and ridicule into the world's perception of the faithful, I loved this story in so many ways. 

Since the publication of Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, Book 1) in 2005, I have thrilled to the sense of adventure and mystery inherent to Brown's work, as well as the logical processing behind the works and ideals of his characters. This latest addition to the Robert Langdon series kept up the promise of Langdon's ability to break any code, solve any puzzle, and accomplish his goals with compassion, skill, and gentlemanly kindness. Langdon is a character for the ages - not only an enducated man skilled in science, logic, and history, but also a man of heart eager and willing to reach beyond science in an effort to understand and give grace to a world humans cannot see but often believe in anyway.

In this installment, Robert Landon is paired with Ambra Vidal, the beautiful and intelligent museum director in charge of a show gone horribly wrong. Riddled with danger, adventure, artificial intelligence, stealth, and maybe just the suggestion of romance, Origin kept me turning pages long into the early hours, and the end of the story left me with all my questions answered except one: how long until the next adventure, and where will it take me?

This is a story so richly thrilling, it supercedes errors in production (redundancy in phrasing and wording, mainly) that would otherwise have lowered its rating. Still, Brown's celebrity expects a certain polish on his work, equal to the expectation due his seasoned status and practiced craft. Thus, I'm going with four stars here but only because, as you'll learn as this blog grows, I'm a nitpicky reader.
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