Some eight years ago, I picked up The Da Vinci Code, one of the most prolific story tellings of all time on my list. A smartly written plot, with the right spices of conspiracy, controversy and history. Writers have indulged in that genre before, but Dan Brown gave the world its first truly mind-engulfing thriller, a writing style that makes people finish books in one sitting. However, my favourite book originated from his pen has to be Angels & Demons, a very high quality thriller, which is more acceptable & relatable than the story of questioning the entire religion of christianity. More writers succumbed to writing similar stories about the origin of their religion, one of the most notable among them being Ashwin Sanghi, the guy who wrote The Rozabal Line.
I have always bought printed copies of Dan Brown’s books since I started following his work in the past 4-5 years. I have so far read all the books he has written and are available in India. Recently, he came up with Origin, a book pondering over the most fundamental questions like ‘Where do we come from? Where are we going?’. Sort of feels like a catch from the ‘Who is John Galt?’ era, but it nonetheless makes an impact. A wealthy billionaire trying to fix the world’s problems through technology, trying to think and explore the vestiges beyond human comprehension, understanding how we incline on faith over reason and why it is more important than ever to question ideas that have governed us over centuries but have remained un-challenged.
This has been a far more scientific take on the world than Dan has ever been involved in, he has helped us understand the profundity of the reaches of our mind, how all the answers are within us, we just have to find the right questions. Robert Langdon, one of the most popular and celebrated characters in the modern era, has not disappointed in his latest adventure. Obviously, given the plot style of Dan Brown, the story goes through a lot of ups and downs for the titular character, but I was surprised to see his resilience to do the right thing, being at mercy to nothing but his will power, knowledge and reason. I was pleasantly surprised to see him being optimistic and curious, and despite all the horrible things he has encountered in his past (since it is a continuous timeline and not just an episode in his life, past stories being lightly referenced in the book), he still is shocked to see people commit horrible crimes. Despite not sharing this behavioural property with him, I perhaps think that is the best way to move on from the past, have a fresh start. This is something a lot of people can take a lesson from.
In all the books featuring him as the lead, Dan has always kept a Langdon Girl, more on the lines of the Bond Girl. In the some of the books, you could sense his attraction towards either the knowledge or the temperament of the female protagonist, but with time he has realised to only make notes, take and give help and move forward. This non-personal stories of the protagonist is what makes Robert very interesting. He is confused, but also very clear headed on his state of confusion. In his outing in the Vatican, he told the particle physicist that even though he knows so much about the religions, he does not know a lot more. He has never considered himself a believer or an atheist, instead he has spent years on trying to understand God, but he has realised that we have not yet. When he was in Florence a couple of years ago, trying to fight a deadly biological weapon capable of mass destruction, he was a half baked character, having lost his memory and then being led around by other characters. In Origin, he looks more in control, paving his path forward, taking up the mission he was not asked to, only due to his own moral compass and deciding what is the right thing to do and not just stay idle. He has a far more important story to tell in this adventure, mostly driving on his own passion to find the truth, rather than being thrusted into a hostile situation.
I would recommend this book to everyone who like strong characters and have cravings for thrilling stories that chew on your curiosity. You need not read earlier works from the author to understand this one, although they may give better insights into the complexity of Robert as a character. Dan Brown has alway been a fifty page guy, meaning he always reveals his plot end fifty pages before the end cover, then lets the reader absorb the storyline as he presents you with the catharsis. This number is very important, lets you finish the book with some sort of a closure. Works like The Doomsday Conspiracy or First among equals leave you on the brink of your seat and then close the shop. These books, even though written very smartly, don’t leave you wanting more from the author. These books have almost made me leave these authors our of my to-read list. I had a similar impression from Dan’s The Deception Point, but then he gave us some of the best written stories of this century.
Travelling between the worlds of Asimov, Philip Dick, Archer and Brown, I guess the world is more complicated than any of them predicted, yet these stories never truly surface in your day-to-day lives. Perhaps these authors are giving us a glimpse of what is to come, what is behind us and what we live with. Perhaps the timing of Origin is what hits me the most, reaching out to the deep recesses within our mind and asking ourselves the questions we always wanted to ask.
“Where do we come from? Where are we going?”
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