Friday, November 03, 2017

Origin - Dan Brown (Book)

Origin - Dan Brown.

Disclaimer: I love Dan Brown and I totally love Robert Langdon, so if you were thinking this may be a rational or a negative review of his latest outing, please look elsewhere and stop right here. Go back to doing what you were doing.

The moment I came to know a few months ago about Dan Brown's upcoming book "Origin" my heart took half a dozen back flips and I jumped with joy of "Robert Langdon" is coming back :). Crazy that the fan I am of not only the creator but the creation too and another crazy friend of mine (Jazz) went two steps ahead in prebooking the book that too a damn good Hardcover :). All thanks to her, I have developed some biceps and triceps in the last seven days of my reading, loving and finishing it. I am one of those people who will not read nothing about a book or a movie if I plan to read and watch it respectively. I had no idea what all this book is going to be. Going by the name I thought it will give us the Origin of Robert Langdon may be :) but it actually answers the two most important questions for the whole of the mankind "Where do we come from" and "Where are we going" Bravo!! You've got to read the book to know the (convincing) answers that the Author gives through the story and that too before the movie comes out. I hope and pray (I am an atheist) big time that they do make one on this. Dan Brown continues his philosophy from "Inferno" which was not only believable I even loved the solution that he offered in that. This one takes the same philosophy a couple of steps ahead and what an ending, I must say. A book which gives me sleepless nights, is thrilling, suspensive and in the end puts a big smile on my face is a damn good book for sure.

Dan Brown is one of those very few Authors from the current generation who not only keeps the reader hooked throughout the narrative but also keeps them thrilled (almost) to the very end. The way in all his stories his chief character the ever so much loved Harvard Prof. Robert Langdon is on the run saving the mankind from another disaster is simply mind-blowing. I find his books Architecturally too beautiful and this one is no exception in that front either. The way he has captured the beauty of Spain is simply amazing. His magical words made me visualize precisely what he wanted to show me through the story and it always happens in the night that too the secret will be blown before the dawn for sure. Prof does gets (always) a hot side kick and some offsite help too (this time I loved the side kick almost as much as professor himself - Winston). If you have read the book you will agree. What shocked me about this book (to an extent) was religion vs science theory, from Darwin to Steve Jobs, he has left no one untouched and its totally terrific the way he takes real names without any issues. But when you are about to prove that there was/is no God, there will always be forces to stop one from doing that and with a clock ticking to disclose or stop some from doing that, it becomes a terrific cat and mouse chase. With King of Spain to the Prince and his Fiance and supreme religious powers all in the run for the secret - the story just keeps getting better. And since this is 21st Century, can Artificial Intelligence be left behind? no ways. Read it to know how he has pulled it off in a damn good way.

Of-course Dan Brown can never get close to an Agatha Christie book let alone getting better than her but with this one, he was almost not only able to keep me hooked to the ending but also I was able to predict at least half the outcome :). With a 460 page book, till 390 pages, I just couldn't do it but beyond that I was able to guess not only the ending but half the culprit too. That doesn't take away anything from him or the story like I said, its totally convincing and a sort of eye opener too. And I loved the way he answers those two important questions we've been thinking for so long. At-least 3-4 times, I had to stop deliberately and remind myself that I was reading a "Fiction", its that good. I guess this is one of those dozens of books that I have read which refers to Darwin's original theory and book which unfortunately I haven't read so far. Now, I am going to keep everything aside and read the Daddy of them all by the master himself without fail.

If you have read this, do tell me how you like it but if you haven't, you have no idea what a good book you are missing.

PS for those who have read it: Tell me, while reading the last 4-5 pages, did you at all at some point thought that he was going to kill Robert Langdon? or was it only me. For a second I was dreading that. Dunno why. Just need to confirm. 

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