Origin

At long last, the completion of my Langdon-A-Thon

Oh, Daniel. I missed you greatly. Then, you come back with this. Look, I’m not saying you’re losing your edge, not at all. It’s just that… Well, this kinda sucked. Not terrible by any means, but it’s not that good. You were definitely writing for the movie and not for the book, which is a shame.

So, let’s talk about it. Origin is the fifth installment in the Robert Langdon series, which is much beloved by me and dozens of other people. Dozens! The book begins with Edmond Kirsch, futurist and philanthropist, telling the leaders of three big religious groups that he has made a huge discovery about the origin of our species. He tells them and they’re like “Nah dude you can’t say that,” then he’s like “Well, I’m gonna,” and they’re like “Not a good idea bruh.”

Enter our debonair hero, Robert “The Dolphin” Langdon.

Our porpoise friend is invited to Kirsch’s presentation at the Guggenheim where he will announce his discovery of “Where did we come from and where are we going?” (It’s the big theme of the book, so remember that). Of course, Langdon is too busy being upset at modern art to care initially. The presentation begins and Kirsch says “Yo religion is bad and science is good so bye bye religion”. He’s about to reveal his answers when-

BLAM. Shot and killed right on stage.

Everyone is like “Oh shit!” and runs out. Langdon is accompanied by the beautiful curator of the Guggenheim, Ambra Vidal. They loot Kirsch’s corpse and steals his phone so they can release his findings. They meet Winston, his personal phone companion (think Jarvis from Iron Man, you know what, think Kirsch as Iron Man and this makes much more sense).

A majority of the book takes place in Spain, so it’s a really nice change of pace from our previous entries where it was just Italy and France. Of course, there are long winded passages about art and architecture, but that’s why we love Dan, right?

The ending is bonkers. I won’t go into it here, you need to read it to fully experience the bonkersness. Brown doesn’t jump the shark here, he jumps the megalodon. Seriously, it was the only time I read a Dan Brown book and was very disappointed and dumbstruck at the end.

The ride was fun, but I’m annoyed I paid full price for admission. I don’t go into D-Brizzle expecting perfection or high art so I got what I wanted. Also, it’s WAY too long. Over 600 pages! Overall, it’s a 3/5 or 7/10. I definitely recommend checking it out because, duh, Dan Brown.

So, that brings a close to my Langdon-A-Thon. I love Dan Brown so much. He’s the cool uncle we all wish we had. Expect a return to the marathon when he releases a sixth book, which he is apparently researching in Scandinavia!

Book image from Amazon