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Origin - Reviews Without Spoilers

Reviews Without Spoilers is a series in which I review the books I've read without giving away any more than the inside cover plot summary would.


I'm not gonna lie - I sincerely love reading Dan Brown's novels. His are the only suspense/mystery books I really read. I appreciate the academic puzzle style that keeps me engaged in his fast-paced stories. 

That being said, I think his latest novel, Origin, missed the mark. 

What I love most about Dan Brown's serial main character, Robert Langdon, is how he uses his career as a symbologist (and professor at Harvard) to resolve the strange situations he finds himself in. As is usually the case with the first of a series, I think the first Langdon novel, Angels and Demons, is the best example of this. The other books do a decent job of utilizing symbology and code breaking, too, which is what keeps me invested in Dan Brown. 

Origin, though, feels like it could have existed without Robert Langdon at all. 

The symbology professor hardly had to use any of his cool and cryptic knowledge in this book. So it felt like Dan Brown used Robert Langdon as the main character simply to promote sales and maintain Langdon's fanbase. As a character, Langdon hardly existed in this book as more than a placeholder. 

I think that was an especially poor decision considering that Brown's other non-Langdon books were so good! Writing Origin with a different, new main character could have brought his audience closer to Digital Fortress and Deception Point, his other Langdon-less books. 

Instead of code-breaking and puzzles, Origin felt more like a secret was being kept from the audience. Sure, you don’t have to reveal the next thing that happens all the time – let your readers work for it! But the questions that were posed on page 1 were the same questions still being asked on page 390. Rather than keeping me guessing and engaging me, this “mystery” had me rolling my eyes and saying, “Come on, already!”

Further, there were too many moments of easy problem solving, which was a let down after so much unnecessary build up. I’d rather have to work with the characters to figure things out than just be granted a deus ex machina solution. That being said, I really did like the message we were left with at the end. It was optimistic in the face of seeming adversity, which is the best kind of optimism – yet, the supposed adversity also seemed contrived.

Despite these problems, I still found myself being pulled back to continue reading. Origin was an easy read, and, as with all Dan Brown novels, I found immense joy in the discussions of art and architecture of the setting. For these reasons, I’m scoring Origin at 3/5 stars.

What were your thoughts? Leave a comment to let me know!

Book: Origin
Author: Dan Brown
Publisher: Doubleday
Release Date: October 2017
Genre: mystery
Length: 456 pages, 18 hrs 10 mins in audiobook format
Setting: Spain

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