Origin

Origin is the 5th installment of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series.  However, unlike the earlier books this one had a boring start, mediocre middle and a strong finish.

I have a rule that if a book does not grab my attention by the first 50 pages I put it down.  It didn't grab my attention but I kept reading anyway because this is a Dan Brown book.  In the first 3 pages there was talk about a new scientific revelation that scientist Edmond Kirsch discovered that would upend all religions. For the next 100 pages there was only talk about what it could possibly be. There was no action nor any statement about what this new revelation was. Kirsch was planning on revealing his discovery at an event at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain that would be live streamed to millions.  However, Kirsch was murdered during his presentation but before he could state what his discovery was. As his former teacher, Robert Langdon was invited to the event and witnessed the murder.

The story then picked up as it alternated between Langdon's attempt to find out who killed Kirsch as well as figure out what his discovery was and the scene at the Spanish Royal Palace where Prince Julian, assumed to be a staunch supporter of the Roman Catholic faith, is about to ascend the throne.

This book did not read like a Dan Brown book. The sentence structures were different. The suspenseful chapter endings were not there. There was no treasure hunt or emphasis on symbols as in prior novels but rather just a murder mystery. It seems like Dan Brown did not write this novel. That is how different Origin is from his prior books.

I was disappointed with Origin. While the plot premise was good, the writing was not. Let's hope he gets it right the next time.