Origin… another from the pen of Dan
Brown. Wish I could be as excited about reviewing this one; truth be told, even
after reading it, I have precious little confirmed idea or thought as to what
to write about this book. I am taking it as it goes, writing in one flow;
letting my instinct rule. The book has both good points and bad points; but
being a Dan Brown fan, I was disappointed. This is not one of his best works,
nowhere near it… the book is well written and all the rest of it; but it lacks
his usual panache. I cant put it any better than that… I rate is 2 stars
overall, not more.
THE BOOK
The book is about a crackpot eccentric
scientisty type person who believes God does not exist; and has the skills and
the intellect to put up a theory behind it. That doesn’t make him a crackpot,
by the way; his eccentricities do. The person is eccentric in the extreme,
which is a different and interesting characeterisation. He conjures a theory
which apparently he manages to prove that God does not exist in reality, and
decides to announce to the whole world in one televised live address, replete
with fanfare, and the proper buildup.
Queering the plot is his decision to
first show this to some eminent personnages from the pre-eminent {Western – but
of course, this is novel written by a Westerner} religions. He also, for some
reason, calls in Robert Langdon for the fanfare, and gives him special treatment.
So far, so good. What is not so good is the building threat to his life as someone
is determined to kill him, apparently to stop the release of the theory.
Further queering the plot is the presence of Artifical Intelligence; this same scientisty
type has also invented a cyber human, a cyber programme that is all to human,
who subsequently assists Langdon and the Queen to be of Spain to reveal the scientisty
secret.
THE ANALYSIS
Blunt : I am not impressed with this
work, though in all fairness, as a work of fiction, it does have redeeming qualities.
Fair is fair, credit where credit is due. On the positive side, we have a novel
of breathtaking speed intermixed with slow deliberate sections with the skill
of a master, which we all know Dan Drown to be. If you can ignore the significant
downsides of the novel, this can be rated 4 stars with consummate ease. It is a
reasonably fast paced novel. It also has pull – I concede that without
reservation. Despite and notwithstanding my rating of 2 stars and criticism,
this is a novel that you will find extremely hard to put down once you start on
it.
The negatives are several, and I could ignore them if they
were limited to societal and religious bias, or even the improbability of the
concept, but there were two problems that are central to Fiction as a genre. The
character of Robert Langdon does not seem to be in keeping with the character
map I had in my mind from the previous novels of this series. That is a significant
departure; one of the reasons is the hazy and diverse plotline, which did not
allow Langdon to develop fully.
The plotline was confused to say the
least, at times not requiring the central character. This is more a book of the
AI – Science - Religious debate than a thriller. Saying more would be categorised
as a spoiler; so just let me stop at that; I have given enough hints of what I
think. The story digresses far from its
premise at multiple points, and frankly requires familiarity of the underlying
culture, going into reams upon reams of descriptive details of art, beyond what
was done earlier. It also wastes massive space in a very intricate and
extensively criticism of Religions in general, a section that raises hackles,
to be frank
The third negative, to me the most
important, was the description of Hinduism, which seemed horribly cliched,
inaccurate and drips with Western Bias, and a very offensive bias at that. Now
I grant that may have been used for effect; it is only a few sentences, that is
all. But the way it has been presented leaves a completely inaccurate picture
in the Western mind. The book castigates Religion – it should
have said Abrahaminic Religions, for the central thesis is “Origin”, which is a
factor only in Abrahaminic Religions. In Hinduism, there is no origin
point, and time is considered a continuum, which destroys the entire concept
presented in the novel. The author has no understanding of my religion, and it shows.
CONCLUSION
Thus, to summarise, there are
significant plot holes as enumerated in the criticism, as well as cultural
insensitivity towards the East. Given that Colonialism died nearly 80 years
ago, high time The West got off its high horse, and makes an effort to
understand us from The East. Do these weaknesses serve to lessen your enjoyment
of the novel? For the most part, no. They manifest themselves in the closing
{the plot holes, that is – cultural insensitivity is only in a very short few
sentences split in 2 or 3 places}; where the novel loses its pull and you begin
skipping pages. But as it stands, it is a good read, though tedious at times,
and is worth a read for Dan Brown fans. For others, your call.
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