Origin - Dan Brown

Date of Reading: 11/10/2017

Author: Dan Brown

Publisher: Transworld

Place: London

Year: 2017
Rating: 3/5

        It is a truth universally known that in mystery novels the real villain will never be the one we are prone to suspect, but most likely s/he will be the one we put utmost trust to. Dan Brown novels never waver from this fact and this new addition is no different. But truth to be told, until the very last few pages, I thought I picked the wrong one . . . was almost hoping actually. Nope! That was not to be.
        As for the 'thrill' element, the novel was a bit disappointing. It is nowhere near 'Angels and Demons' or 'Inferno'. There is not much play with symbols either as is usual with Langdon series which was another let down. But the detailed tour of the country on which the story is set with lots of historical explanations will still glue you to the book. Spain was never one of my dream destinations, but thanks to 'Origin', it sure is now. . .

       Robert Langdon has flown to the Guggenheim Museum in Spain to witness his famous student Edmond Kirsch presenting his historic discovery to the world. Before the event Kirsch had revealed his secret to three prominent religious leaders -- Bishop Valdespino, Rabbi Koves and Allamah Syed al-Fadl -- as his discovery will have a strong impact on all religions in the world. They opposed his venture and Bishop Valdespino even went to the extent of threatening him with a voice mail.

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao

        Unperturbed, Kirsch goes on with his plans. However, before the event, Syed al-Fadl is killed by Luis Avila, a former Spanish Navy Admiral. He is instructed by a man named Regent and his next target is revealed to be Edmond Kirsch.
         Admiral's name is successfully added to the guest list as a last minute addition. Meanwhile, all the guests are provided with customised headsets through which they are given a tour of the museum. Langdon's help identifies himself as Winston. Later he reveals that he is a computer program developed by Kirsch, trained in observing and imitating humans.
        Kirsch's presentation progressed well with advanced audio-visual inputs. But as he was about to demonstrate his discovery, he was shot down by Avila. Langdon is shocked and so is the museum director Ambra Vidal as she had added the name of Avila to the guest list at the request of Prince Julian, her fiance.
        Though the royal guards urged her to return to the palace, Ambra tricked them and escaped with Langdon, Winston guiding them along the way. Since Kirsch's presentation is a pre-recorded one, they hoped to activate it again from his home in Barcelona. What they need is a forty-seven letter password which is a line from Kirsch's favourite poem. In another part, Rabbi Koves is also killed by a hired assassin leaving Bishop Valdespino as the only survivor prone to the secret of Edmond Kirsch.
       

At Edmond's home, Langdon finds the outer cover of Blake's complete works in its first edition. It has been donated to the church Sagrada Familia and they head toward that place with the help of Ambra's bodyguards who had by then tracked them down.
        In the outside world, rumours abound as to the secret Kirsch might have uncovered and the reason for his murder. Bishop Valdespino and even the royal palace is counted as suspects. A website called conspiracy.net gives out the details with the help of someone only identified as monte@iglesia.org. By then Ambra had realised that Julian's involvement in the murder is unlikely since she didn't get the request directly from the prince.
        Luis Avila is found to be a member of Palmarian Church, a group of anti-catholics with whom Edmond had a fierce rivalry. His mother, being influenced by the church, had died because of their severe ways of penance. Avila had lost his family in the bombing of a cathedral. The Regent had informed him that the bombing was inspired by Kirsch's speech making him partially responsible for the act. This is Avila's time for revenge.
         Father Bena escorted Langdon and Ambra at Sangra Familia to Blake's collection of poems which is displayed open on page 163 under Kirsch's strict insistence. They find that the password is the final stanza of "Four Zoas": "The dark Religions are departed & sweet science reigns". With the word 'et' replacing the '&' symbol, this makes 47 letters. 

Sagrada Familia

         Avila arrives in pursuit of the group, getting instruction from the Regent but dies by falling off the steps of the church in Langdon's unexpectedly brave attack. Using Winston's self-portrait in Guggenheim museum as a clue, Langdon locates him in Barcelona Supercomputing Centre. There they find Kirsch's massive supercomputer 'E-Wave' and with the help of Winston, they resume Kirsch's original presentation with more viewers in attendance as Kirsch's murder had aroused a worldwide interest in his discovery.
          His presentation claims to show the answers to two very important questions: "Where do we come from?" and "Where are we going?". He takes the failed Miller-Urey experiment to explain the origin of life on earth. The experiment was intended to create life in a laboratory using artificial circumstances, but it ended up in failure. Kirsch explains that its failure is due to the lack of time -- creation took place with millions of years. So with the help of his E-Wave, Kirsch re-creates the original conditions at the beginning of planet earth's formation and finds that it eventually leads to the origin of life finally proving that it was not a divine act.
         He then uses the same method to trace the future of mankind. The computer shows that if things progress like this, humanity and technology will merge together to form a better future devoid of conflict with regard to religion. This presentation was in contradiction to the one shown to the three religious leaders where it warned them of an imminent apocalypse.
        The presentation becomes a great success with debates going on in every media. Meanwhile Bishop Valdespino and Julian meet the dying King who confesses his homosexual inclinations and love towards Valdespino though they kept it on an entirely platonic level. The King dies soon after and Valdespino takes his own life to join him in the afterworld. Julian promises to Ambra that they will start over again and she returns to the palace. Langdon is cleared of all charges. Winston reveals that he will self-delete at 1.00 PM next day as per the former instructions given by Kirsch. Being a cancer patient, he was expecting his death and therefore had made all the preparations.

Dan Brown

        Next day, it suddenly dawns on Langdon that the mysterious Monte who was leaking things to the media is Winston. Monte and Iglesia mean 'hill' and 'church' in Spanish, alluding to Winston Churchill after whom Winston is named. Winston confirms his theory and says that he wanted to make Kirsch's presentation a success and turning him into a martyr was a sure way to attract an audience. So he hired Avila in the guise of Regent. He wanted him to be arrested at Sagrada Familia which did not go as planned. Winston self-deletes himself at the decided time, leaving Langdon to wonder about the dark side of technology.