When my friend Paula Mitchell passed along Dan Brown’s Origin book to me she noted that it was a real page turner. Thus, I saved it for the 10 hour plane ride to and from L.A. knowing it would occupy my time. (If you don’t want to invest all the time reading it, Wiki does a pretty good job here synopsizing Brown’s 400-plus pages in about 5 minutes. Then again, I am sure Tom Hanks is somewhere readying to star in the movie that will surely be coming out soon so you can just wait and see that.)
Like Paula told me, Origin is a page turner and I enjoyed it very much. Plot-wise it is The Da Vinci Code Part 2 as hero Professor Langdon and a beautiful accomplice are on the run searching for something. Lots of action, lots of plot twists, lots of drama but no sex. (Even the “big reveal” at the end of the book involves a PLATONIC homo relationship leaving me to wonder if Brown didn’t chicken out by not wanting that to be an issue. I’m thinking that the movie folks may not be so cautious with that particular plot element.)
What the Wiki synopsis of Origin does not convey however, is Brown’s intellectual discussion throughout the story of the whole religion-versus-science-argument. If you are a Church going, Bible thumping true believer, this may not be the right book for you because Brown makes a pretty good case for the science side of the equation.
But if you, like me, have some serious reservations about the whole issue of who-did-what re: creationism, Origin will help you with those questions. Sort of like George Carlin does here in his own comical way. 