Getting in lots of reviews while other challenges keep serious writing at bay.
Speaking of both, a review of Anne Applebaum’s The Twilight of Democracy : The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism is coming soon–along with more analyses of current political issues America faces.
Origin by Dan Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
One thing you can count on from Dan Brown in his Robert Langdon series is a plethora of references to scenic locations, art, history, etc. After a while, it does get tiresome. In most cases these settings have some connection to the plot so it’s not all for naught. I excuse these excursions for the sake of tracking the intriguing plot twists. Origin saves the biggest for last but no spoilers here.
As always, it’s Brown’s preoccupation with peculiar attributes of the Catholic Church that dominates. Never having been a Catholic and having no particular opinion of the foibles any millennia-long organized religion has, it’s one more thing to finesse for a reader like me. Like any other thriller/suspense story it’s really about who did what to whom, why and when. Brown dots the i’s and the t’s of those.
The other thing he does differently with this story is to raise a somewhat different issue than does the various Terminator-related stories on AI and where its connection to humans is headed. Can’t say more without getting into spoilers. But that’s what makes this worth reading, even if it’s not the best examination of the subject.