In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
-------------------------- Genesis 1:1
Where did God come from? And if we decide this to be
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
-------------------------- Genesis 1:1
Where did God come from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and decide that the origin of the universe is an unanswerable question?
--------------------------Carl Sagan
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
----------------------- Paul Gauguin
Langdon's fifth outing to the world questions the origin of life and future of mankind, and promises exciting answers to these questions that will shake the foundation of the world... Whether the impact of these shakes is a 1 or a 10 is for you to decide!
Surprisingly, Mr Brown doesn't kill anyone off in the prologue, instead he opens the story with a rather interesting meeting between Edmond Kirsch, a billionaire/ inventor/ futurist/ celebrity and above all, a devote atheist, and three well respected religious leaders from three different faiths. Kirsch shares a presentation on a new finding with them and these three religious leaders go... [image]
You might expect that the story will take off right after this interesting prologue, but after prologue comes the preamble, or the setting of the stage (quite literally so). We, along with Robert Langdon are invited to attend a spectacular event hosted by Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, where Edmond Kirsch will unveil the discovery that will...
Yea, we get it, It's going to be Earth-shattering and paradigm shifting stuff. So what is it?
Aaaaaand that's how Dan Brown gets you. Now you'll have to read the whole book to know the "truth".
We spent the first quarter of the book inside Guggenheim Museum, and a good part of that quarter acts as exhibition guide to the museum. My friend, I suggest you watch a video tour of the museum or else you will be switching back and forth between the Internet search and the novel for quite some time, like I did.
[image]
We are introduced to Ambra Vidal, the director of Guggenheim Museum, and apparently this book's Bond girl (Or Langdon Girl! Does that sound right?) and Winston, an A.I. created by Edmond. Langdon calls him Siri on steroids and I call him distant cousin of Samantha from Her.
[image]
You know, the one with Scarlet Johansen's sexy voice.
The novel has its ups and downs, and it is probably the least challenging of all Langdon novels, mainly because of moderate level code breaking, easily guessable man-behind-the-curtain, a plot that goes from point A to point B to C without any hiccups, and little too mainstream central science plot.
Yet, Origin redeems itself because of the charms of our ageing leading man, the selection of beautiful locations and epic architectures, and Brown's usual interesting info dumps. None of the action felt far-fetched, and the tweaks Brown did with the usual Langdon formulas were fun to read.
And above all, it is entertaining.
And as to the questions of our origin and future, I and Calvin have the same answer.
I know I gave three stars, but I got so many issues with this one. Starting with *inhales*
The code-breaking! Did you see that shit? Edmond literally handed over a checklist of clues for his password, and it feels so absurd. Even after that, the search for the password was not even clever, but a normal, logical search. I mean, Langdon and Ambra attained the password without any rigorous intellectual brainstorming. What happened to all the brainy stuff? [image]
And hyping the "discovery" was so overdone, considering the actual discovery. Copernicus of our age, Edmond? YOU DIDN'T EVEN INVENT THE THEORY. You took thermodynamics theory of the origin and ran a simulation in your supercomputer! Edmond invented the computer and the simulation, but all glory belongs to Jeremy England who proposed the theory.
BTW, Jeremy England's theory is pretty cool (and real). You can read an article about his Thermodynamics theory of origin here ------>https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-...
And back to ranting.
The answer to where we are going? Dan Brown was hyping it even though he knew it's a really underwhelming concept because EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT IT. Humanity infusing itself with technology is not a revelation, but a simple fact I face every time when my nephews or nieces ask me to lend them my smartphone, instead of asking for chocolates. So, the revelation that we are going to evolve from Homo Sapiens to Homo machines or whatever was a resounding "duh" for me.
[image]
And the whole destruction of religion was a sham too! The religious leaders were disturbed because THEY THOUGHT THE WORLD WAS GOING TO END. Nothing more. And as for the new Origin theory disrupting religions, anyone remembers Darwin's theory? Remember how it destroyed all religions? No? Me neither. Religion has a tendency to...uh... overlook and see what they need to see. And I could be wrong, but I don't think simulations are considered as proof. (Many computer models states that we have a ninth planet in the solar system, but it's not yet official because we haven't found one. Same logic?)
[image]
And finally, the reveal involving (view spoiler)[Winston? (hide spoiler)] I called it even before I finished the first half. I felt it was a no-brainer because of the resourcefulness of the informer and the sheer quantity and quality of the leaks. It was obvious that only one person could do that. I suspected the identity of Regent too, and when Edmond's mortality was revealed, I was quite sure of that too.
[image]
Parting thoughts:(view spoiler)[I think Winston knew the password. (hide spoiler)] Either that or he is a poor planner. Food for thought.
Merged review:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
-------------------------- Genesis 1:1
Where did God come from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and decide that the origin of the universe is an unanswerable question?
--------------------------Carl Sagan
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
----------------------- Paul Gauguin
Langdon's fifth outing to the world questions the origin of life and future of mankind, and promises exciting answers to these questions that will shake the foundation of the world... Whether the impact of these shakes is a 1 or a 10 is for you to decide!
Surprisingly, Mr Brown doesn't kill anyone off in the prologue, instead he opens the story with a rather interesting meeting between Edmond Kirsch, a billionaire/ inventor/ futurist/ celebrity and above all, a devote atheist, and three well respected religious leaders from three different faiths. Kirsch shares a presentation on a new finding with them and these three religious leaders go... [image]
You might expect that the story will take off right after this interesting prologue, but after prologue comes the preamble, or the setting of the stage (quite literally so). We, along with Robert Langdon are invited to attend a spectacular event hosted by Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, where Edmond Kirsch will unveil the discovery that will...
Yea, we get it, It's going to be Earth-shattering and paradigm shifting stuff. So what is it?
Aaaaaand that's how Dan Brown gets you. Now you'll have to read the whole book to know the "truth".
We spent the first quarter of the book inside Guggenheim Museum, and a good part of that quarter acts as exhibition guide to the museum. My friend, I suggest you watch a video tour of the museum or else you will be switching back and forth between the Internet search and the novel for quite some time, like I did.
[image]
We are introduced to Ambra Vidal, the director of Guggenheim Museum, and apparently this book's Bond girl (Or Langdon Girl! Does that sound right?) and Winston, an A.I. created by Edmond. Langdon calls him Siri on steroids and I call him distant cousin of Samantha from Her.
[image]
You know, the one with Scarlet Johansen's sexy voice.
The novel has its ups and downs, and it is probably the least challenging of all Langdon novels, mainly because of moderate level code breaking, easily guessable man-behind-the-curtain, a plot that goes from point A to point B to C without any hiccups, and little too mainstream central science plot.
Yet, Origin redeems itself because of the charms of our ageing leading man, the selection of beautiful locations and epic architectures, and Brown's usual interesting info dumps. None of the action felt far-fetched, and the tweaks Brown did with the usual Langdon formulas were fun to read.
And above all, it is entertaining.
And as to the questions of our origin and future, I and Calvin have the same answer.
I know I gave three stars, but I got so many issues with this one. Starting with *inhales*
The code-breaking! Did you see that shit? Edmond literally handed over a checklist of clues for his password, and it feels so absurd. Even after that, the search for the password was not even clever, but a normal, logical search. I mean, Langdon and Ambra attained the password without any rigorous intellectual brainstorming. What happened to all the brainy stuff? [image]
And hyping the "discovery" was so overdone, considering the actual discovery. Copernicus of our age, Edmond? YOU DIDN'T EVEN INVENT THE THEORY. You took thermodynamics theory of the origin and ran a simulation in your supercomputer! Edmond invented the computer and the simulation, but all glory belongs to Jeremy England who proposed the theory.
BTW, Jeremy England's theory is pretty cool (and real). You can read an article about his Thermodynamics theory of origin here ------>https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-...
And back to ranting.
The answer to where we are going? Dan Brown was hyping it even though he knew it's a really underwhelming concept because EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT IT. Humanity infusing itself with technology is not a revelation, but a simple fact I face every time when my nephews or nieces ask me to lend them my smartphone, instead of asking for chocolates. So, the revelation that we are going to evolve from Homo Sapiens to Homo machines or whatever was a resounding "duh" for me.
[image]
And the whole destruction of religion was a sham too! The religious leaders were disturbed because THEY THOUGHT THE WORLD WAS GOING TO END. Nothing more. And as for the new Origin theory disrupting religions, anyone remembers Darwin's theory? Remember how it destroyed all religions? No? Me neither. Religion has a tendency to...uh... overlook and see what they need to see. And I could be wrong, but I don't think simulations are considered as proof. (Many computer models states that we have a ninth planet in the solar system, but it's not yet official because we haven't found one. Same logic?)
[image]
And finally, the reveal involving (view spoiler)[Winston? (hide spoiler)] I called it even before I finished the first half. I felt it was a no-brainer because of the resourcefulness of the informer and the sheer quantity and quality of the leaks. It was obvious that only one person could do that. I suspected the identity of Regent too, and when Edmond's mortality was revealed, I was quite sure of that too.
[image]
Parting thoughts:(view spoiler)[I think Winston knew the password. (hide spoiler)] Either that or he is a poor planner. Food for thought.
Merged review:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
-------------------------- Genesis 1:1
Where did God come from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and decide that the origin of the universe is an unanswerable question?
--------------------------Carl Sagan
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
----------------------- Paul Gauguin
Langdon's fifth outing to the world questions the origin of life and future of mankind, and promises exciting answers to these questions that will shake the foundation of the world... Whether the impact of these shakes is a 1 or a 10 is for you to decide!
Surprisingly, Mr Brown doesn't kill anyone off in the prologue, instead he opens the story with a rather interesting meeting between Edmond Kirsch, a billionaire/ inventor/ futurist/ celebrity and above all, a devote atheist, and three well respected religious leaders from three different faiths. Kirsch shares a presentation on a new finding with them and these three religious leaders go... [image]
You might expect that the story will take off right after this interesting prologue, but after prologue comes the preamble, or the setting of the stage (quite literally so). We, along with Robert Langdon are invited to attend a spectacular event hosted by Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, where Edmond Kirsch will unveil the discovery that will...
Yea, we get it, It's going to be Earth-shattering and paradigm shifting stuff. So what is it?
Aaaaaand that's how Dan Brown gets you. Now you'll have to read the whole book to know the "truth".
We spent the first quarter of the book inside Guggenheim Museum, and a good part of that quarter acts as exhibition guide to the museum. My friend, I suggest you watch a video tour of the museum or else you will be switching back and forth between the Internet search and the novel for quite some time, like I did.
[image]
We are introduced to Ambra Vidal, the director of Guggenheim Museum, and apparently this book's Bond girl (Or Langdon Girl! Does that sound right?) and Winston, an A.I. created by Edmond. Langdon calls him Siri on steroids and I call him distant cousin of Samantha from Her.
[image]
You know, the one with Scarlet Johansen's sexy voice.
The novel has its ups and downs, and it is probably the least challenging of all Langdon novels, mainly because of moderate level code breaking, easily guessable man-behind-the-curtain, a plot that goes from point A to point B to C without any hiccups, and little too mainstream central science plot.
Yet, Origin redeems itself because of the charms of our ageing leading man, the selection of beautiful locations and epic architectures, and Brown's usual interesting info dumps. None of the action felt far-fetched, and the tweaks Brown did with the usual Langdon formulas were fun to read.
And above all, it is entertaining.
And as to the questions of our origin and future, I and Calvin have the same answer.
I know I gave three stars, but I got so many issues with this one. Starting with *inhales*
The code-breaking! Did you see that shit? Edmond literally handed over a checklist of clues for his password, and it feels so absurd. Even after that, the search for the password was not even clever, but a normal, logical search. I mean, Langdon and Ambra attained the password without any rigorous intellectual brainstorming. What happened to all the brainy stuff? [image]
And hyping the "discovery" was so overdone, considering the actual discovery. Copernicus of our age, Edmond? YOU DIDN'T EVEN INVENT THE THEORY. You took thermodynamics theory of the origin and ran a simulation in your supercomputer! Edmond invented the computer and the simulation, but all glory belongs to Jeremy England who proposed the theory.
BTW, Jeremy England's theory is pretty cool (and real). You can read an article about his Thermodynamics theory of origin here ------>https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-...
And back to ranting.
The answer to where we are going? Dan Brown was hyping it even though he knew it's a really underwhelming concept because EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT IT. Humanity infusing itself with technology is not a revelation, but a simple fact I face every time when my nephews or nieces ask me to lend them my smartphone, instead of asking for chocolates. So, the revelation that we are going to evolve from Homo Sapiens to Homo machines or whatever was a resounding "duh" for me.
[image]
And the whole destruction of religion was a sham too! The religious leaders were disturbed because THEY THOUGHT THE WORLD WAS GOING TO END. Nothing more. And as for the new Origin theory disrupting religions, any...more
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