Dan Brown is one of the most renowned writers of recent decades and his character Robert Langdon, Harvard's famous professor of religious symbolism and iconography, was already famous before being immortalized on the big screen by Tom Hanks, in three films directed by Ron Howard. Origin is the fifth installment of the Dan Brown series of books that revolve around Professor Langdon, starting with Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code (his biggest sales success); and completing with The Lost Symbol and the previous one Inferno.

This type of books cataloged as thrillers have some points against. The first one is that there is a very extensive production of the genre and a vast number of authors. The second problem, derived from the first, is that it has become a feat to successfully try something new. It's true that, in his genre, Dan Brown is several steps above other similar authors such as Steve Berry or Javier Sierra, but even for the master of thrillers that he is, it's an impossible task to stay true to his style trying completely new things every time. He has already done everything. Or almost everything. That's why the book was quite predictable, to me. Has Dan Brown taught us so well with his other books that now his unpredictability seems predictable? That anticipation that we can make of the actions is due to the fact that there are topics present in Origin that are already familiar to us by his previous works:

Topic	In Origin	In his other novels
The profile of the Assassin	Luis Ávila is in charge of murdering people who know the secret. It's a person convinced to be working as an instrument of a greater (divine) power	That profile brings him much closer to Silas from The Da Vinci Code, than to the other murderers like Vayentha in Inferno or to the mercenary of Angels & Demons
The visionary "villain"	It's not really a villain, because Edmond Kirsch seeks to act for the benefit of humanity. He's a young, multimillionaire, erudite, attractive man with an excellent management of technology and advertising elements	Bertrand Zobrist from Inferno shares almost exactly the same traits as Kirsch, including in addition the total delivery of both to their work.
The 4 keepers of the secret	The transcendental discovery of the book is a secret maintained by 4 people: Kirsch, Köves, Al Fadl and Valdespino	In The Da Vinci Code the guardians of the Grail, the Seneschales are also 4, as the kidnapped cardinals from Angels & Demons, the Preferiti.
The damsel in danger	Ambra Vidal, the director of the museum is a younger woman than Langdon, professional, cultured, although not as much as he, who can not avoid, as a result of the development of the actions, being attracted to the professor.	Vittoria Vetra, Sophie Neveu, Katherine Solomon and Sienna Brooks are the characters corresponding to this archetype in Langdon's previous adventures, although the latter, Brooks, has a slightly different role in the events of Inferno.

The new

However, not everything is bad or repeated. There are several elements in the novel that demonstrate the effort of Dan Brown to renovate, to try some different things. Although perhaps some of these things have less to do with the author's desire, but with the evolution of the current times.

• The theme: it's not a religious secret, although it has consequences for those institutions. Origin seeks to respond to the great question of humanity: Where do we come from? This shows Brown's true ambition to look for a topic that is even more controversial and transcendent than those of his previous novels.
• The role of technology: it has always been an important element in Brown's novels, perhaps more relevant in the two novels that don't include Langdon (Digital Fortress and Deception point), always there, as support in the development of the actions and for that reason he has always incorporated avant-garde technological concepts when writing its books. But now in Origin technology is indispensable, it's at the center of the action, playing a much more relevant role.
• Artificial intelligence: I put it in a separate point from the previous one, because in this novel we are introduced to Dan Brown's first non-human character: Winston. Evoking the Vicky from I, robot Winston is a disembodied artificial consciousness that reasons and interacts on a practically human level, perhaps superior.
• Contemporary art: both Dan Brown and his alter ego Robert Langdon are lovers of classical art and find it somewhat uncomfortable what is now considered "modern art" which has nothing to do with Bernini or Da Vinci. So starting the novel at the Guggenheim Museum of Contemporary Art in Bilbao is, in a way, stepping out of his comfort zone.
• The scenario: important in any of this author's book. This time he returns to Spain (in his first novel Digital fortress part of the action took place in Seville, city that Dan Brown loves). Barcelona, ​​Bilbao, Madrid and Seville are the main stages and we can surround ourselves with a completely Spanish environment: the Monastery of Montserrat, the Casa Milà and the Sagrada Familia, both works by Gaudí, the aforementioned Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, the Royal Palace, the Cathedral of Seville, among others.
• The Palmarian Church: How is it possible that Dan Brown knows so many things that the rest of us ignore and that in each novel he mentions a new institution? The Palmarian church is a splinter of the Catholic Church, ultra conservative, with less than a half century of history.
• Current social issues: I don't remember any other book by the author in which one of the central characters is homosexual, which in some way makes a difference, even if it's small one.

The weak points

In addition to the "repetitions", in my opinion, the symbology present in Origin is not so extensive and, even worse, it's not decisive. The ambigrams of Angels & Demons had a purpose; the keys in the works of Da Vinci and the references to his work, connected some tracks with others. In my opinion, at the level of symbols and how the plot emerges from them, The Lost Symbol is superior to the other books in the series. But in this last installment, the symbology is scarce and almost accessory. On the other hand, the vertigo of the fight against the clock, I didn't feel it in this novel. The style of Dan Brown of course that catches and one wants to continue reading more and more, but the urgency wasn't as pressing as for example before the threat of the anti-matter bomb in Angels & Demons.

My opinion

Origin then it's, for me, a thriller of first order for the genre lovers and for those who know little of the work of the author; but it leaves a disappointment flavorless for those of us who have followed the path of Dan Brown from the beginning. It doesn't disappoint because it's a bad book. It's disappointing because each novel is expected to be superior to the previous ones and this is not really his best work. Although of course, it's worth asking: is it possible to overcome oneself every time? The truth is that, despite the predictability of certain turns and the repetition of certain archetypes, the core of the story, the secret about Where do we come from? Where are we going? it's a step further in the increasingly challenging questions of his books. What leads us, with anxiety, to the real question: after considering the humanity of Jesus Christ, the solution to the imminent extinction of humanity, or the origin and future of the human race, what else remains to be answered? What other question exists beyond these? All that translates to: What will he write now? I guess time will tell.