eBook Review: Origin

J A Konrath, Origin

Product Details

• File Size: 803 KB
• Print Length: 306 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Joe Konrath (April 8, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00264FT0Y
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars (450 customer reviews)
• Price: $3.99 (If I recall correctly, I downloaded my copy for free during a promotional event.)

1. Short review:  (Amazon rating: 4 out of 5 stars -- I like it.)

2. Long review:

2.1. What I liked:  The premise and the pace. 
Roller-coaster or walk-in-the-park? Roller coaster.
Worth the money. 

2.2. What I did not like: The hanging ending. It cries for a sequel. And Dr Frank Belgium.

2.3. Who I think is the audience: Science fiction fans. Horror fans. Techno-thriller fans. 

2.4. Is the book appropriate for children to read?  Regarding language and sex, yes. Regarding the scenes of feeding and killing, no. Your call.

2.5. On the basis of reading this book, will I buy the author's next book? Yes.

2.6. The plot in a nutshell:

     Suppose the gov't found Satan unconscious and hid him away in an underground facility in New Mexico to study him. And he just woke up.

     Andrew 'Andy' Dennison, a linguist, is spirited away to Samhain -- a TOP SECRET facility in the New Mexico desert -- to aid a veterinarian, two scientists, a rabbi, a priest, and an army general study an alien being. The alien being looks like Satan: wings, hooves, all the stuff you expect from viewing the work of Hieronymous Bosch. But they call him Bub. Short for Beelzebub.
     All the people in the facility are brilliant at what they do. They are also flawed. So what happens?
     Satan tempts them.
     Satan gains his freedom from his cell. Kills the people in ways I had never imagined. Fights like a demon to escape Samhaim before the President nukes it.
     Andy, Sun (the veterinarian and now Andy's girlfriend), and Dr Frank Belgium escape. Bub drags his radiation-burned body to the surface, confronts them, and expires. Sort of. I mean, how do you kill the Devil?

 2.7. Other:
     First thing I gotta say is that I wanted Frank Belgium dead, and I was disappointed that he did not die horribly. Had Konrath killed him, I would have rated Origin five stars.
     Stuart Woods is a master of pacing. By line and by chapter, nobody does pacing better. I now believe that Konrath is his equal. The pacing of this work is fast enough that it kept me from thinking, "Hey, what about this?"
     I may be mistaken, but I recall Konrath wrote that he is an atheist. Thus, I was surprised at the heroism of the rabbi and the priest.
     Speaking of dead bodies, why is Satan commonly portrayed as an ugly monster? He was a fallen archangel, right? So he should be strikingly attractive, should he not?

     YMMV.

2.8. Links:  J A Konrath

2.9. Buy the book:  Origin