Origin

A Thriller

By: J. A. Konrath

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

When linguist Andrew Dennison is yanked from his bed by the Secret Service and taken to a top secret facility in the desert, he has no idea he's been brought there to translate the words of an ancient demon.

He joins pretty but cold veterinarian Sun Jones, eccentric molecular biologist Dr. Frank Belgium, and a hodge-podge of religious, military, and science personnel to try and figure out if the creature is, indeed, Satan.

But things quickly go bad, and very soon Andy isn't just fighting for his life, but the lives of everyone on earth…

©2012 J.A. Konrath (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Good storytelling. Interested from start to finish

First time with this author. Good storytelling. Interested from start to finish. Will try another.

Hmmm not sure about the ending.

The first thing I want to say is the narrator is phenomenal! He is the best part of this book. I listened with my 17 year old son. I was expecting the ending, my son was not. But we both did enjoy the story!

Good story

You will enjoy this . It has some great lines and the reading was excellent. ! Don’t think about the nay sayers .. go listen .

Fun ride, not a brain teaser

Where does Origin rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This was a good listen, fun and entertaining

What was one of the most memorable moments of Origin?

The end, now I'm waiting for a sequal.

What does Luke Daniels bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Voices, he brought each character to life for me w/o hampering my imagination

Any additional comments?

Get this book if you need some fun gross out moments with a good story and great narrator! This was completly enjoyable and will listen to this one again!

So much potential...

First of all, I absolutely LOVED the premise of this book. Very original, and right up my alley. The execution though...unfortunately fell short. When you come into a story like this, you have to take the fundamental premise at face value, but everything else has to behave in believable ways, and, if not, you get plot holes. This story had plot holes in spades.

So you've got a top secret research project to study what appears to any reasonable person to be a flesh-and-blood demon. That's fine. But if you were creating a team to study what may be the living & breathing Devil - the Prince of Lies and the King of Corruption - are you going to choose the most flawed, corruptible people imaginable? I mean, sure, all human beings are corruptible, but does it make sense that you'd choose those already demonstrably corrupt...those that would have the most to gain by making a bargain with the Devil? That made little sense. And your top secret project has no military presence. Okay, fine, I guess I can believe that it wasn't needed with the creature dormant, but what's your excuse after it woke up? You had over a week and it didn't occur to you that you might want a few marines around? Or how about a single weapon...there's not a single weapon in the whole facility that contains the probable Devil. That's a little hard to swallow. And you have a Catholic priest having a conversation with the probable Devil, and he uncritically accepts everything the creature says at face value, without the slightest hesitation? Seriously? You're going to let this creature - the probable Devil of the Bible and the noted adversary of all truth - overturn 2,000 years of dogma? You aren't going to consider the source, and his motivations? The priest has had 20 years to consider the ramifications, prior to the creature awakening...this was a completely unbelievable element to the story. Furthermore, the whole research contingent was more-or-less taking everything this creature was saying at face value. Why wouldn't you assume that this personification of evil might actually be fibbing?

Everything I've said to now has been spoiler free, as it's essentially just discussing the backdrop. What follows is mildly spoilery. Okay, the most unbelievable portion of the story is when the 'heroes' are so concerned with saving themselves that they are willing to put literally the survival of the human race in serious jeopardy. I mean, seriously...they convinced the general in charge of the base deactivate a nuke that had a 100% of destroying this existential threat to humanity, and it would cost three human lives. Instead, they decide to pursue a course of action that had maybe a 15% chance of them living and an 80% chance in releasing this creature that could usher in the extermination of the human race. What kind of heroes are those? No willingness to self-sacrifice. Made it very difficult to empathize with them, or care about them. I kept hoping that they would die in a nuclear explosion. Okay, maybe you can buy some scientists are too weak for self-sacrifice, but the general actually going for it? No way. No way would that ever happen.

Anyway, frustrating plot holes aside, this story did have me captivated from beginning to end. That's why it gets 4 starts instead of 3. I'd absolutely love to see this made into a major motion picture, fixing some of the plot holes.

Good Old Fashion Horror Story

What did you love best about Origin?

The monster

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Yes

Which scene was your favorite?

When Bob first changes and is able to escape his area

Any additional comments?

It was a wonderful scary story

Overall, A Good Listen

What made the experience of listening to Origin the most enjoyable?

Without a doubt, the performance of Luke Daniels. I really don't care for "Techno-Thrillers", but I have a great ability to imagine and while this author's style (pretty detailed) may annoy some...I felt like I was the fly on the wall, observing and feeling each detail of the story.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I wouldn't have changed a thing. Writers write, so readers can read (well listen.) For myself, I felt there were some all too predictable scenes, but the "I didn't see that coming" moments made up for that nicely. I do have to wonder if the story was edited down too far, I just felt the author had more to give.

Any additional comments?

I am enamored by any performance of Luke Daniels. I really only bought this book because Daniels is the narrator. If there are any shortcomings, in the story itself, Daniels moves it along to make up for it.

DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING!

Would you consider the audio edition of Origin to be better than the print version?

I rarely read print books these days, but I can't imagine the print version being more entertaining than the audiobook version. Luke Daniels performance was exceptional and kept me sitting in the car after I had arrived at my destination.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Origin?

The moment that stuck the most consisted of two sofltly spoken last words, "uh oh".

What about Luke Daniels’s performance did you like?

I enjoyed Luke Daniels ability to create and separate his characters. You always knew who was talking without having to be told.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

If you only knew!

Great premise, but could have done more with it

The premise was fantastic, and the narrator excellent, but the story didn’t do as much as I would have liked to explore the concepts the story raised, and the characters failed to grow or learn from their experiences. That would have been fine if I didn’t get the impression that I was supposed to be rooting for them even when they were clearly in the wrong. It was definitely entertaining, though.

A bit of fum with some wonderful scary voices

The narrator was what made this story fun to listen to. He nailed it! Deep and meaningful it was not,but a fun ride it certainly was. Well done!