Origin, by J. A. Konrath

I'll admit it, I read this book mainly because I thought the cover was cool.  It's the first time I've seen an animated cover--something that's only possible with e-books--and this book is only available as the e-book.  In addition to the cover, I loved the concept:  the U.S. government digs up Satan and keeps him in a secret government lab for a hundred years.  How can you not want to read that story?

So I downloaded the sample--the biggest and most overlooked advantage to e-books, in my opinion--and started reading.  J. A. Konrath is a good writer and that was apparent from the beginning.  After the sample, I was hooked so I pressed my finger on "Buy Now," shelled out $3.99 (seriously, I spend more going to Starbucks for a coffee and pumpkin bread) and kept reading.  My new Kindle Paperwhite even started the new full version where I'd left off in the sample (my 2nd gen Kindle didn't do this).

J. A. Konrath is a big proponent of amazon and e-readers on his blog, and so am I.  Embrace the future because it's not going away.

So what about the book?  I loved it!  The mystery of finding Satan was a great hook and kept me interested during the set-up and all the character introductions.  At first I thought there were too many characters, but Konrath made them all important and made it work.  He went deeper into the two main characters and even developed a love story between them.  The book was too short and moved too quickly to develop the love story more, but that was fine because I was reading it for the story of Satan, not the love story.

One thing I really liked about Origin was that the plot had a great pace and maintained suspense throughout.  I attribute this not only to Konrath's skill as a writer but also his adherence to the standard plot structure:  set-up, response, attack & resolution.  It's such a pleasure to see a story that follows the time-tested structure for suspense and then executes on it.

Other things I liked about the book:  the humor and creepiness.  Konrath injects a fair amount of humor into the story and it works.  But he also wanted to create a horror thriller, and he did this well with the beast's behavior and speech.  I loved how the beast talked, drawing out certain syllables in a creepy manner.

Origin is a great example of what is possible with e-books and Amazon.  This book was never published as a paper book but it should have been.  It's also good enough to be made into a movie, and hopefully it will be one someday.  I know I'll go shell out $15 to see it!