The Origin of Birds in the Footprints of Writing

De: Raymond St. Elmo

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Clarence St. Claire is a programmer who cherishes an orderly life. His motto: ‘work is important; people, not so much’. His determination to be The Most Serious Person on the Planet is threatened when he becomes haunted by a mysterious manuscript from his past: 300 pages of possibly random bird tracks. Risking his career and self-possession, St. Claire dares to pursue the manuscript against the opposition of hackers, the NSA, the ghosts of famous writers and doubts of his own sanity.

Lost in a maze of bird-prints and their possible meanings, St. Claire determines to summon the late writer Jorge Louis Borges to help with the translation. He will dream Borges into existence, exactly as Borges wrote of doing. But this act stirs the opposition of a secret order of past writers, who may, possibly, have their own agenda. The duel between St. Claire’s reality and theirs leads to a final encounter in The Dark Library, before the dread conclave known as The Tribunal of Dreams.

‘Origins’ is a book about books, about magic realism and artificial intelligence, virtual reality and languages, and how sensible people wind up in strange situations by strangely sensible steps. It is built of the words books whisper to each other alone after the library has closed.

From the book:
There is a secret society of dead writers who live in the wall spaces between realities, in the silence of empty rooms, in the Schrödinger-uncertainty of unopened books. They call themselves the Tribunal of Dreams. Often they appear as birds. They peek out of mirrors and walk the shadows of libraries. They are old and sly and are not retired. They have vast plans. They have me barricaded in my bedroom and they painted my windows black. They are listening at the door now. Send help.

Great Mind-Bending Tale, Awful Narration

This was an enjoyable little gem of a novel. It's funny, witty, and at times thought-provoking. The plots goes sideways and diagonally in unexpected ways, so it's best to go in blind and let it carry.

The virtual voice narration is horrible, and it's a testament to how good the plot and the writing is that I was still able to finish and enjoy it despite the horrid narration

Go in blind, it's worth it!

I went in blind and loved this story, with all it's randomness, ridiculousness, seriosity, and literariness. The Virtual Voice was a perfect fit for this book, even though it occasionally pronounced words weirdly. I can't imagine a book that it would've fit better. Turns out I need to buy a physical copy now.