Rating: 
Summary: Plan 9 of Technothrillers
Review: I admit I read the entire book - the gaffes and moronic twists were so hysterical I just couldn't keep myself from being curious to find how far the author manages to go on the path from illiterate to silly to totally ludicrous.It is painfully obvious that author's IQ is not 170. It's not even above 70 - and his book, on the face of it, is insulting to intelligence of readers. Any literate person (and I don't mean computer geeks!) would find his description of the basic backround (i.e. cryptography and computer security) totally off the mark (like, confusing public-key crypto with public domain software (such as PGP), missing the fact that absolutely unbreakable cyphers are well-known (one-time pads), confusing worms with trojan horses, ad infinitum). I nearly laughed my lungs off reading his pathetic description of a firewall (X-eleven filters are corroding!!!!! FTP is falling!!! Hackers are circling like EFF sharks!!! Worm is eating the access filters!!!) His characters are so flat that even comic strips would be ashamed to use them. Dan Brown seems to be a one-plot writer: the scheme is exactly the same as in Da Vinci Code ("perfect" female and academic male go through chained trivial puzzles while a hero which seems to be an incarnation of all the Right Stuff turns out to be the villain employing a bodily deficient killer). The NSA employees are behaving like moronic adolescents (_all_ of them, including the Director, who seems only to be capable of pretending to be the alpha gorilla). I'm wondering if his supposed anonymous NSA consultants credited in the preface were just teenage pranksters. In any case, Mr. Brown has no more clue about how government bodies work than about cryptography, or just about anything (including chemistry ("poisonous silicon smoke!"), history, geography, languages, or, well, computers). Especially jarring are his incessant slurs about Electronic Frontier Foundation. Just becaue of those, Mr. Brown got my nomination for the title of jerk of the month. The whole book reads like a storyboard for a bad Hollywood movie; so I'm confident he is going to bag a movie deal - this book is a perfect match for their disdain of the intelligence of their audience. Add one to the pile of cinematic crap. My advice - save the time and money. This book is pure undiluted junk by an inept Eco or Stephenson wannabe. Well, unless you are looking for the printed equivalent of Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Rating: 
Summary: Not nearly as good as DaVinci Code
Review: After reading (and being delighted with) The DaVinci Code, I picked this one up. I was slightly disappointed with it. The characters were not that well-developed, the plot was slightly unbelivable, and the ending was completely ridiculous. If you're looking for an entertaining read that isn't very deep I'd recommend this. It's written okay but with very little research. However, if you are looking for the mental stimulation and excitement of the DaVinci code skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: Inconsistant, unbelievable characters
Review: The story would be better if the characters were consistant and believable. I didn't like the development of characters Susan or her boss, Strathmore (two of the main characters). Susan, supposedly a strong and intelligent woman as well as highly respected in the NSA, becomes a weak idiot when faced with a crisis? She and Strathmore are inconsistant in their words and behavior and that ruins the book. Strathmore, also highly respected in the NSA (Susan's boss) supposedly is extremely intelligent, at the top of the NSA hierachy, and has a secret crush on Susan and thus is allowing his marriage of thirty years to dissolve? Susan has NO IDEA about this until she becomes involved in this current crisis. Strathmore sends David, Susan's love, on a mission hoping he is killed so they can be together? His secret password is "Susan"? Pleeeaaase! Also Susan, a professional, intelligent, strong, respected, secure woman becomes a sniveling air-head when her boyfriend has to leave on an important mission and disrupts their romantic weekend plans. UGH! Stupid ideas and inconsistant character traits. If the characters were more realistic and believable the story could have been excellent. But as it is, the story is only good. I read this after "DaVinci code" and was disappointed. At least Dan Brown has gotten better -- I though DaVinci Code was excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Too Many Little Things
Review: First, let me say that I have read Dan Brown before and enjoyed it greatly. The first book I read of his was The Da Vinci Code, which was an excellent book. I appreciated Angels and Demons as well. However, this book was a major let down when I read it. The other books of his focused much less on technology although there was certainly some. However, it seems that he never really had a grasp on it. Technology is the source of most of the flaws in the book. A few of the flaws include the fact that it is impossible to send a program through text mail, which ARA forwarding undoubtedly entails in the book, bits are not the same as bytes, although Brown misses this fact on occasion, and I found no mention of rotating cleartext, a major facet of the book, when I searched the Internet, and I believe it is probably made up completely. I would have let all that go though and given it 4 stars, except that there are non-technical errors as well. For example, on one equation he refers to bacterial viruses, although that is a contradiction. At another point he says gold is durable, when it is actually a very soft metal. There are other issues, and they really add up and start to get on your nerves. Some of the plot in the book really isn't reasonable either. Why are the members of the NSA soooo stupid at times. Don't they have a 170 I.Q.? Why is there a deaf assasin? For these reasons, and others, I heartily recommend an alternate Dan Brown read.
Rating:
Summary: Good story, poor attention to detail......
Review: A better than average plot, well paced and plotted, but let down by many niggling details. The author likes to include technical and engineering detail but lacks the knowledge to make them credible. We hear about welded ceramic casings, a bus driver "downshifting" from 1st gear, to 2nd gear, a computer with 3 million hand soldered processor chips, designed, built and tested in half a million man hours (that is some fast soldering!) Password protected screensavers are introduced as if they are a new invention only used in government circles. Also, there are way too many plot status reminders. Every other page you are reminded why an event is significant (as if you have the attention span of a goldfish). My one plot complaint was that the Spanish goose chase for a key just seems to go an and on and on (and on and on) until I really didn't care what happened next as long as it finished soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Good openning stage, bad climatic ending.
Review: I am starting to doubt the reviews I read online now. I bought the book because of the reviews. Anyways, the book had good first half. Here the author did ok job introducing the plot and the characters, but after everything else fell like to crumbles. I agree with the other reviewer, who said that the characters were so unreal. I mean lets face it, if stuff that happens on the book did actually happen nobody would be skeptical about the problems. Even a false alarm in an org. like NSA, they check it. I wanted to stop reading, but like the habit I have to finish what I started I had to read to end. Then the end was something to make you wanna throw the book in the fireplace (hey at least is useful for this winter) or sell it back. Anyways, don't take my review into account. Make your own judgement, but before go to your store and flip to the pages b4 buying.
Rating: 
Summary: popcorn book
Review: Great read...it is like a popcorn movie: fast-paced, fun, interesting and ultimately forgetable. It will keep you on the edge of you seat. With the ultra short chapters, this book is paced like a movie and will be a quick read for most of you. the definition of a page-turner.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing Storyline-Disappointing result
Review: Priot to taking on the Da Vinci Code, I thought I would read the Digital Fortress to get a feel for the author. The first 100 pages set up a very interesting premise but the storyline, involving a couple of all too perfect protagonists, then got preposterous; sort of like a soap opera. The plot took the reader down a lot of boring dead ends and the ending was all too predictable.
Overall, the writing was shockingly bad for an accomplished author. By most accounts he has improved for the Da Vinci Code.
Thank goodness.
Rating:
Summary: ridiculous premise and simplistic prose
Review: This is the third book I've read in the Dan Brown series and this book is probably a trial run of writing a thrilling novel. This book wasn't researched as much as his future books like "Angels and Demons" and of course "DaVinci Code" so it doesn't have the mystery and realism that makes his books enticing. The premise of the book was interesting but how the book developed the plot was weak and probably played on the paranoia of sending covert e-mails at that time. After awhile it was just unbelievable. Halfway through the book you'll realize and say to yourself, "So what if the bad guy gets what he wants, it doesn't scare me. The world's no worse off." The prose is simple which I think is fine to a certain extent but the flow of the prose was choppy at times when it didn't need to be. It's fine of the book is describing some exciting scene where action is about to happen but during a lull in the story the prose can almost be aggravating. All in all the book passes as a decent read yet Brown's skills as a suspense novelist haven't developed yet.
Rating:
Summary: Great story, bad writing
Review: After reading DA VINCI CODE, I figured any other book Dan Brown wrote would be great. Wrong. DIGITAL FORTRESS has a great and exciting premise but the writing was horrible. Many, if not all, the paragraphs start out the same way with the same sentence structure. A lot of the sentences are actually the same thing with different words in place. Read it for the story but don't expect a decent writing style. Don't waste your money. Borrow it from the library or a friend.
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