Digital Fortress : A Thriller

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This book is a must for Clancy, DALE Brown Types. This may be the best techno-thriller since the "The Hunt for Red October." Get it!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent. You won't be disappointed.
Review: Don't think that this is another one of those 2nd rate Clancy imitators that we see so much of these days. This is an excellent book that can stand on its own, and even if you've become a little tired of this genre, you will be quite glad you read this book. Brown manages to make crypto an engrossing and fascinating subject. I highly recommend his book.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT! A real page turner.
Review: WARNING1 DO NOT START READING THIS BOOK AT BEDTIME IF YOU HAVE TO GET UP EARLY. You will have a hard time putting this book down once you start reading DIGITAL FORTRESS. It has more twists and turns than a roller coaster.I predict that it will be a movie very soon. I can't wait for Dan Brown's next book. Also visit the website for the book and try your hand at breaking the codes. Thank You Mr. Brown for a wonderfull book.I

Rating:
Summary: A runaway tech-thriller
Review: The next time you sit down at your PC terminal think about the trouble you could create if only you knew how. Well, Dan Brown has saved you the trouble. Digital Fortress is a contemporary cookbook for all those readers who like their fare crisp and devilish exciting. The author has captured the cravings of a reading public and now deserves the credit. He's simply a terrifically tuned-in writer.

Rating:
Summary: The Real Deal
Review: What a surprise! As a retired federal law enforcement official, when I first read the inside cover of this book and saw that it took place at the NSA I was immediately interested since not that much is known about this agency, let alone write a book about the place. I lost some of my enthusiasm though, when I saw that it was a techno-thriller and involved some stuff about computers and encryption codes. My experience here is limited to surfing the net and e-mail. After reading some of the reviews on Amazon I decided to purchase the book and I was not disappointed. Everytime I thought I had the story figured out, Dan Brown threw in a new wrinkle. Everytime I got ready to put the book down, something else happened and I had to continue on. Brown writes as if he spent quite a bit of time on the campus at Fort Meade. As far as the computer stuff, it was eye opening and easy to understand. I now have a new appreciation for my own system. This book should be required reading for all people going through the CI school at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.. The storyline that took place in Spain with David Becker and the mercenary would warm the heart of any criminal investigator. FDS SGHR ANNJ When you read the book then you can decode my advice to you.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I just finished Grisham's Street Lawyer and it has nothing compared to the tension in Digital Fortress. The battle in the depths of the NSA gave me chills and the chase through Spain kept me flipping pages all day. Incredible final twist. I never saw it coming!

Rating:
Summary: A Tremendous First Novel For Dan Brown
Review: Dan Brown's first book is clearly a winner! His research and background into the NSA clearly shows an expertise of a person who has read more than just "The Puzzle Palace" (Which I also highly recommend.) The dialog is sharp, the action fast, and the pacing, which picks up almost immediately continues throughout the entire book. While there are a couple of deux ex machina plot points, as well as so many plot twists that the reader most certainly will have whiplash by the end, it still is a satisfying read. A novel worthy of Crichton and Clancy, but with one clear difference from Clancy, while the book does have alot of technical details, it does not bog down the narrative as some of his works seem to do. The climax, and its payoff are so deceptively simple yet so neatly covered that the reader will either not see it comming, or will be grimacing and shaking the book while reading trying to will the characters to figure it out. All and all a very worthy first effort, and a good fast yet satisfying read.

Rating:
Summary: Wait for the movie
Review: DIGITAL FORTRESS is a 9 on plot and exposition of the arcane art/science of cryptology, but it is a 3 on dialog and character development. Thus a 6 rating on average. The characters are cardboard at best, on a level with comic book villains and heroes. Their verbal interchange is of a similar quality. However, when Brown writes about cryptology and the real life world that surrounds it, he holds the readers attention securely. There are several first rate literary critics that I can think of that are miserable novelists. Brown, a professor of English at a prestigious institution, seems to suffer from the same affliction. If he could team up with a co-author that is a true "word spinner", the combination might result in a long and profitable career as a novelist. Get the book. Read the book. Enjoy the meat but don't expect dessert.

Rating:
Summary: Who will guard the guards? Quis Custodiet ipsos custodes?
Review: I have read many of the greatest epics ever written ( The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer each more than 3 times apiece), The Aeneid by Virgil twice, Most of Shakespeare's plays, Dante's The Divine Comedy, Plato and Aristotle, Machiavelli, Marco Polo, Melville, all of Robert Ludlum, all of Clavell, Some of Clancy and my favorite, till now, of all time "Shibumi." Once I started reading "Digital Fortress," I couldn't put it down until I finished it the same day. That has never happened for me. "Who will guard the guards?" Nothing could be so true. Dan Brown has created in Digital Fortress the unbreakable code that has been encrypted using itself.(Kind of like building a safe and putting the blue-prints inside.) Digital Fortress would make the NSA obsolete and there would be no more big brother. If you are into computers, like I am, this is a definite 10, must read, thriller. Some of the words are mind boggling. Andalusian Sun, Eidetic Memory, Ciphertext and Cleartext, Pedagogue, Julius Caesar's Perfect Square, Cupola, Brute Force Attack, Rotating Clear Text Algorithm and the best one of Rhyolite Satellites in Geosynchronous Orbit. And after all this there is still more. He gives you a code to break and a free gift if you break the code. 128-10-93-85-10-128-98-112-6-6-25-126-39-1-68-78. I solved it.(What about you?) What a great ending. Oh yeah, dont' forget about the Book Jacket. Nice Touch. Can't wait to read it again. I think I will right now. Thanks Dan Brown Tom Leonard

Rating:
Summary: Dan Brown DELIVERS
Review: New author Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress" has a major advantage over anything Tom Clancy has ever written. Like Clancy, Brown can tell a great story, make you bite your nails, sigh in relief, giggle inanely, and sit up and mutter, "dang, I didn't see that coming!" But unlike Clancy, Brown can do it all in less than a thousand pages. Obviously a subscriber to Poe's theory that every word in a story should be necessary, Brown's book is economically written, with enough tech talk (and explanation thereof) to be satisfying, but not enough to put one to sleep.<P>"Digital Fortress" deals with:<BR>** Privacy issues (should the government snoop our e-mails?)<BR>** Technothriller stuff (an unbreakable encryption system -- called Digital Fortress -- is up for auction, and the resulting scramble leaves bodies all over Europe and North America).<BR>** Old-fashioned charm, like chivalry, integrity (what ever happened to that kind of stuff anyhow?)<BR>** Typical fun thriller stuff, including vicious hit men, wild chases, hair-raising escapes, and a lot of cliff-hanger chapter endings.<BR>** There's a love story thrown in, too. The gal is a little too perfect (more beautiful than Barbie, and brainy enough to make Marilyn Vos Savant look like a dumb blonde) but aside from that minor annoyance, the characters are fun, and no one is quite who you expect them to be.<BR>I read Tom Clancy in self-defense (my better half is a fan); but I read Dan Brown for fun -- and he delivered. This is an intelligent, action-filled first novel from a writer we'll soon be hearing more of.