Rating: 
Summary: Brown wrote like he wanted to get it overwith
Review: The pace is fast and the plot has an interesting turn or two, but Brown gives those twists away too soon. Also, Brown has a way of having things suddenly occur out of the blue, such as the red duffle bag mysteriously flying through the air to incapacitate the bad guy. If you can get through these bits of "writer's fatigue", then the book isn't really a bad read.
Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent - realistic - speedy - breath-taking
Review: Dr. Susan Fletcher is employed as head cryptographer of National Security Agency (NSA) in Fort Meade/Maryland. On a sauturday morning she recieves a call by the vicedirector, "Commander" Trevor Strathmore, because he has a decoding problem with the NSA-supercomputer, called "TRANSLTR". Therefore her planned trip for the weekend, with her friend David Becker to Stone Manor has to be cancelled. The kept in secret from the public, 2 billion dollar expensive computer, well equiped with 3 million processors, for supervision the internet, evaluating information and cracking each code in only few minutes, is busy for more than 15 hours by encrypting a code on basis of a rotating text?In her office Dr. Fletcher finds out, that the programmer of this code called "Digital Fortress", the japanese Ensei Tankado, who was unemployed since he has been fired by Strathmore, whant in swap for the delivery of his encrypting key, a public confession of NSA about the existence of the supervising-computer. But in the morning the japanese died on Plaza d' Espana in Sevilla/Spain. For saving Takando's estate, that probably concludes the important encrypting key, he sent David Becker to the andalusian metropolis. As a professor of modern languages at georgetown University Becker fulfills all needed conditions of communication For his order and in the past he had already worked for this often as "No Such Agency" designated institution? With feverful efforts of encrypting Dr, Fletcher discovers, that there is a traitor among her colleagues. Who is this person, named "NDAKOTA" and which intensions does he/she have? At the same time, on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean David Becker is on a rapid hunt through the nocturnal Sevilla after an engraved ring, which the dying Tankado still could hand over to a passer-by. Who ist the mysterious killer with the steel-rimmed spectacles, who follows him? Already in his first, from so far four novels (that has not been released in German) Dan Brown in his peculiar art he develops an intelligent tension labyrinth, which leads the reader frequently on erroneous ways. Man aspects, traces and antipodes which look obvious at first sight, are suddenly developping in completely different directions. The unristricted monitoring of the Internet in the name of national security in opposite to civil rights an protected privacy, which are demanded emphatically by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is one of the conflikts. Other contrasts are the economical competition between America and Japan and the history of both countries, special Hiroshima and the consequences of radioactivity. Although from this abundance of information are coming complicity and many motives, additional curiosity, craze for fame, patriotism and even love are weaved skillfully into the plot. With two parallel ropes of action with seperated showdowns, one in Fort Meade, the other on the ?Giralda? the belltower of the sevillian cathedral, the tension of the packing novel increases until to the last side. After less than 48 speed-rich and breath-taking hours the circle of the plot closes plausiblely. In addition the reader is told a lot from the history of cryptography, beginning with Julius Caesar over "Enigma" to the algorithms of the computer era an the history of developing the NSA and the Internet. Beside the author's preferences for anagrams and smearing the border between "good and bad" becomes obvious. Dan Brown's excellently produced first masterpiece is a realistic and intelligent thriller, could be rated with 5 amazonstars and recommended without reservations.
Rating: 
Summary: Check your disbelief at the door...
Review: This is a marginally entertaining yarn if you can think of it as taking place in some sort of parallel universe, in which the history and principles of cryptograhy are very different from ours. In our universe virtually all of what the author says about crypto is wrong. He gets the Caesar cipher wrong. He gets public-key crypto wrong. Terminology is garbled: a cipher has a "key", not a "pass-key". The story pivots around the sudden appearance of a seemingly unbreakable cipher, which throws the National Security Agency into a panic. In our universe there has been a completely unbreakable cipher since 1917. It's called a "one-time pad" (look it up). It's more cumbersome than the more conventional cipher, so it's used only in special situations, but it is absolutely unbreakable. There are too many coincidences. The author sends a boy to do a man's job and then creates a deus ex machina to bail him out. There is a political slant that argues that "Big Brother is your friend, he keeps you safe". Never mind the Fourth Amendment. The author does do a good job of keeping motives hidden, so you are partly surprised who the heroes and villains are at the end. (But even one of the pure heroes trades jackets with an unsuspecting tourist, knowing that the assassin is looking for that jacket.) If you have nothing better to read, this is sort of OK. But don't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: The only Dan Brown I didn't rate 5 stars
Review: Digital Fortress was a very good read, don't get me wrong, but it was obviously an earlier work of the author's rereleased to capitalize on his DaVinci Code success. The plot had predictable twists and turns, but was sufficiently interesting and well-conceived. I did not feel this to be as tautly written as, say, Angels and Demons, but none the less, a good read. Unlike his other books, I was able to put this one down and get other things done the weekend I was reading it, so I must give this 4 stars rather than 5. However, if you like Dan Brown's style, I think you will still enjoy this.
Rating: 
Summary: How about some research about your subject matter?
Review: Terrible. No, perhaps it's supposed to be funny. The factual errors alone are distracting for anyone who has any knowledge about the intelligence community (or anyone who has an IQ above 100) If ignorance is bliss, then this book is downright giddy.
Rating:
Summary: This first book should have been left unpublished
Review: Techno-thrillers succeed when the technology they revolve around is presented accurately and with some respect for the knowledgeable reader. When technologies are handled superficially or inaccurately, readers shudder and wish they had not invested time or money in the book. A classic "shudder" moment is the Model 1800 Coke machine with built-in Electro-Magnetic Pulse in Stephen Hunter's Point of Impact. When you read that the Coke machine can emit an EMP that suppresses sound waves through nearby doors, you just want to laugh. Or cry. You certainly do not want to believe the author's other pronouncements on rifle technology and bullet capabilities. Dan Brown's Digital Fortress centers on the technology of cryptography - code making and code breaking. The opening chapters provide a cloudy mish-mash of half-true and embarrassingly mis-presented cryptographic processes, technologues, and threats. This farrago of nonsense launches a sophomoric plot based on the development of an unbreakable code and the reaction of America's premier crypto establishment, the NSA. The flimsy plot crashes near the end in another barrage of techno-incompetence when a virus / worm / backdoor program blows up NSA headquarters (fair warning - I'm condensing a denouement that, though interminably longer, makes no more sense). A fair defense against my criticism would be this: "cryptography is too complex or too specialized to present correctly, so just sit back and enjoy the ride". I find that tough to accept. First, if the core technology cannot be presented with some credibility, why choose it as the linchpin of a book? Write a book using something within reason, like a deadly virus - you may have lots of competition, but at least you have a chance of writing something worth reading. Second, one of the best techno-thrillers of the last decade is based on cryptography and deals with it brilliantly in fuelling its plot, developing its character, and satisfying its readers. I'm speaking of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which is so much the better book it's hard to talk about it in the same conversation as Digital Fortress. Do yourself a favor and skip Digital Fortress. The author's subsequent books are somewhat more worthwhile, and if you want to see a realistic and fascinating presentation of the value and threat of cryptography, read Cryptonomicon.
Rating:
Summary: Huh?
Review: Based on his past writings, I really expected to become engrossed in this book and hang onto every word. Instead, whole chapters got skipped, like those cat-and-mouse chapters with Becker and the assassin. Cheap trick for padding out the story. This is a book I wish had come from the library rather than purchased from a major discount store. Save your money.
Rating:
Summary: Another cookie cutter thriller from Dan Brown.
Review: I read Brown's other books (Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code and Deception Point), and liked them all despite many flaws and the fact that they were all incredibly similar in plot development and characterizations. This book was pretty much like those, but I didn't like it as much. There were so many unbelievable situations in this story, including the premise that the book is based on, that they were harder to ignore than in the other books. Brown once again manages to make a ridiculous story readable and entertaining, however, which is why I gave the book 3 stars. I don't know if Brown just doesn't have any other ideas, or if he is just trying to stick with what works, but I really wish I could see a different plot from him. As it is, if he comes out with anything else, I'll make sure to read the reviews first, because if it's anything like his other books, I think I'm about burnt out on the one plot that he has come up with so far.
Rating:
Summary: Innaccurate and hackneyed but entertaining
Review: With errors an eagle-eyed editor should have caught (like a silencer on a revolver or a man described as vulnerable due to the noise his scooter made although his pursuer was deaf), plus descriptions of practices in the tech world at which techies (like me) can only groan (the last time I've dimmed a monitor, it said VT-220 on it; I power off my monitor to my pc or let the screen saver do the work for me.) Still, a good story. All in all, a 'beach' book that will keep you entertained but not too engaged.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable Fluff
Review: I did get hooked into reading this book, so I give it two stars, for its "thriller" nature. The content reads like it is science fiction written by an English major who didn't do enough research into the science part of his fiction (which, of course, it is). The mumbo-jumbo about "replication strings" and viruses just wasn't at all convincing. Yes, in sci-fi you need to suspend disbelief but in good sci-fi, that's just for one leap. Every time Brown described the encryption stuff, I just wanted to scream. Then, the characters were one-dimentional, particularly, a couple of the fanatical villains. If you're bored, you might want to read this book. Otherwise, find something more productive to do with your time.
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