Rating: 
Summary: DF fails the suspension of disbelief test . . .
Review: This book is readable, but just barely, because it is fast paced and action packed. To me, it couldn't hold a candle to DVC - but perhaps that is because, even as an amateur, I know more about cryptography then I do about religion. Good fiction must be filled with details that are plausible even if they are fabricated, else readers can't suspend disbelief. DF fails that test. Other reviewers here have noted repeatedly the lack of research or depth of understanding about cryptography or computers apparent, but I would like to mention several concrete examples, of varying importance: 1. David Becker, the brilliant professor at Georgetown University in the nation's capital, has never heard of the National Security Agency, which was subject of the bestseller, "The Puzzle Palace", and is frequently mentioned in the Washington Post. How smart could he be to miss a low value Jeopardy question? 2. The U.S. government keeps all its critical sensitive computer files in one central system without a backup, and it takes at least 45 minutes to pull the plug. This isn't how it's done, and it makes no sense that anyone would do it that way. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen! 3. The Digital Fortress computer file is allegedly encrypted with itself - but apart from the assertions of its author, there is no reason to believe that to be the case. Apparently the top crypto guy at NSA believes it, as do savvy high-tech CEOs in Japan. The inability to "crack the code" with TRANSLTR, when TRANSLTR fails to find any clear text, is equally consistent with there having been no clear text in the first place. 4. My favorite: The NSA's big iron, TRANSLTR, solves any encrypted file through brute force, that is, systematically trying all possible keys until it hits the right one. Brute force works in theory but can't possibly be implemented to achieve this level of universal success in practice. The book claims that TRANSLATR can solve almost any code in 10 minutes because of its massive parallel processing capacity. But that means that if the key is extended by one binary bit - a one or a zero - there are now twice as many possible keys, and a code that could cracked this way in 10 minutes would now take 20 minutes. Adding 5 digits would require 320 minutes (over 5 hours). Adding 10 digits would require over 10,000 minutes (over 170 hours). You get the idea - it's the story of the King, the Pauper, the Chess Board, and the Grains of Rice that the King must double each day on each successive square (see, for example, http://www.phy.uct.ac.za/courses/dga/exponent/doubling.htm ). I absolutely couldn't get my mind around this fantasy. I'm sure the NSA uses supercomputers (but less sure they are massively parallel) - but if it "reads" PGP encryptions, it is because it knows how to find the prime factors of numbers that are the product of two very, very large primes - and not through brute force. 5. The book claims the Nagasaki bomb wasn't based on plutonium 239, yet numerous authoritative sources on the web indicate it was. I don't know who is right, but I do know you can't make a bomb out of U238, which is plain old non-fissile uranium.
Rating: 
Summary: Worst I've Read in a Long Time
Review: This is only my opinion, but I have trouble calling this a thriller. It certainly is no longer cutting edge (published in 1998), but that's not the author's fault. The rest of it is. For the first 200 pages, the action moves forward with all the speed of a dead horse. You aren't sure what the point is, and you don't care. What the action lacks in thrills, it makes up for in melodrama. There was one endless scene where the pretty heroine-crytographer is pulled back and forth between two men that is reminiscent of that old silent serial (Perils of Pauline? for you movie history buffs). The dialogue is ghastly and the description is nonsensical. His jet black eyes were like coal? She was conservatively dressed in plaid pants? What was the author thinking? There is a whole lot of disgusting stuff we don't need to know, like a detailed description of the hero's several visits to a filthy public restroom. Finally, if a character is speaking a language other than English, the author should be sure to get it right. I can't tell you about the Spanish, but the German was pretty bad. I'm not paying full price for the DaVinci Code after this.
Rating:
Summary: boring boring boring
Review: You got some characters, you got some plot threads, but every thread is slow, dull and predictable. This is just not clever writing. Futhermore, the author clearly doesn't know anything technical, not about computers, not about cryptography. It shows ultimately, when a writer is just manipulating words as meaningless symbols.
Rating: 
Summary: Astonishing-- a thriller about cryptanalysis!
Review: As a longtime student of cryptanalysis I have always felt that the solving of codes and ciphers was fascinating, but I never expected to see it as the central element in a thriller so fast-paced and "unputdownable" that I literally found myself losing sleep to keep reading it. Dan Brown is a master storyteller, there's no doubt about it. It's no small trick to take something as intricate as cryptology and transform it into a page-turning delight, but Brown has done precisely that. Whatever your politics, whatever you think about organizations like the NSA, you're bound to get caught up in this splendid novel as soon as you pick it up.
Rating:
Summary: Waist of time
Review: The worst part about this book is not that it is really predicitble but that it totally doesn't make sense. REALLY MR. BROWN STOP PATRONIZING US !!!! I think this author is one of the most overrated authors of all times!!!.
Rating:
Summary: Good Research, bad romance
Review: I found this book to be well researched, but it was like decorating an abandoned house with fine artwork. Every turn of the page had this combination of exquisite details hanging on the story structure of a harliquin romace. The heroine is supposed to be smart, strong, and beautiful - and yet she is also weak willed, sits at her computer for hours mooning over her boyfriend. She is the leader of a think tank, but cant effectively handle male sexual harrassment with anything other than ineffectual bad humor. She whines, she ignores the obvious clues to problems, and gets pulled along on an adventure that hinges on the very intellegence of her oh-so-convienently intellegent in just the right way handsome boyfriend. Mr. Brown is so focused on her beauty, in fact, that he includes erronious details that have no effect on showing her as an intellegent being at all. He describes her dress, for example: her shirt is white and see through. She wears high heals in one chapter for emphasis on the look of her legs, and suddenly flats when its convienent for her to run. When she is attacked, its not as a threat to her life, but implies a rape waitng to happen aka: skirt bunched up arround her hips, or the wet t-shirt contest he forces upon her by the steam in the belly of the about to explode machine. He forces you to look at her as a sexualized creature, only incidentally indicating she is intellegent, but never actually allowing you to SEE this supposed intellegence. She is a facade. Mr. Browns work research is extremely well done, but I came to his works to read a story, not a harlequin romance. If he intends to write more stories about 'strong' heroines, he needs to learn more about how women, and relationships, work before hanging such a masterpiece of research on such a shoddy structure of a storyline. I do not reccomend reading this.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read.
Review: I found this book very hard to put down. I didn't emerse myself in the technical details, was purely reading for pleasure and found this a very pleasureable read.
Rating:
Summary: More lame fiction from Dan Brown
Review: Some books and authors get a "buzz" and sell a lot. Sometimes this is because the book is good (Hillenbrand's "Seabiscuit" or Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" for example), but quite often the book in question just stinks - yet the "buzz" and sales go on. Dan Brown for sure is in this latter category - I have read all 4 of his novels (to date) and they all have HUGE flaws and HUGE plot holes and HUGE gaps of logic. There ARE elements in his stories that are good and the ideas could be turned into a good story, but I am afraid Dan Brown is not up to the task. Where is his editor? Doesn't anyone read these books before they are printed? I guess not. If you think "The DaVinci Code" is REAL, then you will likely enjoy this book. If you smart enough, then stay far, far away.
Rating:
Summary: A Total Waste Of Your Tme
Review: I liked the DVC and even better A&D so I bought this one. Don't make the same mistake. One of the worse books I've ever read. Poor character and plot development. Not a thriller--almost every development was unbelievable and worse uninteresting. . I could continue but I think by now you must have gotten my point!
Rating:
Summary: Better, Dan. Much better.
Review: There are a lot of people critiquing this book, and being pretty rough on it, if you ask me. (And I can assure you that if you're reading this, you're asking me. So don't say, "Well no one asked you.") Though the writing is still a bit choppy like Brown's other books, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, I think the quality of his writing is a lot more in depth in this one. The characters are more developed, including the secondary characters like "Hale" and "Midge," and the code in the end makes up for the slow beginning, especially if you're able to figure it out.
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