Rating: 
Summary: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? Who Will Guard The Guards?
Review: I have read many of the greatest epics ever written --The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer (more than 5 times each), The Aeneid by Virgil twice, The Divine Comedy by Dante, Beowulf, Gilgamesh, Candide, The Republic by Plato, most of Euripedes, most of Sophocles, most of Aeschylus, Stasinus, Arctinus, Lesches, Agais, Sappho, The Histories by Herodotus, Bulfinch's Mythology, The Fall of Troy by Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Best of The Achaens-Pindar's Homer and others by Nagy, Greek Heroine Cults by Larson, Homeric Variations On A Lament By Briseis by Casey Due Hackney, Imagining Illegitimacy In Classical Greek Literature by Mary Ebbott, most of Shakespeare, Machiavelli, Marco Polo, Melville, all of Robert Ludlum, all of Clavell, some of Clancy, most of James Patterson, most of Trevanian, some of Follett, Some of Van Lustbader, most of Robin Cook, most of Crichton, most of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most of Thomas Harris, most of Grisham, some of Hesiod and Pindar, all of Robert Ludlum, all of J.K. Rowling, some of Buck, most of J.R.R. Tolkien, and my all time favorite, till now, Shibumi by Trevanian.
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 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 - 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. If you don't break the code, in my opinion, you didn't really finish the book. 128-10-93-85-10-128-98-112-6-6-25-126-39-1-68-78. I solved it. (Did you?) What a great ending. Oh yeah, don't forget about the Book Jacket on the Hardbound cover. Nice touch. (I'll bet most people didn't even catch that.) Can't wait to read it again. I think I will right now. Thanks Dan Brown -- Tom Leonard...
Rating: 
Summary: Great E-book
Review: I thought this was a great E-book. Very fast paced with many plot twists and turns. The book does have it's moments where your wondering why these "super smart" agents can't put two and two together. However if your not going in to this book with an over-critical mindset, I think it's a great story. I find the plot to be unique and the writing very witty. Being that this was Dan Brown's first book, I'm satisfied with the value. After reading this, I'm looking forward to reading some of his other books. What is so great about Dan's books is that he gives your factual information in a fictional story. While reading you are being moved along in this story, but also picking up these interesting tidbits about the government, NSA, code-breaking, and other subjects. If you are remotely interested in learning things which are somewhat "secretive", I suggest picking this up or checking out another one of his books.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment
Review: This book was recommended to me by an employee of a local bookseller. I was told the book, would "draw you in" and "keep you in suspense". I was sorely disappointed.
Putting all of my technical gripes aside, I found that the book was surprisingly opaque. I had the story figured out before I had a quarter of the book read. I hoped that I was mistaken and would be surprised with the ending. Unfortunately I was not mistaken.
This is not a bad book, it just was not what I was expecting or looking for.
If you are technical or insightful, beware... you may be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Factual, Fast, and Fun
Review: I was introduced to the books of author Dan Brown only three weeks ago, but have quickly absorbed all four of his published works. It is easy to see why some are comparing the work of Dan Brown and James BeauSeigneur (THE CHRIST CLONE TRILOGY). Both Brown and BeauSeigneur deal masterfully with the more mysterious features of religion, politics, and science. Both bring to light amazing bits of information, which they weave into the intricate patterns of their stories. Both are highly imaginative and write with a ring of authenticity that makes for a compelling read. While Brown compresses labyrinthine plots into brief time periods to provide page-turning suspense, BeauSeigneur trilogy is of epic proportion, covering several decades. While Brown applies the mysteries of history to the drama of "today," BeauSeigneur uses both history and prophecy (from perhaps a dozen major world religions) to transport the reader from the world of today, to the very dawning of a new age in a story reminiscent of the scope of Asimov's classic, FOUNDATION. One other difference is that BeauSeigneur has taken the novel (pun intended and forgiveness is asked) approach of including footnotes in his books of fiction. By doing so, he all but eliminates the necessity of suspending disbelief. Few authors employ such strong factual grounding as to make footnotes useful, but I believe Brown's work (and his readers) would benefit from BeauSeigneur's innovation.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it...and I refuse to be picky.
Review: C'mon people, this was a great read! Yeah, I figured out the
ending a few pages before the characters (each chapter is only a page or two, sometimes less), but so what? Anyway, that plot point is just one of may twists and turns. Obviously this author worked out his plot backwards and it's seamless. Let's stop being so picky about an author who doesn't dumb down his plots just to appeal to mass-market morons. Read it and learn something. All the "experts" below claiming he didn't do his research: I write computer software and while he took some shortcuts, he basically got it right. Sheesh! Finally some fast-paced intelligence and he gets shot down by everyone! For the record, I find Tom Clancey extremely boring and his books are way too long. Except for "Red October" I've never found a single book of his even remotely suspenseful. (I don't even care that I don't know how to spell his name.)
Rating:
Summary: Great! Loved it!!
Review: Susan Fletcher, a cryptographer and her school teacher boyfriend David's relationship is on rocky ground. David's new promotion and old-fashioned attitude towards being the bread-winner has put a strain on their relationship which Susan doesn't know how to mend, (she's the one with the bigger salary). Their relationship is strained further, when Susan's boss asks David to run an errand for him - in Spain. Meanwhile, Susan has her own troubles. She's tracking a miraculous new encryption program called "Digital Fortress" which is expected to revolutionize Encryption as we know it. I really enjoyed this thriller, and I particularly liked the character of Susan Fletcher. (It's nice to see more women in lead rolls in thrillers), I was a bit bored with the parts about David, because I found his transformation from simple high school teacher to 'super agent' to be unrealistic. I also disliked the fact that he had difficulty dealing with Susan's salary, I mean the guy's a teacher for goodness sake. I would expect he'd be used to lower wages! I also enjoyed the characterization of the other IT experts such as Jabba. While the ending held few surprises, I still thought this audiobook was great!
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of dead trees
Review: This could rank as one of the worst books I've even seem. The author attempts to make some grand statement but it comes out as a palsied whine. The plot is boring, the characters cardboard. He thinks by throwing in some buzzwords he can form a techno-thriller, but it is painfully obvious that he forgot to look up what the words mean. I now understand why it was so hard to find, I wish it had been harder. This is definitely a 'B' grade effort from a 'C' grade author.
Rating:
Summary: Not The Agency I Worked For
Review: Suffice it to say that this work of fiction does not provide an accurate portrayal of the National Security Agency.
Rating:
Summary: Are NSA people really this dumb?
Review: I listened to the unabridged Audible.com version of this book, and finally turned it off in exasperation sometime just before the end. I knew the "answer" probably three chapters before the characters. (What is the "prime" difference between the Uranium isotopes U-235 and U-238? Anyone who's ever been exposed to the Periodic table, which should include NSA crytanalysts and computer programmers, could figure it out in a heartbeat.) Even after they figured out the answer, with the clock ticking down to seconds before the entire NSA databank would be open to the public, they stood around discussing it before taking action. Dialog was something like "3? Do you think it could be 3? Hmmmm. It's a prime number. Yes, 3 dammit, 3! Is anyone listening? It's 3! Could it be 3?" and so on for, seemingly, pages. I agree with the reviewer who suggested the author must have been given a page count he had to fulfill. I will not be buyng another book by this author, unless I hear that it's very much better than this one.
Rating:
Summary: NOT a techno-thriller
Review: Don't bother with this book if you know anything about encryption or computer security (or the NSA). The author apparently did no background research in the subject. Aside from the lack of technical realism, the story line is simplistic and the alleged thrills overblown, unless exclamation points count for excitement.
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