Rating: 
Summary: Weakened by shallow characters and incorrect technology.
Review: Dan Brown presents a smoothly flowing tale in Digital Fortress but it is weakened by technical details and cartoonish characters. The supposedly 'brilliant' protagnoists are constantly 'agape' 'astonished' and amazed, and live in emotional extremes. They seem childish and shallow. Technically, Brown blunders when he describes Germany's Enigma machine as a twelve-ton monster. In fact, it was about the size of a typewriter and would have to be small to be used by field units. He blunders again in describing the difference between the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs (an issue critical to finding a secret computer code) as being between two varieties of uranium when, as every scientifically oriented high school student knows, the Nagasaki bomb used Plutonium (see Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb). He fails to make his super computer a quantum computer and misses the opportunity to delve into public key encryption. Finally, his dive into political correctness is annoying. He describes the atomic bombing of Japan as a vile act committed when the war was already won. Actually, most of the generals did not want to quit even after Hiroshima and Nagaskai. The war was far from won. Brown needs to brush up on history and science before staring his next book. But he should try again; his novel moves along and he clearly has a talent for storytelling.
Rating: 
Summary: Great plot
Review: Techies under attack by computer nerd... Great fun.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: This book is an excellent, mind captivating read. The surprise behind the scenes for me, expecting just another mystery/thriller type of story, was the tremendous love story. I absolutely love when an author tells more than one tale. Dan Brown - thanks for the email turning me on to this book, I can't wait for the next one. Thanks again.
Rating: 
Summary: Fast Read, Too Formula, Little Tech
Review: Although the book is an amazingly fast read, it just helps finish the book quicker. The story of the internal NSA conspiracy and the adventures of David Becker in Spain, are completely formula based. The whole idea of "impending doom" upon the intelligence agency, with the only hope being within a school teacher, who also happens to be engaged to the "stunning, intelligent, and perfect" NSA cryptology director, seems all to coincidental. Finally, the "action" scenes that take place within the NSA building are just too hokey. All in all, read the book if you're not in the mood for somethine along the lines of literary merit, and wait for the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Right up my alley. Escapist fun...
Review: You'll either love it or hate it! Crichton technology, DeMille humor, and plenty of surprises. Enjoyed the setting. Had never heard of the NSA!
Rating:
Summary: Better on the outside than inside.
Review: It is disappointing to be so consistently disappointed in the glowing promises of "lightning paced thrills" awaiting me beyond the flyleaf. If real lightning were paced in accordance with the action in this book it would never reach earth. Becker's handy trails of coincidences were about as hard to follow as tracking an elephant through snow while grasping it's tail. And Susan was so predictable so as to be compared with the countless "cookie cutter" heroines so prevelant in recent fiction. The rest of the characters followed faithful suit. The only satisfaction I got was returning it to the library and in the fact that I hadn't bought it. My unsolicited advise to the author is, "Don't give up your regular job."
Rating: 
Summary: Fast Read, Good Story, Thin on Technicals
Review: Let me say that I (as some others did) received an e-mail from author Dan Brown about reading this book and doing a review. Well, I finally am getting around to it, and I must say it is an incredibly fast read with acompelling story, but a little short on some of the technical aspects. I'm not a technical person, but even some of the descriptions (especially describing the hacker attack) seemed lacking and forced into a made-for-the movies scene. And thats a shame because the REAL character here is TRANSLTR - the super-decrypting computer! The other characters are rather shadowy - I never felt much for them, and almost found myself wanting David Becker to die as he had dodged far too many tight situations. But.... as I said, I enjoyed the book for what it is and would recommend it for lovers of the genre for the subject matter, if not for the details.
Rating:
Summary: Ironic techno-thriller, full of moral confusion.
Review: Affective discontinuities abound in this otherwise interesting thriller and, quite frankly, spoiled it for me, somewhat. Outside the difference in objectives and the countries served, I saw no difference between the heros in this book and what I know of Nazi defendants at the Nurenburg War Trails. Hopefully, that is what Dan Brown intends. Perhaps reading this book should, after all, feel like taking a knife in the stomach. If so, the irony in this book is needle sharp!On a technical level, my suspension of disbelief was strained at several points, which I will not discuss here. The careful reader is faced with several puzzles to pick apart before reading down the page. I found some pleasure in figuring them out before the characters. However, there were certain aspects of, shall we say, design that caused me a raised brow or two. Oh, well--I don't know everything either. But these instances did not overwhelm me. What really made me mad were the oblivious a! dherents to a kind of cut-throat, self-centered, utilitarianism. No more on that, though. The author did, however, convince me that he knew something about the organizational processes of the "secrets business." His treatment of internal power brokering in a business where people cannot just come and go at will was enlightening.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!!Maddening when you try to break the Code!
Review: I was fortunate enough to meet Dan Brown at a signing at the Phillips Exeter Bookstore. He is as personable as his book is interesting. It is the kind of book you don't want to put down and you resent interruptions while reading it. It is for the techno-freak to the computer illiterate. It drove me crazy when I got to the code and did not have time to work on breaking the code. Thank you Dan Brown for a wonderful book. I treasure my autographed copy.
Rating:
Summary: Great fun!
Review: I picked up Digital Fortress on a bookstore recommendation and although I often don't finish novels I start, this one definitely held me. The technical stuff was easy to understand and quite cool (I had no idea about the NSA or code-breaking before reading this.)Although the chase scenes seemed a little drawn out, I found I just kept flipping pages. The twist is surprising too. Strongly recommended for anyone who likes fast-moving thrillers.
|
