Digital Fortress : A Thriller

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.

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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.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding first effort
Review: I could not put this book down once I started it. I had noticed the raves this book was receiving, and I have to agree!! Mr. Brown, thanks for writing such an exciting book that was obviously well researched. What's next?

Rating:
Summary: Pure entertainment!
Review: I borrowed this novel from a friend, finished it in one day (I NEVER do that!), and promptly went out and bought it as a gift for my father. This book reminded me how much fun it is to read a great story. Bite-sized chapters, super fast-paced, and mesmerizing inside information about codebreaking and U.S. intelligence activity. Absolute must read.

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Summary: Heart stopping thriller! Any e-mailer beware!
Review: Fascinating account of how our government monitors our e-mail! This thriller will keep you in suspense throughout the book. An amazing read from a first time author!

Rating:
Summary: YUETOSANUTDOMRIW (this is not a typo:-)
Review: If you have been wandering bookshelves looking for post-Cold War thrillers, Digital Fortress is refreshing reading in a new genre of fiction. Author Dan Brown claims to weave the reality of the setting of the National Security Agency ("NSA") into a plot of fiction that begs the question of the line between non-fiction and fiction. Between the context of the story, the review from the "Managing Director" of the "National Security Institute", and the Exeter incident , both the question and its inverse are presented. The Author creates a plausible electronic/cryptographic setting and infused all of the standard elements of an intenational and government thriller. The dialogues between characters is particularly well written, and in certain sections the individual personalities of the characters realistically matches their actions and reactions. The concluding chapters are a great delight as a room full of MENSA minds imagine an absurd level of complexity is necessary to solve a security threat to the point of Jabba exclaiming in frustration, "Where's a nuclear fucking physicist when you need one!" when, in fact, the answer was both simple and right before their eyes. With so much creativity and talent gracing the pages of Digital Fortress, I was, however, disappointed that the Author did not dimension his characters into unique people. The female protagonist was that stellar combination of perfection in physical form and 170 in I.Q. The male hero was both handsome, and brilliant, and incredibly lucky and/or amazingly endowed with tracking skills in a foreign locale. And, the Author presented well several serious questions through his repetition of "Who's guarding the guards?" without offering enough character debate to add to the ongoing dialogue on the streets among the great unwashed mass of that very question. Statistics aside, I have Midge's gut feeling that Digital Fortress will be the next big Hollywood blockbuster and video release. But don't wait that long; you must read it for yourself. [Reader review at Dan Brown's e-mail request.]

Rating:
Summary: The techno-thriller genre has a new ace!
Review: Until now the techno-thriller genre has pretty much belonged to Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton. Now, however, those venerable practitioners must make room on the stage for a new ace, Dan Brown. With his debut novel, "Digital Fortress", Brown has announced himself as someone to be reckoned with in this field. Many have tried to crack the genre, with varying degrees of success, but Mr. Brown has come up with both a fresh slant on the genre and an exciting vehicle. He begins by approaching the field from a different perspective; rather than the tried and true CIA, he has chosen to take us into the mysterious world of the National Security Agency. The NSA, little known to the layman, are the world leaders in code-breaking and eavesdropping and, by making them the focal point of his compelling tale, Mr. Brown also allows himself and the reader to ponder the larger issues of the rights of privacy versus the needs of national security. But it should be said that these issues are never presented as a polemic, but are skillfully blended into the story. Additionally, it is obvious that Mr. Brown has done a prodigious amount of research and it serves him well. As someone who makes his living as a technical writer, I can assure you that the intricacies of computers and cryptography, as explained by Mr. Brown are clearly understood and never overwhelm the story but, rather, propel it forward at breakneck speed. Populated with protagonists you can care about, you will find it extremely difficult to tear yourself away from this impressive debut and will find your heart racing and your knuckles whitening as the story hurtles along toward its remarkable denouement. I, for one, can't wait for Mr. Brown's next book.