Not as geeky as it sounds! (Digital Fortress - Dan Brown)

Name: tommy7

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	Digital Fortress - Dan Brown
Date:	31/12/04 (751 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Read

Disadvantages: None really, little bit implausible

Digital Fortress

With all the hype about the ‘Da Vinci Code’ I bought Dan Brown’s four novels, this isn’t something I would normally do but they were being acclaimed everywhere and I found the subjects of each intriguing.

For fear of the Da Vinci Code being too hard to get into I decided to start with ‘Digital Fortress’. The plot sounds a bit geeky for the want of a better word. The National Security Agency is the USA’s finest secret agency. They have responsibility for security of the entire country so their ability to gather intelligence is key to their task. As all terrorist and other threats tend to be in code format they have built a super computer TRANSLTR which breaks every code. It does this by using the Borgofsky theory where if you try enough codes then you will eventually hit the right one. TRANSLTR can break every code, it just takes time to find the right one but given the processing power, over three million chips, the most complex code can be cracked in well under an hour. TRANSLTR is the main reason why the NSA can be confident of nullify every threat, given enough notice.

A former employee, Ensie Tankado, has a grudge and claims to have devised an algorythm which TRANSLTR cannot crack and has posted it on the internet. The algorythm is protected by itself and he sets the challenge for the world’s top computer companies to crack it, if they cannot he knows that he can hold the NSA to ransom and attract major bids for what will become the standard in coding. Ensie Tankado dies the day the NSA become aware of the threat; the timing is too coincidental for fowl play not to be part of the problem. The only question is who is behind the killing and will Tankado’s back up plans be sufficient to bring the NSA to its knees?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, Brown keeps a good solid pace throughout. There are a few times that he pushes chance to the limit with less than likely outcomes or coincidences but if you take the book for a bit of fiction then it is very readable. It achieved two of the things I find rarest in books, firstly, I found myself scanning the next few paragraphs desperate to find out what happened and secondly I woke up with it open on my bed on more than one occasion!

Brown obviously has a talent for writing and goes into a lot of detail on some of the finer points without ever getting boring. He is able to educate on historical things without you even realising he has drifted from the main story. He mentions that his books are very research intensive and this is obvious from early on.

He has a good blend of different characters and mixes the sub plots in such a way that you are always disappointed when the story switches to another sub plot. There are enough twists in the book to keep everyone happy and the logic behind the solving of the puzzles is easy to follow. The final puzzle was the most obvious to me but it is explained as being more obvious to a European reader so maybe it is written with Americans in mind.

All in all this is a very good read. Probably more suited to a male reader although I am sure females would enjoy it too. Although it is not in the top 5 books I have read there was enough to suggest that Brown will soon by in my list of top 5 authors.

Summary: