Digital Fortress

carl67lp writes "With all the hype surrounding Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, I decided to travel to the bookstore to purchase the novel. However, while looking at the "New in Paperback" section, I happened across Brown's Digital Fortress and read the back cover quickly. It was exactly what I was looking for: a thriller with science (mathematics and cryptography), technology (a 3-million processor supercomputer), and intrigue. I devoured the nearly-400-page book in less than two days. But I left feeling a bit disappointed when looking back on the overall picture." Read on for Anderson's reasoning. Digital Fortress: A Thriller author Dan Brown pages 384 publisher Griffin Trade Paperback rating 7 out of 10 reviewer Carl Anderson ISBN 0312263120 summary An excellent, if slightly flawed, exploration into the world of government cryptography and those who try to defeat it

The premise

The first page ("Prologue") is enough to draw you right in. A Japanese man in Seville, Spain, is dying, and in his last act he attempts to communicate with fellow tourists. We immediately wonder, What is he trying to say? How does this relate to the premise of the book?

Flipping the page literally flips across the Atlantic Ocean, to the National Security Agency (NSA) and to beautiful, intelligent Susan Fletcher, head cryptographer at the NSA. She is involved with a university language professor named David Becker--a man who will figure deeply into the story.

A mysterious phone call sends David to Spain and a phone call from Susan's boss, Commander Strathmore, brings her to NSA headquarters. It's there that she learns of a potentially fatal threat to the NSA's codebreaking supercomputer, TRANSLTR--an unbreakable encryption. Strathmore briefs her that a disgruntled former employee, Ensei Tankado, has threatened to release this encryption scheme to the highest bidder. If Tankado does so, the NSA will be crippled--a fact proven by the revelation that TRANSLTR normally spends minutes decoding a message, but has spent more than half a day trying to break Tankado's algorithm.

Tankado isn't stupid--Strathmore says he has an accomplice who will release the code in the event that something happens to Tankado. Unfortunately, Tankado is the Japanese man who has died in Seville...and thus the NSA is running out of time to locate Tankado's pass key to break the encryption before his accomplice can release it to the world.

Meanwhile, Becker is still in Spain, under orders--from Strathmore, it turns out--to do just that. He realizes that Tankado's ring is the "key" to the mystery, and thus he begins a frantic search that leads him from a French-Canadian writer in the clinic, to a fat German tourist and his red-haired "escort," to a punk rock bar on the outskirts of town. Did I mention he's being followed by a deaf assassin the whole time?

What I liked

As I mentioned, Digital Fortress has all the elements that I was looking for. It had just the right amount of main characters, and everyone had a proper place in the book and in the story. I'm appreciative of the tidbits of technical information here and there--mentions of PGP, NSA history, and other such morsels were well placed.

There was also a smattering of sexual energy (although no real "sex scenes") and humor here and there. Who said computer geeks can't have a good time?!

I'm also a fan of subplots in books, that magically mesh together near the climax. Dan Brown deserves praise in this regard: minor characters who initially make you question their presence are brought nicely into the fold and given purpose.

In any book like this, little puzzles and questions come up as a matter of course. The reader is challenged to solve them just as the characters are. In this book, there are many such puzzles: What does the inscription on the ring mean? Who is Tankado working with, and how? What is the pass-code for the encryption scheme? Why is David Becker being hunted down? I delighted in trying to come up with answers to these questions as I read the book, and was pleasantly surprised to see I was wrong in many respects.

What I didn't like

In any mystery or thriller, the idea is to keep the reader guessing as long as possible, through plot twists, diverging plot lines that reconnect later, and the like. Brown does a fairly good job here, but this is where the book has its weakest points. For example, it is revealed early on that Tankado and the dead Japanese man in Spain are the same person. While this is perhaps unavoidable to push the plot along, I found it strange to have this happen so quickly. Later in the book, the author flips back and forth between who could be Tankado's accomplice, and who has committed a murder in Crypto. This flip-flopping is done poorly and leaves the reader thinking, "I already have my mind made up and you're not doing very well dangling red herrings." I had the bad guy pegged a couple of chapters before it was revealed, although I will admit that I was surprised at a particular turn of events afterwards.

Although this book was published in the late '90s, the technology aspects are still relevant--but this book gets some technical facts incorrect, or at least a bit off. However, they're fairly minor and don't detract from the book too much.

Some plot points are just too far fetched to be believable. For example, Susan's fiance, David Becker, tries to outrun a taxi--driven by the deaf assassin--while on a motorbike. The professional assassin fires several shots at Becker and misses every time, even though the bike is significantly slower than the taxi and the shots hit the bike body itself on several occasions.

Finally, some of the people in the NSA seem too stupid to be working there. In an effort to not give away spoilers, I can't be too much more specific than that, but suffice it to say that the "solution" is something that a high school science student wouldn't have much trouble figuring out.

Final thoughts

I tore into this book with high expectations. I finished the book with mixed feelings. As I look back on it, I can't help but feel that there was a lot of untapped potential and some glaring mistakes that could have been avoided. But I'm also pleased to have read what I consider a fairly good book, one that has served to heighten my interest in the genre, and made me even more ready to read The DaVinci Code.

Of course, it wouldn't be fair to compare this book to any of Dan Brown's later works. An author matures as he or she writes more books, and thus I'm certain that many of my quibbles would have been ironed out in future books. I'll have to find that out when I read DaVinci.

While it might seem that I had more bad to say about the book than good, I'd say that the reverse is actually true--the "good" goes all through the book, but there isn't really a way to quantify it.

I'd wholeheartedly recommend this novel to anyone who has an interest in technological thrillers, spy novels, or thrillers in general. It's a very accessible and enjoyable read, and I'm glad I bought it.

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Comments

Not a bad read...

[detritus`]

I read this book about a year ago, and i have to admit it was definitely addicting in the beginning, but after about the halfway point the auther i think tries to outsmart himself with too many plot twists and other such tricks to mislead the reader. Overall a good read, and i'd recommend it, but the newer books such as The Davinci Code are much cleaner and a better overall read. On the other hand the author, while making a few glaring errors, does a fairly decent job of dumbing down all the tech for the average reader to understand while still getting the gist correct, which is a nice change :)

Re:Amazing.

[enderanjin]

Another good book is Angels and Demons. It has the same main character as The Da Vinci code, but it comes before, and seems to be a much better book.

Boooo

[NilObject]

I read the DaVinci code and enjoyed it for it's creativity and it's suspense. I read the first few pages of Angels & Deamons and threw it away. Why? Because they're exactly the same. They start out exactly the same way. Ergh.

So, I saw Digital Fortress and figured I'd give Dan Brown another chance. I've always loved techno-thrillers and I thought this might not dissappoint. BBZZZZZT!

What a lame piece of crap! Anyone at least marginally knowledgeable about computers and cryptology and security will want to slap Dan for the inconsistencies and falsities littered throughout the book.

And the code at the back is really lame. Booo hiss!

Stay away from it if you like good literature.

Go get "Hackers" or "At Large" or any other of the good books if you want to actually like the book.

Da Vinci Code

[gwernol]

I was dissapointed by The Da Vinci Code which I read last year. Brown is pretty much a hack writer and seems to be more interested in a whiz-bang plot than developing anything deeper or more interesting. His characters are flat and don't really develop - the hero of Da Vinci Code is Indiana Jones without the bravery. The research behind the book seems very much like a bunch of vaguely-related conspiracy theories that the author read about and decided to write a pot-boiler around.

For a much more interesting book that uses similar material to go a lot further, try Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. Eco uses the background of holy grail consipracists to weave a tale rich in detailed historical research, amusing characters and that is layered with meaning. You get the what-is-going-to-happen plot and structural and metaphorical complexity. I suspect that Brown may have read Foucault's Pendulum before he wrote Da Vinci Code, because some of the similarities are noticeable.

Summary: Da Vinci Code is a fun enough airport novel. I enjoyed reading it but in the end didn't feel I'd gained anything for having read it.

Re:Da Vinci Code

[ajna]

I also agree with the (grand)parent, and have been pimping "Foucalt's Pendulum" to all my friends who ask me about my thoughts on "The DaVinci Code". Umberto Eco's other major work, "Name of the Rose", is also an excellent book.

Cryptonomicon

[Anonymous Coward]

By Neal Stephenson...

Someone had to mention it - a fantastic book, crypto (with appendix) central to the plot, supercomputers (well, a 1944 model) and a great meshing of stories from two different timelines. Oh, it also has submarines, laptops, EMP weapons and well, it has everything a geek would want in it actually!

I thought the Da Vinci Code was shite - too far fetched. I'm all for great reads, but I got to the point in it where I could see the author's mind gradually spin out into la la land - either where he'd been working on it too long, or just wanted to get shot of it.

Anyways, the follow up sounds like it's my kind of thing, so I'll give it a shot.

I read it. It stank.

[KE1LR]

I read this book a few months ago, also backtracking through Dan Brown's works after reading the absolitely riveting "The DaVinci Code".

It was interesting to read Code's immediate predecessor, called "Angels and Demons", because it was almost like a trial run of the plot for "Code". It had almost all of the same elements - the same symbology professor, the female tagalong who happens to be an expert at all the right things and at the same time ignorant of everything the main character knows so he can "educate" her (and the reader) about it, the rogue killer, a tour of the unseen reaches a historic venue, a trip into the secret laboratories of big science and a lot of preaching about how Christianity has been twisted by the Roman Catholic Church to ensure its own preservation. Not a bad book with some good stuff in it, but not as polished.

Then I picked up "Digital Fortress". Hmm. Let's see:

• Cryptic but incredibly important message from a dying keeper of a "Big Secret" transmitted in the prologue? Check.
• Nerdy main character thrown rudely into a mad life or death scramble to prevent something Really Bad (tm) from happening? Check.
• Female character who happens to be an expert at the right things at the right time but otherwise doesn't do much to help? Check.
• Knowledgeable, respected person who seems to be a friend but really is an Adversary? Check.
• Big mean killer? Check.
• Distorted picture of How Things Really Are Done? Check. [ In this case the NSA stands in for the church... must have relized the Vatican was a better target after writing this book. ]

Overall, very unsatisfying execution of a mildly interesting premise. Since all 3 of Dan Brown's books that I've read share the same basic plot, I'm done reading his stuff.

Someone tell me if he has anything out that doesn't follow this formula. This is why I stopped reading Tom Clancy novels ages ago.

Dan Brown is a Genius

[CAIMLAS]

I've read all of Dan Brown's books except Digital Fortress; I'll be sure to check it out. :P

His writing style has drastically improved from Angels and Demons (at least in Deception Point, which I finished last night, er, this morning at 4am. :P He did a really good job with his character development and personality creation in DP, which I personally think were the biggest shortcomings in the first two books. Deception Point is certainly less egotistical as the first two books, as the main character (as described) seems to closely resemble the author himself. :P

Deception Point might be a wee bit lacking in the loads of information, at least compared to the first two books, but that might just be me getting used to his style of writing. I will say, his overall character setup ("Which guy is the badguy?") is fairly similar throughout his books, if not predictable.

I am continually amazed at Dan Brown's depth of knowledge - if not that, then the amount of information he had to research for each book. Mythology, theology, philosophy, conspiracy, obscure science - he covers all these things in his books, and claims at the beginning that the underlying facts (descriptions of technology, relics, procedures, organizations, etc.). I can't vouch for the truth of most of the facts, but I have done research after reading his books, having had my interest spurred to investigation, and the claims seem to be, at least, overall accurate.

Furthermore, he's always able to churn books out fairly quickly it seems, and his books are definately improving - they're very interesting and intertwined, the perfect stuff for those of us that read Hardy Boys books back in 1st and 2nd grade :P. He's my favorite author at the time being, I might even say.