Digital Fortress Books

Pros: Fast-paced, interesting characters, complex, suspenseful, compelling
Cons: Characters sometimes stereotypical, sometimes felt like a movie

I have to say, I’m quite addicted to Dan Brown’s books. I started with The Da Vinci Code, moved on to Angels & Demons, and then to Digital Fortress - basically in reverse order of their publishing date. (Still have ...

Pros: Great plot and a thoroughly enjoyable read!
Cons: Also a thoroughly forgettable read populated with cardboard cutout characters!

TRANSLTR is perhaps the most powerful multiple parallel processor computer on the earth, run by the National Security Agency, dedicated solely to the process of brute force code breaking. An extraordinary weapon against crime, drugs and terrorism, ...

Pros: an interesting concept, protagonists were well developed
Cons: it seemed that Brown was trying just a little too hard

I have to say that Dan Brown is one of my favorites. His desire to entertain makes him all the better. I have read The da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress, and am now halfway into his book, Deception Point. My ...

Pros: A successful first thriller-novel.
Cons: Thin.

Dan Brown’s first novel appeared in 1998, and he titled it Digital Fortress. The “fortress” in the book is thought to be a code so cryptic it cannot be unraveled, even by the world’s biggest and best decoding computer, supposedly ...

Pros: The crypto subplot is pretty good and the pacing is adequate...
Cons: ...but everything else is pretty much a mess.

Malcolm Gladwell is widely regarded as the author who re-popularized the concept of "the tipping point", that time at which an item or issue becomes part of the public consciousness. Gladwell is therefore probably one of the better people to ask how a ...

Pros: Likeable good guys, evil bad guys, plausible situations, and engrossing suspense!
Cons: Very minor technical flaws; some situations seem contrived

Digital Fortress is an encryption algorithm that cannot be broken, in violation of the mathematical law known as the “Bergofsky Principle.” It accomplishes that goal by using a “rotating cleartext function,” first proposed in 1987 ...

Pros: Good read for the beach or while traveling - fairly complex plot.
Cons: Not up to par with his later novels.

The CSA is one of the U.S.'s most secretive and hard-working intelligence agencies. Within its walls, secrets of all types are discovered and held. Deep in its core lies the Cipher unit - a group of code breakers and programmers whose job it is to ...

Pros: Fast moving, Smart complex plot, some good characters
Cons: none

Dan Brown is a well established novelist, he has four successful novels and a successful movie based off one of his books. I have read all four of his novels and plan on reviewing all four of them. Digital Fortress as I’m told is his first novel. ...

Pros: Fast pace, plot twists, betrayal
Cons: Flat characters, sophomoric writing

Susan Fletcher is a NSA (National Security Agency) cryptographer in love with a language professor, David Becker. While preparing for a vacation together, she receives a curt phone call from David who says he’s on his way to Seville and he’ll ...

Pros: Fast paced, interesting plot.
Cons: Not enough character development.

I thought I’d be bored when I picked up Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress. I’d heard good things about Brown’s Da Vinci Code and I was pleasantly surprised by Angels and Demons, but I wasn’t completely sold on the guy yet. I opted to pick up ...

Pros: Good subject, growth of Brown as author
Cons: Claustrophic action, old plot

Digital Fortress is another code-breaking, time-warping, inside-dealing, insider is a traitor book, with a love story. But, this being Dan Brown's earliest work, you can see the evolution to DaVinci Code happening before your very eyes. There is a lot ...

Pros: Fairly interesting plot, fast paced, easy read, exciting at times
Cons: Poor ending, weak characters, limp ending, not up to Dan Brown's other books

I first read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and couldn't put it down. I loved it from cover to cover. I followed that with Deception Point, another page turner that I couldn't put down. I then got around to reading his famous Da Vinci Code. I was once ...

Pros: Enough nuggets to keep your interest. Love the "without wax" thing.
Cons: Convoluted, ridiculous plot that gets worse and worse.

I heard so much about the Da Vinci Code that I thought I'd read this one first to see where Dan Brown's roots are. Digital Fortress is an interesting book, in that you can learn a lot about cryptography by reading it. However, once it gets going, it gets ...

Pros: Just the right length, a page turner
Cons: predictable, shallow characters, not enlightening

Digital Fortress does not prove to be the best Dan Brown novel he has written. I suppose this is to ...

Pros: Fast paced, nerve wracking, pretty good read when travelling
Cons: Shallow, very predictable, too easy

Just finished reading the book... Of all the Dan Brown "masterpieces", Digital Fortress is the lowest point of all of his works, and I never thought it would get any worse after Angels and Demons. The book is ridiculously shallow. Provided that it ...