Digital Fortress: A Thriller

POSITIVE: Brown's first novel, and while the novel’s characters and plot development could use some additional work to improve the depth and coherence, the novel is the poster boy for a fast-paced, intriguing novel. The engaging style helps greatly. NEUTRAL: Hardcover by Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martin’s Press). Good binding and paper. Dustjacket. Imprint somewhat consistent with (on some pages) occasional paler imprint toward the bottom of the pages. 373 pages. 1998. NEGATIVE: Maybe not all the various heroes in Brown’s novels need to be, not just the super intelligent kind, but also the most awesome and beautiful human specimens--a bit of an overreach. OVERALL: 4.5/5. A great and interesting book, with a great pace, for an afternoon on the beach or an enjoyable afternoon on the couch. Looking for various technical accuracies can lead to mild disappointments--the book is awesome for non-technical professionals/people with some interest in tech.

Digital Fortress pulls you in from the very first chapter. It’s a mix of tech, mystery, and government intrigue that keeps the tension high without feeling overly complicated. Dan Brown does a great job explaining the world of cryptography and code-breaking in a way that’s easy to follow, even if you’re not into tech. The pacing is quick, with short chapters that make it hard to put down. There are a few predictable moments, but the overall story keeps you hooked with enough surprises and suspense to keep flipping pages late into the night. If you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons, this one delivers that same mix of intellect and adrenaline. It’s a solid, entertaining read for anyone who loves high-stakes thrillers with a tech twist. Pro tip: if you’re new to Dan Brown, this is a great starting point, it shows where his signature style began.

Lots of action and surprises, Kept my attention. I liked the ending too but am not giving it away. The only drawback was that I was able to guess the main villain early. That could be because I’ve read most of this author’s books and recognize some characteristics of his villains. Still I enjoyed reading it.

My book arrived quickly which is always appreciated. I needed a book to read during my trip and plane rides to and from Arizona. This book arrived just in the nick of time! It was an exceptionally fast read, I was able to whip right thru it. But I have to say it was easily my least favorite Dan Brown book. I'm not sure if it's because I had read every other Dan Brown book before picking up Digital Fortress, but I felt as though this was a rushed second release for Brown and he did everything he could to stray from the writing style he used in DaVinci Code (and later the rest of the Robert Langdon series) which is the writing style he is known for and that I love so much. I didn't learn half as much in this book as I did with his other novels and I also noticed he re-used a lot of things in later novels that he used in Digital Fortress. So although it's good and certainly worth reading (especially if you're a Dan Brown fan) it's not up to par with his other works.

I love Dan Brown’s books he put so much information and real world facts and knowledge and in a way that doesn’t overload you. The story was great and kept me glued late into the night reading. Was hard to put the book down. Characters were well developed and so many twists and turns. Just a great story from start to finish.

Well I just finished this book "Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown and I have to say that it was a good read. It was a definate page turner. I notice that most of the 1 and 2 star reviewers were mostly people in the field of cryptology and computer science etc etc. Well I am not a cryptologist, or a crypt-keeper, or a crip from the hood. I really enjoyed the book. Someone said that Dan Brown is a bad writer. WOW, I totally disagree. He may be many things but a bad writer he is NOT!!! I thought his similies were original and creative. I saw him as an author pulling away from the trite an over used. His characters were not flat, they were quite rich and tangible. This is one of the things I like about Dan Brown's characterization -the man knows how to flesh out the people he creates. I was going to read this book a long time ago, but someone stopped me. I had read DaVinci Code, and then Angeles and Demons and then Deception Point and then The Lost Symbol, so it made sense to move on to this -the only book of his I hadnt read. Someone said that this book was awful and that I should instead read "Minerva Virus", I read Minerva Virus and while the first 10-15 chapters were awful, the story did pick up and by the end I was loving Minerva, however, there is a bold difference between the two writers. Had Dan Brown written Minerva, I think it would have been a phenomenal masterpiece. Dan Brown knows how to stretch out a story and fill everypage with interesting details and suspence. You want Dan Browns characters to succeed -both protaganist and antagonist -it is a feeling that is just indescribable and that is what I love about Brown's work. Digital Fortress is a book about the NSA tapping into the personal lives of the public and one man's effort to stop this behavior that he feels is immoral and un-American. This man claims to have created an unbreakable code which could be downloaded to every computer in the world and once downloaded mainstream people would have a defense against NSA spys. It turns out that the man tricked the NSA Director and so the story just goes on unfolding one mystery after another until it comes to a simple conclusion. Some people said that they knew how the book would end. I expected the ending I got, but I still enjoyed the journey. It was a great book. I will say that Susan Fletcher was kind of stupid for a supposed genius. My favorite character was Becker. Not only was he cute, but he was brave, unrelenting and brilliant. I gave this book 4 stars because the overall topic of the story just was not interesting. I really didnt care about some lame old computer virus (or "worm") What I liked about the Minerva Virus was that this virus became a self evolving entity that laid claim over the human race and sought to rule or destroy. That is what I thought this book would be. Oh, well. Dan Brown is still one helluva writer and I look forward to his next work. Mr.Brown if you are reading this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, give us another Robert Langdon book.

Much better than I expected. Lots of action and interesting ideas about computers, government invasion of privacy etc.. Easy to read and fun.

All the elements we have come to associate with Dan Brown are there. Some codes must be understood and some dire threat averted by people who need all their ingenuity to survive, all in about 24 hours. Chapters are short, language simple and suspense builds in no time. There are some normal folk we can relate to, some horrific baddies intent on evil, and one that seems to mutate from one to the other. It is a typical suspenseful thriller. This one is set in a high tech US Military base and also Spain in the 1990s. While the plot twists and turns like strands of spaghetti, we get a glimpse into life in the computer world, the long anti-social hours of the era in a sterile environment like nothing in the outside world and caricatures of people we might meet. There are those who rise to senior management with people skills as well as technical smarts and with good coping skills. And others with technical ability who lack common sense; these floundered in real world situations and were actually vulnerable. Some high achievers in this project-driven world have an obsessive desire to achieve their given assignments and tasks, including self imposed ones. And there is an introduction to the language that the commercial release of the internet brought to the world; concepts like secure encoding for email messages, security software to keep out virus and worms, key loggers, plus chips, stats and more. And how much money could be made from developing such software. Well painted Mr. Brown. Woven into the plot is a disaffected Japanese employee who has been sacked. He wants the world to know that this base has the ability to spy on any email, even though it is only those who attract adverse attention that they have the capacity to deal with. A theme here is the concern about individual privacy that was surfacing in the 1990s. He devises an ingenious way to hold his old employers to ransom, but dies in Spain too soon to give them deliverance. He makes a dying gesture, a sign. A professor, engaged to one of the cryptographers, is hired to go to Spain and retrieve his belongings. Soon he is a hunted man who needs all his ingenuity to survive. I loved the way he cheats death here, despite repeatedly hopeless odds; the sort of thing that brings howls of laughter from today's moviegoers faced with similar situations in early film noir. And the descriptions of the interesting places, such as Santa Cruz and nearby Seville Cathedral with the tomb of Christopher Columbus, that he moves through on his flight through Seville. He is an early prototype for Robert Langdon folks. Back at the base the bodies mount with the suspense. As they clarify what they are dealing with, having bypassed the obvious and ignored repeated common sense observations, the motives of various characters become clear to us. Disaster strikes, but the heroine escapes to save the day. There are some brief humorous interludes, but also a very touching one explaining that our disaffected worker was Japanese and deformed as a result of radiation to his mother from the American bombs that ended WWII. He was disowned by his father at birth because he was considered to bring dishonour to the family. Yet he passed all employment checks and had no animosity towards America. Yes, it was generally formulaic, but nevertheless I enjoyed it. A light read, reasonably well done and an interesting change from my usual tastes.

What a story Sleeek Smart Extremely captivating Superb thrill Adventure Should be made into a movie Or Series

Mir hat das Buch sehr gut gefallen. Und das von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite. Dem Autor ist es gelungen mehrere Handlungsstränge geschickt miteinander zu verknüpfen. In unterschiedlichen Regionen der Welt wird die Geschichte aus Sicht der jeweils Handelnden beschrieben. Spannend und unterhaltsam erzählt und dabei auch sehr viel Mühe und Fantasie in die Details links und rechts des roten Pfades eingebaut und dabei nie den Selbigen verloren. Ich hatte nie den Eindruck, dass es sich um Fliessbandarbeit handelt, wie es gelegentlich ja vorkommt. Also unbedingt lesenswert und deshalb von mir eine uneingeschränkte Empfehlung.

good ,engaging read

Never disappoints, Dan Brown is a certainty. Couldn’t stop reading page after page, excellent, as usual outstanding author, my favorite

Can a book be "delicious"? Turns out, it can.