Digital Fortress is a novel by Dan Brown, who is, in my opinion one of the most intelligent writers of our time. He is the author of the bestseller The DaVinci Code, and Angels and Demons, and Deception Point. Dan Brown is the type of author you wait for a book from, and when you do get one, they are so riveting the pleasure of reading them only lasts a couple of days. Then it is back to the waiting game until another new novel arrives. Besides his smooth writing style, the thing that makes his novels great is the amount of research Mr. Brown puts into his novels. There are numerous facts about history, culture, religion, and government agencies implanted smoothly into the novel that make it truly interesting, yet so easy to read.
Digital Fortress is a novel about a beautiful and highly intelligent cryptographer, Susan Fletcher who works for the NSA. As stated in the book, the NSA is a clandestine agency formed by President Truman. The main agenda of the agency is to protect U.S. Government communications and to intercept those of foreign governments. The Deputy Director of the NSA, commander Strathmore, calls Susan in one weekend to help him solve a crisis. The world’s most powerful computer TRANSLTR has hit a snag. TRANSLTR is a supercomputer with 3 million processors working in parallel to crack encryption algorithms. This billion-dollar behemoth is the workhorse of the NSA. The agency is being held hostage by a computer code, an encryption algorithm that threatens to bring down national security, as we know it. If Digital Fortress is released into the wild, TRANSLTR will become useless.
As Susan and commander Strathmore race to find the passkeys to this dangerous algorithm, their task becomes even harder. Greg Hale has stepped into the picture. Greg is a cryptographer, one of Susan’s coworkers. Greg is not to be trusted. He is a criminal who is working for the NSA. It is only by accident he is there. Susan works diligently to trace the e-mail address of a man who is code-named North Dakota. She cannot figure out why Greg is there, only that he seems too interested what is going on. She will soon find out that there is a killer inside crypto.
Susan’s boyfriend, David Becker, is in Spain, and unwittingly become part of the plot. David is sent to collect the belongings of a dead man as a favor to commander Strathmore. A ring is missing. The ring contains the passkey for the encryption. Everyone who encounters the ring starts to die, and David must match wits with an assassin to stay alive and complete his mission. As more cryptographic codes are unveiled, Susan races to save the agency she works for and the man she loves.
When compared to other books in the genre, Digital Fortress stands out. Many of the similar books out there incorporate technologies that are purely fiction. Dan Brown does a masterful job of incorporating the technologies of today into the story and making it exciting. Another feature that makes this book stand out among its peers is the fact that it combines the technologies of today with the history of humankind. This gives the book a richer story than those who just focus on science fiction technologies.
The puzzles incorporated into this novel are masterful. They are yet more evidence of the lengths Mr. Brown is willing to go too to write a truly great novel. As the novel progresses, the action gets more and more intense. There is a decidedly high-tech theme to the book, but is not so complicated it will lose readers. This book is a combination love story and high tech thriller, and as with all of Mr. Browns work, there is an education to be had in just reading it. This book has something for everyone. Even those who do not like high-tech novels will not be turned off by this one. I would recommend this book to anyone of any age.
