Rating: Not rated
Tags: Fiction, General, Suspense, Thrillers, Suspense fiction, Cryptographers, Code and cipher stories; American, Adventure stories; American, Intelligence officers, Computers, Computer security, Technological, Security, Espionage, Lang:en
Summary
When the NSA's invincible
code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious code it cannot
break, the agency calls its head cryptographer, Susan
Fletcher, a brilliant, beautiful mathematician. What she
uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power.
The NSA is being held hostage--not by guns or bombs -- but by
a code so complex that if released would cripple U.S.
intelligence. Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy
and lies, Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes
in. Betrayed on all sides, she finds herself fighting not
only for her country but for her life, and in the end, for
the life of the man she loves. In most thrillers, "hardware" consists of big guns,
airplanes, military vehicles, and weapons that make things
explode. Dan Brown has written a thriller for those of us who
like our hardware with disc drives and who rate our heroes by
big brainpower rather than big firepower. It's an Internet
user's spy novel where the good guys and bad guys struggle
over secrets somewhat more intellectual than just where the
secret formula is hidden--they have to gain understanding of
what the secret formula actually is. In this case, the secret formula is a new means of
encryption, capable of changing the balance of international
power. Part of the fun is that the book takes the reader
along into an understanding of encryption technologies.
You'll find yourself better understanding the political
battles over such real-life technologies as the Clipper Chip
and PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software even though the book
looks at the issues through the eyes of fiction. Although there's enough globehopping in this book for
James Bond, the real battleground is cyberspace, because
that's where the "bomb" (or rather, the new encryption
algorithm) will explode. Yes, there are a few flaws in the
plot if you look too closely, but the cleverness and the
sheer fun of it all more than make up for them. There are
enough twists and turns to keep you guessing and a lot of
high, gee-whiz-level information about encryption, code
breaking, and the role they play in international politics.
Set aside the whole afternoon and evening for it and have
finger food on hand for supper--you may want to read this one
straight through. The National Security Agency (NSA) is one setting for this
exciting thriller; the other is Seville, where on page 1 the
protagonist, lately dismissed from NSA, drops dead of a
supposed heart attack. Though dead, he enjoys a dramaturgical
afterlife in the form of his computer program. Digital
Fortress creates unbreakable codes, which could render
useless NSA's code-cracking supercomputer called TRANSLTR,
but the deceased programmer slyly embossed a decryption key
on a ring he wore. Pursuit of this ring is the engine of the
plot. NSA cryptology boss Trevor Strathmore dispatches
linguist Dave Becker to recover the ring, while he and
Becker's lover, senior code-cracker Susan Fletcher, ponder
the vulnerability of TRANSLTR. In Seville, over-the-top chase
scenes abound; meanwhile, the critical events unfold at NSA.
In a crescendo of murder, infernos, and explosions, it
emerges that Strathmore has as agenda that goes beyond
breaching Digital Fortress, and Brown's skill at hinting and
concealing Strathmore's deceit will rivet cyber-minded
readers.
Gilbert Taylor
Amazon.com Review
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