Digital Fortress - Book Review

This is Dan Brown's first novel (he wrote The Da Vinci Code among others) and is focused around Susan Fletcher, a brilliant mathematician and head of the National Security Agency's cryptography division, who finds herself faced with an unbreakable code resistant to brute-force attacks by the NSA's 3 million processor supercomputer. The code is written by Japanese cryptographer Ensei Tankado, a sacked employee of the NSA, who is displeased with the agency's intrusion into people's privacy. Tankado auctions the algorithm on his website, threatening that his accomplice, "NDAKOTA", will release the algorithm for free if he is killed. Tankado is found dead in Seville, Spain. Fletcher, along with her fiance, a skilled linguist with photographic memory, must find a solution to stop the spread of the code before it cripples US intelligence.

After having read The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons prior to reading this novel, I can definitely tell that Dan Brown has matured and improved as a writer. Being his first novel, it is much less polished than his more recent work. I suppose if I read them in order of release, I would have appreciated this one more, but since I had the brilliant, aforementioned books to compare it to, I was less impressed. Now don't get me wrong, this was still a good book, but just not up to par with the others.

Consistent with the other books, this one centers around a secret agency - in this case, the National Security Agency. The NSA is a real US government agency and is responsible for the collection and analysis of foreign communications and for the security of U.S. government communications against similar agencies elsewhere. Until recently, the US government didn't even acknowledge its existence, so reading this book makes you feel like an insider, even though I'm sure Dan Brown used quite a bit of artistic license. In any case, his descriptions are quite specific and vivid and makes you wonder if "big brother" is really capable of eavesdropping on virtually all of your communications. In other words, this book does a good job of exploring where the line between security and privacy should be drawn.

The plot itself is a bit over the top and unbelievable. It also relies on too many coincidences to keep everything from grinding to a halt. However, it's very fast paced and begs you to keep reading as the plot continually twists and turns. I found it hard to put down and finished it quickly. Now I feel compelled to start cracking some codes. See if you can crack this one:

EBWF'T IPPFZ JT NZTUFSJPVT BOE HPPGZ

(Hint: this is a simple substitution cipher - i.e. each letter directly corresponds to another letter in the alphabet)
(Solution: Try substituting each letter with the letter that precedes it in the alphabet)


Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Would I read it again: No

Digital Fortress
by Dan Brown
Paperback: 373 pages
1998