Digital Fortress: A Thriller

I read all of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon books and I really liked them, so I finally decided to get the other two (Digital Fortress and Deception Point) and see what I would think of them. Well, I can honestly say I enjoyed Digital Fortress much more than the Langdon series. The story starts with Susan Fletcher waking up to find out her fiance, David Becker, is gone somewhere for work, spoiling her plans for the weekend. And then she is also called in to work. Susan works for the NSA, in the crypto department, where their big computer, TRANSLTR, decodes emails all day long and searches for terrorist emails. TRANSLTR is now trying to decode the pass key to a file and it has been working on it for 16 hours, unsuccessfully. This is unheard of; an unbreakable code. Meanwhile, David Becker has been sent to Spain to retrieve the belongings of a dead man. Turns out David was sent to Spain by Susan's boss and in those belongings they expect to find a written copy of the pass key to break that code. And that's as far as I want to go in the story, so I don't spoil anything. This story is a thriller, keeping the reader on edge almost from the beginning. It bounces back and forth from two or three scenes with exciting situations in each. I found it hard to put down once I started. I loved the story, and enjoyed all the twists. Some of it was a little predictable, and there were a couple of flaws that I had to overlook, but I really did love the book.

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.

This was in 1999. Only now has it truely come to life for the reader. I hesitated to read Dan's early book. I am glad I had the privilege to read it now as so much it is applicable today in cyber security.

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.

Wow! Another great book by Dan Brown. I fell in love with Susan and David in this book. The narrator of this book is one of my favorites. I would love to see this book turn into a mini series or a movie. If you like Dan Brown's books, you'll love this one.

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.

What i ordered got here a couple days early to boot

"Digital Fortress" is a debut novel from Dan Brown published in 1998. It is a high tech thriller type novel with two primary settings, NSA headquarters in Maryland and Seville Spain. The chapters shift back and forth, sometimes rapidly. The narrative style is modern and popular and thus provides a fairly easy read. The book proved to be, at times, a true "page turner". Personally, for me, there were times that I wanted to know what happened next, only to have the scene shift away from the action, leaving the reader on hold. When I say the action shifts, at times, rapidly, my copy, which I purchased on Kindle has 128 chapters in 371 pages. For me this made it easy to read a chapter during a quick break. However towards the end, chapters were often changing after one page, for no obvious reason. It was no big deal, it just seemed slightly strange to me. But I did really like the novel. As is often the case, I learned a good deal from a work of fiction such as this. I has occurred to me that I have a lack of knowledge of Spain. I enjoyed reading about Seville and reading other information about Seville on my own. On the other hand, the other setting is NEA headquarters in Maryland. In the novel, there is a collection of very brilliant people seemingly stumped by some fairly basic anagrams, epigrams, and scientific puzzles. For personal reasons, I do not wish to disclose I found some of those clues more cute than clever and would not have stumped such a collection of analysts for more than a few seconds, if at all. Some individual's minds operate in certain ways, and that is just how it is, and certain logical leaps are made almost involuntarily. Again, that is not to say this is still an enjoyable reading experience. In summary, I liked this novel very much. It was not the huge success that some of Dan Brown's following novels proved to be. While I can appreciate why that is, I liked this novel and am very glad I had the chance to read it. Thank You...

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

I am 75% thru, and have changed my mind a couple of times on who is the villain. :) A great read so far.

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