Rating: 
Summary: Don't believe the hype...
Review: It is time for a reality check. Neither Tom Clancy nor the NSA has anything to fear from Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress." Immediately one thinks, "This is a novel written by yuppies, for yuppies." The shallow, off-the-shelf, characters are totally uninteresting and bland... You keep telling yourself, "Just deal with it. I'm just reading this to find out what the NSA can really do." Well, friends, it's a disappointment. Anyone with the technical acuity of a 6th grader will be bored with this book. There are no solid details. It's sooo watered down. You know how Clancy can go off for pages on some arcane weapon system, or how a satelite works, etc...? Minute details, right? Brown gives us NOTHING like that kind of insight. Digital Fortress reads like a fattened up movie script. Most of the bulk of the book is an irritating cat and mouse game that doesn't do anything for the story. There is nothing revolutionary here. The technical shortcomings will be obvious to anyone with the slightest hint of sophistication. The subject matter was over the head of the author, and it shows. It's almost embarrassing. I was so excited about this book when I first heard about it. Jesus, was I disappointed... This thing may appeal to highschool kids and bored housewives that need something to do while the laundry is drying. It's not good for much else. If you're interested in the world of electronic intelligence gathering, read Bamford's "Puzzle Palace." As dated as it is, it is still "the" text on the NSA. Hager's "Secret Power" is also one to get. These books are non-fiction. I gave "Digital Fortress" a 5 only because it manages to move along at a brisk pace.
Rating: 
Summary: NAIL CLIPPER
Review: The novel had me by the neck.
Technical quibbles from nitpicking critics notwithstanding it's spectacular high-speed thriller material: breakneck pace, punchy dialogue, very credible plot with clever twists, and, as typical of Brown's work, a delectably global setting.
Sure the descriptions of NSA may fall short of pitch perfection but they're made up for the most part by some sparkling wit, e.g., NSA being so cloak-and-dagger as to define itself as No Such Agency.
Above anything, I have a great deal of respect for Brown's research caliber. Some technological sections sound so frighteningly plausible it's hard to believe they came from an English teacher in New Hampshire. He makes sure he adds some ribbing academic humour into his lead character, surely a reflection of his real life!
The crypto theme and the lengths to which a national security organization is willing to go is thought-provoking if nothing else. Had me wondering if all this loss of privacy and violation of human rights is justified by the number of all the devious terrorist plots foiled and lives spared daily. An intriguing dilemma.
If a bit of technology doesn't intimidate you (all well explained anyway) I recommend this enthralling thriller in a blink.
Rating: 
Summary: He needed a computer tech advisor
Review: There are so many inaccuracies in this book that it makes it difficult to keep reading. It gives a new slant to The Da Vinci Code. If that's as full of errors as this one, then the Catholic Church can rest its concerns.I could enumerate them, but this book isn't worth the time or effort. I'm sorry I bought it.
Rating: 
Summary: Tofu tastes better...
Review: This is my first Dan Brown book, and it made me wonder what the hype is all about. The story is only mildly engaging, with plenty of mistakes and blunders along the way. The astonishing number of cliffhangers paraded through this book made the story seem poorly thought out. I knew by the median page who the real villain was and his motivations. I knew by page fifty that Dan Brown didn't really know what he was talking about. Still, because it was recommended to me by family, I persisted with the book. I would recommend it to high schoolers; it exists at about that level of complexity. Any one else, read if you have plenty of leisure time and don't want to have to think beyond your nose.
Rating:
Summary: Should be a best seller!!!
Review: This is the fourth book of Dan Brown that I read for the star given here. This book must his first novel. To my delight plus surprise, this book is great, definiteltly better than Deception Point which the last scene of attempting to rescue the heroin from the Triton reads like fake, and too cliche. It is believable that TRANSLTR could break a 64-bit key or crack a 128-bit key in less than 6 hours, because it is a parallel computing machine of millions of processors. As great as Da Vinci Code but less filling.
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