Introduction
Dan Brown is the flavour of today. The success of Da Vinci Code has renewed interested in Dan Brown's other creations. Although, Da Vinci Code happens to be his most successful book, I liked Angels and Demons to be slightly better than Da Vinci Code. So I was looking forward to explore other of Dan Brown's novel and thus laid my hands on
Digital Fortress.
The Plot Ensei Tankado, a brilliant cryptographer once hired by NSA, has come up with a digital fortress. A
Fortress that is so encrypted that the best of cryptographers would not be able to decrypt it. This represented a vast advance for people valuing privacy and personal information, but is a nightmare for law enforcing bodies as it opens up a secure channel of communication for all law evading forces.
So, NSA Deputy Director and head of the cryptography department, Commander Strathmore, took it upon himself to decrypt the digital fortress before anyone comes to know of it. For this he enlists the services of his chief cryptographer Susan Fletcher and her to-be husband David Becker. What starts as a simple decrypting activity soons becomes a huge fiasco with more and more members of NSA coming to know of the digital fortress.
To make matters worse, someone has killed Ensei Tankado who seems to have a key for decrypting the digital fortress. David Becker is enlisted for the task of finding the passkey from Ensei Tankado whereas Susan has to get the second passkey with Tankado's mate who is roaming somewhere there across the world!!
Join Susan, David and Strathmore in
chase to decrypt the digital fortress before the
world comes to know of it and adopts it!!
Critical Viewpoint
Digital Fortress is the third novel of Dan Brown that I have read. All three
novels start in the same manner i.e. with a gruesome murder of a person who sets the ball rolling for future chase around the world for clues and puzzles. Then it comes out that the culprit is an inside hand who seems initially to be very intersted in the best interests of the world, but inside is playing only for his/her own good. Again there is always a couple involved in the chase probably Dan's way of staying out of sexual bias of any kind!!
As the plot of the three novels are exactly the same in more ways than one, the only way Dan was going to score was through his story telling and the other elements of the clues and puzzles he was going to solve in this chase around the world. In this aspect, both Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons were brilliant in their own way. Also the elements of puzzles, religion and science which he had intertwined in both these novels really added to the glamour.
And this is exactly where Dan's lets himself down in Digital Fortress. Here the story goes pretty straight forward. The decryption is pretty straight forward with little dramatic elements to them. In fact, I was able to crack the final passkey way before the finale came. Also the narrative is pretty much similar to other novels without the dramatic aspects of the other two and thus makes for a dull reading if you have read the other two novels.
Central Characters Trevor Strathmore
The lifeline of NSA Cryptographic department, the deputy director is the man who starts the chase to decrypt digital fortress and keep USA secure.
Ensei Tankado
Former NSA agent, the crippled genious is the one who creates the digital fortress and seems to be very daring in putting up hints for NSA to crack his maze.
Susan Fletcher
Strathmore's blue eyed girl is more than just the beauty that she is. She has brains to back it up and she goes about helping Strathmore in this war against the digital fortress.
David Becker
A college professor who would do some overtime for good money. Probably this time he has taken more than he can chew.
Tokugen Numataka
The japanese businessman who seems to be desperate to lay hands on the digital fortress for itercial value.
About the Author
Dan Brown is a graduate from Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy and lives in New England. His novels include Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and Deception Point. The most popular of his novels is the Da Vinci Code, though I found Angels and Demons to be slightly better than Da Vinci Code.
Da Vinci Code
Murder of Curator of Louvre Musuem, Jacques Sauniere, leads Robert Langdon and Sophia Neveu on a world wide chase of the old cult of Priory of Sion. For more details read the full review at http://www.epinions.com/content_183401025156
Angels and Demons
Murder of Leonardo Vetra of CERN, leads Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra on a world wide chase of the Illuminati cult. For more details read the full review at http://www.epinions.com/content_194123304580
Summary
Looking at his other two books, this book is a bit hollow. Overall, it gets just an average three star rating from my side.
PS: Taken from my review published earlier at http://www.epinions.com/content_196464184964
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