Digital Fortress: A Thriller
by Dan Brown
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Book Summary Information
Author: Dan BrownEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-11-04
ISBN: 0312944926
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780312944926
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Digital Fortress: A Thriller
Book Review: Dan has woefully abused creative liberty here
Summary: 2 Stars
BS can get you to the top, but it can't keep you there. This is what goes through my mind while reading this book.
Maybe it's because I'm a computer science graduate, like how the high clergy of the Catholic church must have tasted bile when they read The Da Vinci Code, but I couldn't stomach the glaring inadequacy of Dan's technical research.
Like what, you ask? Well, let's see what we have here:
Encryption algorithms like ZIP, Diffie-Hellman, and PGP? Sorry, wrong, and nope. 0 for 3. Try again, please. I would accept AES, [Triple-]DES, SHA-1, and even MD5. Just Google the words, Dan, and you'll find you named a compression format and/or utility; a protocol for exchanging encryption keys -- hey, that one was close; and an encryption utility -- also close, but unfortunately, it is not an encryption algorithm itself.
Obviously he tried to understand. He got the concept of key length as the deciding factor in determining the time necessary to decrypt a code by brute force. Unfortunately, he then proceeded to mix up Bits and Bytes. That one's excusable for a novice, but if your plot revolves around a technical subject, you should probably make an effort to get this right. You're off by a factor of 8 every time you say "64 characters" while discussing a 64-bit key.
To make it worse, he says the TRANSLTR can't tell the difference between encryption algorithms -- a key is just a key. No. No, no, no, no. A key is not "just a key". It is keyed to a particular type of lock that must match just as your car key won't fit into the front door of your house, regardless of the tumblers inside. Commander Strathmore goes on to warn our heroine that the source code to this unbreakable encryption algorithm is freely available, but encrypted by itself, so no one can open it until they have the key. But in reality, even the key is only useful if you have the DEcryption algorithm that knows how to use it. FAIL, Dan.
But then.. the grand daddy of all verbal excrement: (Are you ready for this?) The villain has written a rotating cleartext algorithm -- *GASP* that sounds bad! -- whereby, the data within a file can magically transform itself over time, with no outside influence. THEREfore, a computer won't know even if it HAS found the right key since the cleartext within shifts while being decrypted! Um... I have a question, sir. All encrypted data is cleartext? Wouldn't that mean I could theoretically foil the NSA by sending -- I dunno, lemme think -- a binary image file instead of a text document? But that would make this a way less interesting story!
Oh, I so wanted to believe that intangible data could mysteriously alter itself on the physical media on which it was written. If that were even remotely conceivable, I could hope that, by shutting the book and waiting a while, maybe the words on the page would have rotated to form a better novel!
Alright. I admit, these are the grumblings of a know-it-all computer geek. But if you don't know your TCP from a hole in your firewall, the story itself is still good, yes? No. No, not really. You ever watch South Park? You know when they relay bad news that's completely ridiculous, and someone says "Oh. Oh god. Oh god, no.", and starts weeping? That was the whole chapter where The Commander informs Susan of the downfall of NSA's intelligence gathering ability.
I just can't do this. I can excuse technical ineptitude OR poor writing. Not both. It is still fast-paced, and if you're stuck in an airport on a 10-hour layover, there are far worse ways to pass the time. But I just read Deception Point, and the characters and their reactions follow precisely the same tiring formula, except the premise is also crap.
What the eff, Dan? I remember your Robert Langdon novels being pretty good.
Summary of Digital Fortress: A Thriller
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.
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