Digital Fortress - Dan Brown

October 7th, 2003 by admin

This was a fun book. It’s a thriller about the head cryptographer at the NSA and a code that’s hijacked their super code-breaking computer TRANSLTR. Dan Brown is a good, if somewhat passionless, writer who’s definitely got the nack for developing a good story. His research is good and helps make things a bit more believable, but I often wish that his writing was a bit more colorful and a bit less academic in tone. It’s packed with enough pseudo-geeky stuff to keep my interest. I give it a 7 out of 10.

Here’s one of my favorite passages from chapter 44: “…the NSA’s senior Sys-Sec officer, the short-fused, 400-pound comptuer guru who built the Gauntlet. His nickname was Jabba. He was a demigod at the NSA — roaming the halls, putting out virtual fires, and cursing the feeblemindedness of the inept and the ignorant.”

Reminds me of a few folks I used to work with. :-) You can pick up Digital Fortress in paperback for $15 or less.

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