Digital Fortress 217
Digital Fortress: A Thriller | |
author | Dan Brown |
pages | 384 |
publisher | Griffin Trade Paperback |
rating | 7 out of 10 |
reviewer | Carl Anderson |
ISBN | 0312263120 |
summary | An excellent, if slightly flawed, exploration into the world of government cryptography and those who try to defeat it |
The premise
The first page ("Prologue") is enough to draw you right in. A Japanese man in Seville, Spain, is dying, and in his last act he attempts to communicate with fellow tourists. We immediately wonder, What is he trying to say? How does this relate to the premise of the book?
Flipping the page literally flips across the Atlantic Ocean, to the National Security Agency (NSA) and to beautiful, intelligent Susan Fletcher, head cryptographer at the NSA. She is involved with a university language professor named David Becker--a man who will figure deeply into the story.
A mysterious phone call sends David to Spain and a phone call from Susan's boss, Commander Strathmore, brings her to NSA headquarters. It's there that she learns of a potentially fatal threat to the NSA's codebreaking supercomputer, TRANSLTR--an unbreakable encryption. Strathmore briefs her that a disgruntled former employee, Ensei Tankado, has threatened to release this encryption scheme to the highest bidder. If Tankado does so, the NSA will be crippled--a fact proven by the revelation that TRANSLTR normally spends minutes decoding a message, but has spent more than half a day trying to break Tankado's algorithm.
Tankado isn't stupid--Strathmore says he has an accomplice who will release the code in the event that something happens to Tankado. Unfortunately, Tankado is the Japanese man who has died in Seville...and thus the NSA is running out of time to locate Tankado's pass key to break the encryption before his accomplice can release it to the world.
Meanwhile, Becker is still in Spain, under orders--from Strathmore, it turns out--to do just that. He realizes that Tankado's ring is the "key" to the mystery, and thus he begins a frantic search that leads him from a French-Canadian writer in the clinic, to a fat German tourist and his red-haired "escort," to a punk rock bar on the outskirts of town. Did I mention he's being followed by a deaf assassin the whole time?
What I likedAs I mentioned, Digital Fortress has all the elements that I was looking for. It had just the right amount of main characters, and everyone had a proper place in the book and in the story. I'm appreciative of the tidbits of technical information here and there--mentions of PGP, NSA history, and other such morsels were well placed.
There was also a smattering of sexual energy (although no real "sex scenes") and humor here and there. Who said computer geeks can't have a good time?!
I'm also a fan of subplots in books, that magically mesh together near the climax. Dan Brown deserves praise in this regard: minor characters who initially make you question their presence are brought nicely into the fold and given purpose.
In any book like this, little puzzles and questions come up as a matter of course. The reader is challenged to solve them just as the characters are. In this book, there are many such puzzles: What does the inscription on the ring mean? Who is Tankado working with, and how? What is the pass-code for the encryption scheme? Why is David Becker being hunted down? I delighted in trying to come up with answers to these questions as I read the book, and was pleasantly surprised to see I was wrong in many respects.
What I didn't likeIn any mystery or thriller, the idea is to keep the reader guessing as long as possible, through plot twists, diverging plot lines that reconnect later, and the like. Brown does a fairly good job here, but this is where the book has its weakest points. For example, it is revealed early on that Tankado and the dead Japanese man in Spain are the same person. While this is perhaps unavoidable to push the plot along, I found it strange to have this happen so quickly. Later in the book, the author flips back and forth between who could be Tankado's accomplice, and who has committed a murder in Crypto. This flip-flopping is done poorly and leaves the reader thinking, "I already have my mind made up and you're not doing very well dangling red herrings." I had the bad guy pegged a couple of chapters before it was revealed, although I will admit that I was surprised at a particular turn of events afterwards.
Although this book was published in the late '90s, the technology aspects are still relevant--but this book gets some technical facts incorrect, or at least a bit off. However, they're fairly minor and don't detract from the book too much.
Some plot points are just too far fetched to be believable. For example, Susan's fiance, David Becker, tries to outrun a taxi--driven by the deaf assassin--while on a motorbike. The professional assassin fires several shots at Becker and misses every time, even though the bike is significantly slower than the taxi and the shots hit the bike body itself on several occasions.
Finally, some of the people in the NSA seem too stupid to be working there. In an effort to not give away spoilers, I can't be too much more specific than that, but suffice it to say that the "solution" is something that a high school science student wouldn't have much trouble figuring out.
Final thoughtsI tore into this book with high expectations. I finished the book with mixed feelings. As I look back on it, I can't help but feel that there was a lot of untapped potential and some glaring mistakes that could have been avoided. But I'm also pleased to have read what I consider a fairly good book, one that has served to heighten my interest in the genre, and made me even more ready to read The DaVinci Code.
Of course, it wouldn't be fair to compare this book to any of Dan Brown's later works. An author matures as he or she writes more books, and thus I'm certain that many of my quibbles would have been ironed out in future books. I'll have to find that out when I read DaVinci.
While it might seem that I had more bad to say about the book than good, I'd say that the reverse is actually true--the "good" goes all through the book, but there isn't really a way to quantify it.
I'd wholeheartedly recommend this novel to anyone who has an interest in technological thrillers, spy novels, or thrillers in general. It's a very accessible and enjoyable read, and I'm glad I bought it.
You can purchase Digital Fortress from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
binary (Score:2, Interesting)
Is it just me or shouldn't that be the first thing she noted about whatever system it was?
Like I said, it's been a while since I read the book and it didn't exactly stick with me.
One of those... (Score:5, Interesting)
The cover blurbs mislead the reader into thinking it's the next book by the best-selling author, when in reality it was written before the best-sellers and dug up to cash in on Brown's popularity.
hated it. (Score:5, Interesting)
stride (Score:5, Interesting)
I read The Da Vinci Code like a lot of people then went back and read the rest of his works in reverse chronological order. I am fairly confident in saying that Mr. Brown has improved as an author markedly with each new publication. I would also argue that he has finally hit his stride with the 'Code because all previous books suck.
That said, I am eargerly awaiting his next work, it should be a pretty good read.
When will we see a novel... (Score:1, Interesting)
The author's confused (Score:5, Interesting)
TZ
Brown's lack of plot push (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not a bad read... (Score:3, Interesting)
It is strange, I read the book in January, and was so unimpressed that I can't remember anything other than a book beginning with promise and failing to impress.
Crypto for parents... (Score:3, Interesting)
What about the freaky ultra-conservative undertone (Score:2, Interesting)
This was shown with SEVERAL diatribes about how if only the people knew the real dangers they wouldn't be upset about email taps and wire taps..
I found the book to be readable, but overly ambitious in scope, and the periodic totalitarian outbursts were a bit much for me.
My own impression of the book (some spoilers) (Score:5, Interesting)
(Spoiler warning!)
His plots and characters are paper thin. These books are the literary equivalent of your standard hollywood blockbuster movie (and by this I mean Independence Day, not LOTR).
The main villain is always the guy closest to the character, a boss, confidant, etc. Motivation can be sexual, power, take your pick.
The books are written so as to be ported directly to the big screen. You can almost see scene transitions between paragraphs. One of books chapters actually ended with "camera pan left, fade to black" (just kidding!
The research for Digital Fortress was not as good as for DaVinci - we had the usual confusion between data and executable code (gee, you'd think government cryptogurus would know not to execute code contained within a suspect file), as well as exploding supercomputers, the ability to bypass every single security control by a clueless manager that should NOT be touching said supercomputer, etc. There's an actual 7 layer firewall somewhere that graphically displays the 7 walls, hacker attacks, and even displays each layer falling and the attackers getting closer and closer to the core of the system! Sure it's all explained away in some way or another, but it really makes no sense once you step back from it.
The plot for Deception Point was overly contrived and is designed as an excuse for shooting and chasing people around over a two hour movie, and does not stand up to the inspection of the reading pace of a book.
Now, don't get me wrong. I loved the books, they were fun, and even if the suspension of disbelief was a bit thin in some spots I would not hesitate to recommend any of them to almost anyone - it's just that Burger King is also tasty every once in a while, and seeing stuff blow up on screen while people chase each other is cool too.
-Jack Ash
Re:Faulty Premise...SPOILERS (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, the book is based on a pivotal plot point that is ludicrous. The plot revolves around a new encryption scheme that will render the NSA's super-secret weapon (a brute force crack machine that will decrypt anything within minutes) useless. The source code to this new encryption algorithm has been posted to the Internet and downloaded by crypto types worldwide. The catch -- it's encrypted with itself. The book is about the race for the key that can decrypt the algorithm so the source is accessible and can be used to create truly unbreakable encryption.
Well, the cryptography head comes up with a plan (repeatedly called "brilliant" in the book) to get the key first, modify the source to include a back-door so the NSA can read everything while the public thinks the code is unbreakable, re-encrypt the modified source and replace the version that's been posted to the web. Then they leak the key and the whole world starts using "Digital Fortress".
Does Brown really think that you can replace a file on the web that's been downloaded by thousands and that all the downloaded copies will be updated as well? He seems to -- he only explores the possibility that Tankado might have reviewed the code and found the changes, and quickly dismisses it. He doesn't even consider that most of the people would decrypt the version they already have, let alone consider that someone might compare the source between the version currently available and the one downloaded before the key was released.
The modifications to the source would be posted to Slashdot within 5 minutes of the key being released. But Brown believes no one would ever catch on, and this master plan drives the entire novel. It's utter drivel.
Re:What a lame piece of crap (Score:3, Interesting)
I second the view that Digital Fortress is a lame piece of crap. Dan Brown did not do even the most basic research before writing Digital Fortress. Bruce Schneier's book Applied Cryptography has been around a long time. Even if you don't understand the C code and the mathematics, you can get a pretty good picture of why some algorithms are unbreakable, in practice. But Brown does not seem to have read anything about cryptography. He simply waves his hands and writes "quantum computing". He might as well have written "magic happens".
Now what would have been interesting would be to speculate that the NSA actually did have quantum computing. Then the interesting plot theme would be how do you keep something like that secret. But such plot complexity is not for Dan Brown.
As other Slashdotters have noted, Brown's characters are cardboard and his writing is poor. So while one might forgive someone for technical mistakes if the plot and writing were good, the combination of mediocre writing and technical howlers is pretty obnoxious.
If you want a writer who is not a specialist in computer science but gets the details right and even provides interesting insight, try Peter Watts [rifters.com] the author of Starfish and Maelstrom.
Watts is a Phd marine biologist, so he's definitely a bright guy. So perhaps he's in a different league than Dan Brown. Watts has definitely done his research and it shows in his interesting observations about neural nets.
Watts' characters are complex and his plots are interesting, if dark. (OK, so I should probably submit a book review - Watts' has a new book coming out this year and I'll do it when the book appears, since Watts' is under appreciated)
Re:Code at end (Score:1, Interesting)
HINT
SPOILER
HINT
This is the same type of "code" that is in all of his books. You use the book itself. the numbers referr to chapters. Use the first letter of the chapter. its actually and old code style that used to be used with the bible.
Re:Compared to Cryptonomicon? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Avoid this book (Score:4, Interesting)
Which is sort of stupid, because it can't. The NSA can, of course, read almost every single conventional email sent, because these aren't even slightly encrypted.
Re:A beautiful female crytpographer? (Score:3, Interesting)
She was from Denmark, and had done some kick-ass work calculating the volume of ocean water contained in coastal fjords or something. But all most guys in my class could think about is the fact that she was the most jaw-droppingly hot woman anyone had ever even imagined. Seriously : true blonde, striking figure, perfect complexion, high cheekbones, peircing blue eyes, georgous smile. She topped it all off by having killer dress sense- the first class she was wearing this red corporate dress number with a form-fitting skirt that stopped about mid-calf. Her figure was striking... and perfect. The woman had no flaw. If you had any idea how long ago this was, and how well I remember it... well, let's just say she was hot hot hot. Her slight but definite Danish accent didn't hurt, either.
At the end of the first class, the guy who had been sitting next to me turned to me and said "There's no way I can take this class. I have to drop it. I'll never be able to pay attention when she lectures." I never saw him again. I on the other hand stayed, and struggled, and met with her in several open office sessions where she sadly informed me that I might want to consider taking Differential Equations first, since the material was blowing my doors off. She was perceptive as well as smart, and she was even nice in letting me down. It made me want to cry how unbelievably out of my league she was, but I got over it, though she obviously left an impression on me.
My point is that smart women can be beautiful, or beautiful women can be smart, however you want to look at it. But they still don't want to date *you*...
As for The Davinci Code, it's a book that everyone should read.