Digital Fortress

Just finished reading Dan Brown's 1998 novel Digital Fortress. If you want a synopsis of the story, check that link to the Wikipedia page.

Okay, so I work with them computers. I know a bit about cryptography, code breaking, primitive ciphers such as Caesar Cipher, back-up systems, how machine-rooms are run, what sys admins do, etc. etc. If you are a sys admin like me, and you want to read this story, throw away all your computerese knowledge for the duration of the book. Just enjoy the flow of the story. One problem with writing computer-related thrillers is that the technology changes so quickly, the facts on which the story is based become quite obsolete real quickly.

Otherwise, this story an easy read. It flows nicely. Brown's knowledge of the field is not complete, but it is sufficient to hold the storyline together. At times, it feels like he is thinking of the story as a movie rather than any real scenes. He is thinking of movie-set lighting rather than anything close to reality.

This story gets lots of facts wrong. Lots of things are glossed over. I see this transparency because I know the field quite well. Now, if I extrapolate this same transparency to Dan Brown's other books like the DaVinci Code, I can understand why the Catholic Church had such a negative reaction to some of the supposed "facts" presented in that book. These are novels, after all. So, Brown seems to take quite a large liberty with mixing facts with fiction and stretching many things until the breaking point.

SPOILER: Having read several of Brown's books with primitive codes, I can say that it is quite easy for me to break his codes. (ie: Apple in DaVinci Code, Susan in Digital Fortress, etc.) I saw them coming a mile away. I suppose the stories would have held a bit more suspense had the codes been a bit harder to break for the reader (me).

Anyway, as I said earlier, it is an easy read ...quite far from any resemblance to any reality. Perhaps, a good book to read on a lazy summer day to pass the time.