ld153's review against another edition
5.0
I re-read this book and LOVED it just as much as I did the first time.
Susan is a cryptographer (code-breaker) for the NSA and her fiance, David, is a professor. When Susan is called into work on a Saturday little does she know what the next 24 hours have in store for her. The NSA's top secret super code-breaking computer is stuck on Digital Fortress, an 'unbreakable code'. Meanwhile David is in Spain doing a favour for Susan's boss, picking up some personal items off a dead guy, how hard is that?
Little do they know that someone is watching David, and as more people show up in the NSA it gets harder to keep the Digital Fortress secret... A very exciting page turner.
Susan is a cryptographer (code-breaker) for the NSA and her fiance, David, is a professor. When Susan is called into work on a Saturday little does she know what the next 24 hours have in store for her. The NSA's top secret super code-breaking computer is stuck on Digital Fortress, an 'unbreakable code'. Meanwhile David is in Spain doing a favour for Susan's boss, picking up some personal items off a dead guy, how hard is that?
Little do they know that someone is watching David, and as more people show up in the NSA it gets harder to keep the Digital Fortress secret... A very exciting page turner.
lipsticktoliterature's review against another edition
5.0
This book is fantastic! Perfect amount of action and suspense with a touch of a love story!
residentrunner1_'s review against another edition
5.0
"It is said that in death, all things become clear."
Using the same smooth, page-turning style of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown weaves together a story of lies and shocks. From David Becker nearly getting killed to the NSA's database almost getting leaked, it is a thriller for young adults and adults.
For starters, Dan Brown is one of my favorite authors. So I might be a little biased. (But who cares, right? Probably everyone, if you know what I mean)
It starts with the main character, Susan, waking up to David getting a call. It's no ordinary call for him, but he doesn't want her to know that, so he just tells her "it's just a work thing. I'll be back in a day." Which is understandable, considering what he'll go through next.
Susan is dejected because her date was ruined, but then she gets a call from her commander. He's a hard-working poker-faced guy, but he has a soft spot for Susan because he doesn't want any hazing or harassment of her in their office at the NSA.
He calls her, saying "that she needs to come over IMMEDIATELY." She replies that "she will be there soon" and he replies "how about sooner." Talk about irony. Anyway, she gets there, and she finds out why their billion-dollar code-breaking machine, TRANSLTR, has been trying to decode a code for at least 15 hours, which is way longer than their normal diagnostics.
Susan and her commander, Strathmore, do a little bit of poking around and find out it is written by Ensei Tankando, who had actually died in Seville, Spain, earlier and was the reason why David left. Even more astonishing is that they find out that it's the first code that the NSA cannot break. The reason?
Tankando actually worked at the NSA before and got so mad over the TRANSLTR machine that he threatened to leak it to the public. To tell them that the NSA had been spying on their emails. Now that was a bomb for the NSA. So to solve it Strathmore deported Tankando away. Which started Tankando's hatred of America ever since.
Meanwhile, David is in Spain, trying to track down a mysterious ring in which it has the pass key engraved on it. It's basically like a scavenger hunt, with assassins on his tail, yet he survives and eventually makes it back to another date with Susan.
I won't make the review any longer, but eventually, after a few deaths, they manage to regain control of Crypto and the NSA databank. Which was a good thing, because they didn't want to have another scandal.
Thank you for reading this review. For more, check out my profile and books.
Using the same smooth, page-turning style of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown weaves together a story of lies and shocks. From David Becker nearly getting killed to the NSA's database almost getting leaked, it is a thriller for young adults and adults.
For starters, Dan Brown is one of my favorite authors. So I might be a little biased. (But who cares, right? Probably everyone, if you know what I mean)
It starts with the main character, Susan, waking up to David getting a call. It's no ordinary call for him, but he doesn't want her to know that, so he just tells her "it's just a work thing. I'll be back in a day." Which is understandable, considering what he'll go through next.
Susan is dejected because her date was ruined, but then she gets a call from her commander. He's a hard-working poker-faced guy, but he has a soft spot for Susan because he doesn't want any hazing or harassment of her in their office at the NSA.
He calls her, saying "that she needs to come over IMMEDIATELY." She replies that "she will be there soon" and he replies "how about sooner." Talk about irony. Anyway, she gets there, and she finds out why their billion-dollar code-breaking machine, TRANSLTR, has been trying to decode a code for at least 15 hours, which is way longer than their normal diagnostics.
Susan and her commander, Strathmore, do a little bit of poking around and find out it is written by Ensei Tankando, who had actually died in Seville, Spain, earlier and was the reason why David left. Even more astonishing is that they find out that it's the first code that the NSA cannot break. The reason?
Tankando actually worked at the NSA before and got so mad over the TRANSLTR machine that he threatened to leak it to the public. To tell them that the NSA had been spying on their emails. Now that was a bomb for the NSA. So to solve it Strathmore deported Tankando away. Which started Tankando's hatred of America ever since.
Meanwhile, David is in Spain, trying to track down a mysterious ring in which it has the pass key engraved on it. It's basically like a scavenger hunt, with assassins on his tail, yet he survives and eventually makes it back to another date with Susan.
I won't make the review any longer, but eventually, after a few deaths, they manage to regain control of Crypto and the NSA databank. Which was a good thing, because they didn't want to have another scandal.
Thank you for reading this review. For more, check out my profile and books.
read_with_taran's review against another edition
2.0
The most poorly written Dan Brown novel I've ever read. The story is as predictable as that of a soap-opera. If you're a Dan Brown fan, give this one a skip.
shahrun's review against another edition
3.0
I did not enjoy this book as much as the Da Vinci code. The cryptography elements were interesting, but the plot did not quite capture my imagination like the other book did. Having said that though, it was a pretty well crafted story, almost like real time reading, as it chronicles events that occurred over roughly 24 hour time period. I think it would probably make a good actions suspense film.
demolitionreader's review against another edition
4.0
I think I would have enjoyed this book if I hadn't read so many of brown's works before, it gets pretty predictable because a lot of his plot twists seem repeatedly used to me. I pretty much guessed the ending about half-way through and the story is a bit slow-paced (its 500 pages on about 24 hours). nonetheless it was a pretty decent read for me.
I read this during a 24-hr reading challenge (which I failed completely and this turned out to be the only book I'd finished), and as I got tired towards the last third of the book I began to skim a lot of the chapters, and I still understood it fine, which, for me, means a lot of the last part of the book was pretty much "skippable" (also partly because I had already guessed the ending...)
I read this during a 24-hr reading challenge (which I failed completely and this turned out to be the only book I'd finished), and as I got tired towards the last third of the book I began to skim a lot of the chapters, and I still understood it fine, which, for me, means a lot of the last part of the book was pretty much "skippable" (also partly because I had already guessed the ending...)