jarlina's review against another edition
4.0
Not Dan Brown's best work, but still amazing and worth the read.
freddyfinch's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
ronitjauthor's review against another edition
4.0
I personally believe that this is Dan Brown's best work till date
koshpeli's review against another edition
1.0
I used to think The Da Vinci Code was the worst book ever written. Now I know this is.
ablotial's review against another edition
2.0
This book was recommended to me by a coworker. I am still undecided about whether he actually liked it, or just wanted me to read it for a good laugh.
It had potential. And I'll be honest, parts of it were well written and I did care about the characters, and cried and was thrilled when they "saved the day" at the end, even though by that point I was so annoyed with the characters and the writing that I was screaming at my car stereo.
The story is this. The NSA has learned that a guy who used to work for them but got fired has created an "unbreakable" encryption algorithm. The guy encrypted it using his own "unbreakable" algorithm and posted it on the internet for anyone to download for free. Why not, since they can't decrypt it!? So of course, the NSA decides to download it and run it through their amazing decryption computer (which is basically a cloud, well ahead of its time, I'll give the author credit for that at least), "translator", to see if it really is "unbreakable".
Needless to say, this leads to all kinds of trouble, and in the end the entire "Crypto" building of the NSA catches on fire and ... well, I won't tell you any more. Too many spoilers involved.
If you read this book, all you need to know is that everyone (except Susan and David) is lying. All the time. Any time anyone says anything, assume they are lying, and you'll be way ahead of all the other characters.
But anyway, the book made me angry because of some poor writing.
1. These people are supposed to be so smart. The best of the best, most amazing mathematicians and cryptographers ever. But they need everything spelled out for them. Half the book is one person being confused, another person being confused, person 1 figuring something out after what seems like forever, telling person 2 about it, who doesn't understand the explanation, and then it needs to be explained in really, really, annoying, overly-detailed explanations like you are trying to explain calculus to a 5 year old.
At the end, there is a clue that begins "prime difference between elements ..." and due to the context of this book (they are mathematicians for crying out loud!) I think "ok so we need a prime number that we get from subtracting something about the periodic table, maybe atomic weight?" and it takes them something like 30 minutes of audio-book time to come up with that. Do people really not know what these words mean?! I found it incredibly unbelievable that this group of people in particular wouldn't immediately jump to those meanings.
2. In a similar vein, the only way the author could keep us in suspense was to not tell us things. At the beginning, the commander says that his tracer program returned "strange results". But we are not told what the "strange results" are. Then almost near the end of the book, the girl who re-ran it says she got the same "strange results". The a little later, we finally find out what the "strange results" are, and ... they are not so strange. They just would have made a huge chunk of the story too obvious.
Similarly there is some writing (I can't tell you more than that because it's a huge spoiler... Many people see it and no one knows what it means or even what language it might be. Then this guy who knows something like 17 languages comes in -- he eventually figures it out, but the answer? I could recognize it. And my husband, who hardly speaks English properly let alone any other language, also recognized it when I showed it to him. But of course, we don't actually SEE the text until almost the end of the book because if we'd SEEN it, that would have given it away -- just hear people talking about how it is "no language I've ever seen". Seriously?! I was expecting it to be some obscure south Asian language or something.
3. Too many freaking coincidences and last minute "save the day"s.
And of course, multiple countdowns where things are saved at the last possible second (although if people weren't such IDIOTS (see point 1) it totally could have been solved with 20 minutes left...
Oh and also the author seems confused about the difference between a virus and a worm.
Bah.
It had potential. And I'll be honest, parts of it were well written and I did care about the characters, and cried and was thrilled when they "saved the day" at the end, even though by that point I was so annoyed with the characters and the writing that I was screaming at my car stereo.
The story is this. The NSA has learned that a guy who used to work for them but got fired has created an "unbreakable" encryption algorithm. The guy encrypted it using his own "unbreakable" algorithm and posted it on the internet for anyone to download for free. Why not, since they can't decrypt it!? So of course, the NSA decides to download it and run it through their amazing decryption computer (which is basically a cloud, well ahead of its time, I'll give the author credit for that at least), "translator", to see if it really is "unbreakable".
Needless to say, this leads to all kinds of trouble, and in the end the entire "Crypto" building of the NSA catches on fire and ... well, I won't tell you any more. Too many spoilers involved.
If you read this book, all you need to know is that everyone (except Susan and David) is lying. All the time. Any time anyone says anything, assume they are lying, and you'll be way ahead of all the other characters.
But anyway, the book made me angry because of some poor writing.
1. These people are supposed to be so smart. The best of the best, most amazing mathematicians and cryptographers ever. But they need everything spelled out for them. Half the book is one person being confused, another person being confused, person 1 figuring something out after what seems like forever, telling person 2 about it, who doesn't understand the explanation, and then it needs to be explained in really, really, annoying, overly-detailed explanations like you are trying to explain calculus to a 5 year old.
At the end, there is a clue that begins "prime difference between elements ..." and due to the context of this book (they are mathematicians for crying out loud!) I think "ok so we need a prime number that we get from subtracting something about the periodic table, maybe atomic weight?" and it takes them something like 30 minutes of audio-book time to come up with that. Do people really not know what these words mean?! I found it incredibly unbelievable that this group of people in particular wouldn't immediately jump to those meanings.
2. In a similar vein, the only way the author could keep us in suspense was to not tell us things. At the beginning, the commander says that his tracer program returned "strange results". But we are not told what the "strange results" are. Then almost near the end of the book, the girl who re-ran it says she got the same "strange results". The a little later, we finally find out what the "strange results" are, and ... they are not so strange. They just would have made a huge chunk of the story too obvious.
Similarly there is some writing (I can't tell you more than that because it's a huge spoiler... Many people see it and no one knows what it means or even what language it might be. Then this guy who knows something like 17 languages comes in -- he eventually figures it out, but the answer?
Spoiler
LATIN. He should have known that IMMEDIATELY, and so should just about everyone else. I don't speak a word of Latin, but3. Too many freaking coincidences and last minute "save the day"s.
Spoiler
Guy goes to Spain to get something from off a dead body. When he gets there, it is not on the body. Cop says some old guy took it. Somehow, he actually finds the old guy, who says he doesn't have it, a fat German guy and his red-haired prostitute have it. Somehow he actually finds them, who say they don't have it, they sold it to a punk girl with red, white and blue hair. Somehow he actually finds this girl... you get the idea. Seriously?!And of course, multiple countdowns where things are saved at the last possible second (although if people weren't such IDIOTS (see point 1) it totally could have been solved with 20 minutes left...
Oh and also the author seems confused about the difference between a virus and a worm.
Bah.
backaswords's review against another edition
1.0
Entertaining but the action scenes are kind of ridiculous. How many gun shots can an untrained University professor actually dodge? It reads as if the intention was to turn it into an action packed blockbuster movie. Not really my style I guess. I'm trying to read outside of my usual preference, and while mildly entertaining it lacks depth.
novelesque_life's review against another edition
3.0
3 STARS
"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." (From Amazon)
I am not really into technological thrillers but this kept my attention and was not bad.
"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." (From Amazon)
I am not really into technological thrillers but this kept my attention and was not bad.
tlo_94's review
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0