Digital Fortress

Digital Fortress


By: Dan Brown
Reviewed by: Eric L., 17
Rating: It was alright...


Digital Fortress is the 1998 novel written by Angels and Demons author, Dan Brown.

Short summary: When the United States' National Security Agency's code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious and ingeniously complex code called Digital Fortress that it cannot break, the agency calls in Susan Fletcher, a brilliant mathematician and their head cryptographer, to crack it. Fletcher discovers that the code, which is written in Japanese, is a viral program designed to break down the NSA's firewall and encryption systems, allowing anyone anywhere to access all of the NSA's files. She also discovers that it was written by Ensei Tankado, a former NSA employee who became displeased with the NSA's intrusion into people's private lives. Tankado, essentially holding the NSA hostage, intends to auction the code's algorithm on his website, and release it for free if he dies, threatening to cripple U.S. intelligence. Fletcher, along with her fiancé, David Becker, a skilled linguist with eidetic memory, are thrust into a global chase that takes them from Washington, DC to the towers of Tokyo to the cathedrals of Seville, Spain, where they must find a way to stop the spread of the code.

A good novel by Dan Brown. It is a good read but Dan Brown occasionally uses complicated words that won't be understood by kids younger than 14.


Recommended to: 13 and over