Digital Fortress

By: Dan Brown

Narrated by: Bruce Sabath

Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Before the multi-million, runaway bestseller The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown set his razor-sharp research and storytelling skills on the most powerful intelligence organization on earth—the National Security Agency (NSA)—in this thrilling novel, Digital Fortress.

When the National Security Agency’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. It is a battle for survival—a crucial bid to destroy a creation of inconceivable genius that threatens to obliterate the balance of world power…for all time.

©1998 Dan Brown (P)2004 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Critic reviews

"In this fast-paced, plausible tale, Brown blurs the line between good and evil enough to delight patriots and paranoids alike." (Publishers Weekly)
"Digital Fortress is the best and most realistic techno-thriller to reach the market in years....A chilling thrill a minute." (The Midwest Book Review)
"Exciting...will rivet cyber-minded readers." (Booklist)

SPYS R US

Working for the NSA for several years in the early nineties, I found the book fairly accurate.
Dan Brown seems to fill in the facts with fiction to make it easy to read.

Mostly enjoyable

This book was fun, but the writing was unpolished, and the plot was a bit predictable. The characters were flat.

I was also expecting a deeper reflection on the morality of NSA spying. That's kind of the central question driving the plot. There were characters with differing perspectives on the issue, but very little exploration of those perspectives and their rationales, and even less movement by any of the characters towards any different perspective from the one they begin with. It didn't make for a bad story, just a story full of missed opportunities.

Super Dan Brown

Outside the Catholic Church related novels, I believe this is one of Dan Brown's best works!

ok! Not as good as the da vinci code

Entertaining but not as good as the da vinci code. Every sentence in this book is over dramatised. I like the flow and the pace of the book very much. Read it if you want to entertain yourself.

Not his best

I had read all of Dan Brown's books and this was my first audiobook. It took a couple of hours to get used to the male narrator trying too hard to do the female characters. I liked the book OK. It was my least favorite. My favorite is Angels & Demons and then Deception Point! I love this author. He educates and entertains!

Good, light fiction

I enjoyed this audiobook. It's not Dan Brown's best work (Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons are better I think), but it's in a similar vein and makes for fun listening while in the car. The abridged version moves you through the storyline fairly quickly. I would have liked a little more plot twists and action.

The narrator does a great job with voices and adds a lot to the audiobook.

Not 'too' bad...

Well, the story itself is OK. Not as good as Angels or Da Vinci but I think it's worth a listen. However the narrator was truly awful. As a previous reviewer mentioned, it's not an easy book to listen to. If you like well read books then this is not one for you.

Tedious

Overlong, improbable plotting, hamfisted writing.

Just Plain Stupid

Awful plot, awful writing, an incredible waste of time. After reading DiVinci, I expected much more from Brown. But, then again, I liked the DiVinci story but was unimpressed with the writing, so maybe I should have known.

Makes you want to puch somebody...

I have to agree with other reviewers that this novel is FAR below the quality of DaVinci. Just about every single twist or mystery was so predictable that you just wanted to scream at the moronic "geniuses" who couldn't figure out the most obvious of answers. The story had some interesting aspects, but the technical innacuracies, major inconsistencies, serious character flaws, stupid situations, and mediocre to poor writing are so distracting that I just couldn't enjoy whatever positives there were. I'm glad Dan Brown kept writing and didn't give up after this miserable attempt. His ability to imagine and tell stories has obviously improved significantly. Perhaps his poor writing style will improve as well.

PS - and yes, the narrator is a maddeningly dreadful slow-speaking monotone, as well--this thing should have lasted only 10 hours, max.