Digital Fortress

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

One of the finest story-tellers of our times, Dan Brown, is stunning with this suspense science-thriller. More so as an English Teacher. His expert research on the technical matter of the novel took me by surprise. Those who had missed reading the flap of the backcover would only conclude that here is another novel from a great computer scientist (an open challenge from Dan Brown to Bill Gates though!!). Unlike Michael Crinchton, Dan Brown cleverly refrains from wandering away into sheer exaggeration and technological impossibilities. Thats the genius in him.

There is more to learn than to merely read. Clearly Dan's way. I have not heard of NSA before, not that there is 'Nothing Special About' it.For those ignorant-pots like me, National Security Agency or NSA, is a top-notch U.S Govt agency like CIA/FBA that holds the world's most precious and exclusive data - data about the country's various spies covering the vast Earth , enemy spies/intelligence, ours and others nuclear/defence programs, bank account details of VIPs, terrorist movements, what else and what not. But the catch comes now: how the agency functions, the identity of some workers, the existence of globe's one-of-its-kind TRANSLTR...everything is a prized secret and that makes a grasping read. For Susan Fletcher, a crypotographer-par-excellence and commander Strathmore, NSA and country's security are the life and soul. The story goes on when TRANSLTR is dumb-founded by one ex-employee. David Becker, the lover boy (oops! lover-prof) is sent on a hunt for that which holds the lifeblood of NSA's data bank. The superb flow of thought from an unbreakable code to a virus that destroys the security filters and threatens to destroy the data bank makes one want more. The story has one undigestable flaw though- the unbelievable multiple escapes of david becker. Dan strikes as a linguist by setting one part of the plot in Spain. He did make me feel bad for not caring to learn a foreign tongue. He doesnt break the code till the last page and keeps the adrenaline flowing. Well done.

DF definitely makes for a Speilberg movie. The most laudable aspect of Dan's novels is that his heroines (both in DF and DVC) take the lead role or atleast in equal terms with the hero. It is notable that they are not portrayed like the all-beauty-and-no-brain one's in usual movies.( lots of glycerine saved for the director!!). Dan could try to keep his hero's identity as secretive and embedded as his villain. Even in DVC, he makes the two main characters obvious. Dan too, afterall, seeks a happy ending to his thrillers. (is that a clue what to expect in whatever follows DVC?!).

Its a wonder that the world waited till the arrival of DVC to reveal this author's brilliance in his previous feat. May be the 2002 slump in software industry added with the 9/11 factor didn't make people notice the greatness of Digital Fortress (busy with the real stuff, what!). May be they were already too scared to read a big-time technological possibility - the deadly possibility of our country's ultimate secrets getting exposed to the whole world. Closing the eyes is never a solution to overcoming the fear of darkness.

Digital Fortress is truely the best science-fiction I have read so far. Only Dan Brown can break the record he set.

PS: DVC stands for Da Vinci Code and DF for Digital Fortress.