Book Review : Digital Fortress by Dan Brown Rating ****

Dan brown is my favorite english author. I have read his book deception point in the past. His writing style is very nice and simple. His research of the subject is also good. It is not surprising that his books are among bestsellers in the world.

Digital fortress is one his great creations. It is written in 1996 when the whole world was on the edge of digital revolution. We saw growth of computers, internet and mobiles at amazing speed. The book was published just at the right time on right subject.

The book is about a super secret american super computer designed to keep watch on the whole world conspiring against america i.e. United States. It is the best computer on the earth with best expertise engaged in working on it. But one rogue worker destroys it all. The author have done good research on technical side of the subject but it is far from accurate. There are many flaws and misconceptions about government secret installations. The list of errors is given below.

1. The huge top secret super computer complex is undergoing problems and even personnels are being attacked and there is no security person watching on cctv or intervening. How this is possible

2. The multi billion dollar project lacks cctv surveillance or emergency lights in case of power outage. Are you joking.

3. Everybody overconfident about commander strathmore, so much that nobody cares to intervene in the Transltr malfunction till last moment? It is highly unlikely that a lone person is given so much control over any multibillion dollar project financed by public tax money without any accountability.

4. A rogue element like Tankado is appointed on a delicate project like Transltr despite his past records?

Author have assumed a lot of things which are not practically possible. Every high security installation anywhere in the world has multilevel security systems and safeguards. It is not possible to some rogue scientist to so easily infiltrate and destroy the everything.

If you forget these concepts of non technical author aside and just enjoy the novel similar to a James Bond class holywood movie, the book is very nice and entertaing but a little predictable. I have guessed the final password regarding uranium atomic weights almost immediately, while author took many painful pages till the lead actors succeed in guessing it.