Digital Fortress by Dan Brown

This is Dan Brown's first book and boy-oh-boy is it evident! You've got the signature Dan Brown pace, action, suspense, short chapters, plot twists, cryptography, revelations of secret organizations, and a sexy, uber-intelligent female protagonist. It's like a warm-up for the books that would go on to make him famous.

At the centre of the story is a secret government organization, the National Security Agency, (NSA--it does exist) who's job it is to collect and analyze foreign communications. The NSA's cryptography department houses the world's most powerful (and expensive) computer called TRNSLTR. The giant computer is used to decrypt any and all email communications regardless of how "secure" the encryption algorithm is perceived to be.

This brings up ethical questions of individual privacy versus national security; given that the NSA is able to snoop in on any and all email communications anywhere, anytime; prompting former (and disgruntled) NSA employee Ensei Tankado to write an unbreakable encryption algorithm (previously thought to be impossible) that threatens to undermine all of the NSA's efforts, thereby making them obsolete.

Tankado's plan to hold the NSA at ransom hits a snag when he is killed in Spain (oops); but things are already set in motion, and within hours of his death the encryption algorithm will be released to the world. And so queue the chases, the plot twist, the problem-solving, the plot twist, the race against the clock, and...um...the plot twist. Did I mention there was a the plot twist?

Having read all of Dan Brown's other books, I've come to the quick realization that his stories are high on entertainment, sometimes dubious on facts, and you are guaranteed that in the end you will have changed directions more than a couple of times. I compare Brown to movie-maker M. Night Shyamalan. They are both brilliant story-tellers, but now people know all their tricks. We know to expect a twist at the end of a Shyamalan movie, just like we expect the same thing from Brown.

Now what these two need to do is throw people off their scent. Create a couple of romantic comedies, or coming-of-age stories or something of the sort. Then, when they come back to their usual trickery, they may catch a few people napping.

In the meantime, I don't mind knowing what is coming, as long as the ride was fun and Digital Fortress is certainly a fun ride.

****