Not only was Dan
Brown's The Da Vinci Code an
international bestseller and one of the most
controversial fictional books released in a
long time, it also was a must-read in
Pakistan this past year. A favourite for
book clubs as well as dinner party
conversations, the novel related the story
of how a Harvard symbologist, Robert
Langdon, solved the murder of the curator of
the Louvre Museum in France. It was an
exciting sequel to Angels and Demons,
in which Langdon first appeared.
The buzz surrounding The Da Vinci
Code still continues to linger as Pakistani
and international bookstores keep reordering
stock but fans will be pleased to learn that
Brown has just released his latest thriller
titled Digital Fortress. This time
around Langdon is replaced by a female
heroine. The story revolves around National
Security Agency (NSA) head cryptographer and
mathematician Susan Fletcher and her ability
to solve one of the most complex and
dangerous codes facing United States
intelligence.
The novel can be affectionately termed an
"Internet user's conspiracy tale" in which
the main characters battle over intellectual
secrets that can affect the balance of
international power. The NSA possesses a
master code-breaking machine that - usually
in a matter of minutes - continually solves
secret codes throughout the world in a
national security plan to know insider
secrets. When the machine encounters a
mysterious code that it cannot solve and
over fifteen hours have passed, the
organization calls in Fletcher, who quickly
deduces that the NSA is being held hostage
by a seemingly unbreakable code.
NSA nemesis Ensei Tankado has written a
programme that "creates unbreakable codes"
that he's called "Digital Fortress."
Tankado attempts to blackmail the NSA by
selling the pass-key to Digital Fortress
on the open internet market which would
then enter the public domain and instantly
"every third grader with a modem will be
able to send codes the NSA can't break".
Privacy and civil rights will be upheld once
again but national security would be at
risk. The situation aggravates because
Tankado dies leaving a silent partner and so
the NSA relies on Fletcher to help trace the
partner and prevent the pass-key from
reaching the public. Simultaneously,
Fletcher's boyfriend, Georgetown University
foreign languages professor, David Becker,
is sent by the NSA to Spain to retrieve the
pass-key from Tankado's dead body in what
soon proves to be a dangerous and possibly
deadly mission.
However, as Fletcher continually reminds
readers, according to the Bergofsky
principle "if a computer tried enough keys,
it was mathematically guaranteed to find the
right one". You'll have to read Digital
Fortress to see if the principle holds
true in this tale.
Similar to his earlier works, Digital
Fortress contains well-developed,
likable characters, an academic protagonist,
a love story, the betrayal of trust and a
hushed-up conspiracy. Like The Da Vinci
Code and Angels and Demons, it's
hard to separate fact from fiction when
reading Digital Fortress. Admittedly
the story is slightly over the top but it
possesses just enough credibility to fool
the reader into believing every once in a
while that it is a true story.
Brown's extensive research on codes and
cryptology enhances the credibility and
intellectual depth of the novel, but his
attempts to write the love story at the
heart of the tale prove to be ludicrous and,
even worse, irritating! What was charming in
his earlier novels borders on Mills & Boons
and chick flick here.
Digital Fortress absorbs as well as
frustrates readers. The story is a
relatively simple tale of code-breaking, but
the language is quite complicated and
technical at times, a flaw which could
cripple sales of the book. The chapters are
also much longer and slower than those in
The Da Vinci Code. The story's theme too
lacks the controversial religious element
that fuelled much of the earlier book's
success. Indeed, the drier theme of national
security - or at least drier in the context
and manner in which Brown has written about
it - cannot compare to a conspiracy theory
surrounding the Holy Grail! |
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