About this title: A former National Security Agency programmer threatens to release a mathematical formula that will allow organized crime and terrorism to skyrocket, unless the code-breaking computer that is used to keep them in check--but that violates civil rights--is not exposed to the public.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fine. Almost in new condition. Book shows only very slight signs of use. Cover and binding are undamaged and pages show minimal use. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Corgi Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780552151696ISBN:0552151696
Description: Acceptable. MAY HAVE COVER WEAR, SPINE CREASES, HIGHLIGHTING, UNDERLINING & PAGES YELLOWED FROM AGE. FASTER SERVICE FROM US! ! ! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"Alright, I luffed the plotline, but the characters were a bit weak.
What would happen if everyone in the world had access to every top secret file? Locations of field agents, people in the Witness Protection Program, everything.... What would happen if everyone had access to this high security information? Total chaos. The Crypto team race against the clock to unravel the mystery behind the death of a former employee who was the mastermind behind the ingenious code destroying NSA from the inside out. Tankado. A cripple with just three fingers.
It was a fantastic plot, and twists lurked in every page. There were parts I was confused, but after re-reading I understood.
Other than that, the book was fair. The characters were a bit weak, needed a stronger background. I wasn't really pleased with how every male in the NSA seemed to be taken with Susan. Eurg. Well, maybe not /every/ one, but;; that security guard at the beginning, the Commander, and Greg Hale. Not to mention David, but you knoww. That's four if you count him. .-.
So, other than the plot, this book was okay, but not really one of my favorites."
"If the roundly reviled The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons are examples of Dan Brown at his most polished, you can only imagine how bad he was during his early career.
Actually, you can imagine, or you can read Digital Fortress and find out for yourself. But I don't recommend it. Where the Langdon books spill their secrets like Robert Hanssen to anyone with a basic knowledge of French, or of Latin roots, Digital Fortress boasts a simplistic play on words that crumbles, fortune cookie-like, to anyone who knows Spanish. Yes. Spanish. Like right and left hooks from Butterbean, the plot twists come molasses-slow and predictable. Where The Da Vinci Code was at least a fun ride with some lazy narration and gaping plot holes, Digital Fortress isn't even a guilty pleasure; only a guilty purchase.
I could go on, but I won't. Let me just say, in closing, that Digital Fortress was so stupid, my ears popped every time I opened the book."
"Have you heard of the NSA? I think these days, a lot of people know the NSA but apparently, there was a point in time when no one knew what the NSA was. Oh, NSA = National Security Agency. I've been there. Well, not there exactly, cuz it was after 9/11 = mad security. I was at the Cryptology Museum right next door.
Anywho, this Dan Brown thriller, post Da Vinci Code fame, follows much the same style and basic plot structure as Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. You can almost see the plot unfold before you actually read it.
The characters are thinly sketched, hardly explored. The premise held a lot of promise, but it wasn't exploited well enough.
The story was interesting, but I think I figured out whodunnit waaay too early. It's a good book if you wanna learn a bit about the NSA, but for plot and style, it's just the same thing again.
Note: Angels & Demons is still, by far, my favorite Dan Brown."
"*Taken from my LiveJournal Entry* SPOILERS BELOW!!!
Guess what I found out, though...
Zero-Divide One of Hugh's very old and not-so-well known video games is actually the premise for one of Dan Brown's books... I'm serious! As I was paging through the character / storyline booklet provided with the game, I kept thinking, "Wow! This story sounds really familiar!" The more I read, the more I realized that Dan Brown seemed to have lifted the whole plot line from the game! I'm not even kidding...
Chris, I'm calling you out, here... you've read Brown's book Digital Fortress. Tell me this plotline isn't a complete rip:
ZERO DIVIDE STORY:
Zero Divide takes place in the near future. One day, a mysterious data library known as "XTAL TOWER" surfaced on the Internet. Collected within this library were every nation of the world's most important national security secrets. The hackers who accomplished this feat threatened to release these secrets to the public in a matter of days. The world was stunned that these supposedly impossible to access secrets were acquired by these brilliant hackers. The military and economic balances of the entire world could be destroyed...
Hours later, each of the world's countries received an invitation from a being known only as "XTAL". The invitation stated that before the XTAL TOWER library was made public, each nation would be given a chance to fight against the library's security units, as well as each other. "If any challenger can defeat every other unit within the alotted time, and find their way to the location of the host, then they can stop the secrets from being released and destroy the XTAL TOWER..."
(Thank you, by the way, to CheatSearch.com for actually having this online!)
And if that's not enough, two characters from the book, Tokugen Numataka and Ensei Tankado, are names he created from the actual creators of the game!!! So seriously... I'm calling you, and every other person who has read this book out... TELL ME!!! Is this not a complete rip or what? I mean, yeah, I know Brown's been accused of stealing stuff in the past, but geez... a video game???
Strange... ya know, I admire Dan Brown's story-telling capability. I bet he can hear any story and somehow make it his. It's a very cool talent to possess... but to outright call ideas that aren't yours original... it's just not right. I think he owes the creators of Zero-Divide an apology. I say this tongue-in-cheek, but really... how many other times has this happened? *Shakes head*"
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