In most thrillers, "hardware" consists of big guns, airplanes, military vehicles, and weapons that make things explode. Dan Brown has written a thriller for those of us who like our hardware with disc drives and who rate our heroes by big brainpower rather than big firepower. It's an Internet user's spy novel where the good guys and bad guys struggle over secrets somewhat more intellectual than just where the secret formula is hidden--they have to gain understanding of what the secret formula actually is.

In this case, the secret formula is a new means of encryption, capable of changing the balance of international power. Part of the fun is that the book takes the reader along into an understanding of encryption technologies. You'll find yourself better understanding the political battles over such real-life technologies as the Clipper Chip and PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) software even though the book looks at the issues through the eyes of fiction.

Although there's enough globehopping in this book for James Bond, the real battleground is cyberspace, because that's where the "bomb" (or rather, the new encryption algorithm) will explode. Yes, there are a few flaws in the plot if you look too closely, but the cleverness and the sheer fun of it all more than make up for them. There are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing and a lot of high, gee-whiz-level information about encryption, code breaking, and the role they play in international politics. Set aside the whole afternoon and evening for it and have finger food on hand for supper--you may want to read this one straight through.

Digital Fortress is the best and most realistic techno-thriller to reach the market in years. Dan Brown's ability to paint in living color the gray area between personal freedom vs. National security is awesome. The story line is so good, readers will feel a chilling thrill a minute as the book makes one think who is truly the terrorist and who is actually freedom's guardian.

This books sucks. It stinks. It is a waste of paper and ink and I resent the time I wasted on it - though by the end annoyance and incredulity had given way to wry amusement at the author's incompetence.

The plot is ridiculous and completely implausible, with holes an eight year old could spot. To say that the characterisation is cardboard is an insult cardboard. The technical details are so inaccurate as to be laughable.

Utter, unmitigated rubbish. One star only because no stars is not an option.

While I am a fan of Mr. Brown's later work, I was unimpressed with Digital Fortress. His understanding of the technology is clearly lacking and his attempts to fictionalize them makes for a rather boring read.

The plot was interesting, full of action like all his books. However, the main characters were so extremely "perfect" (they are gorgeous and geniuses at the same time) and the romance was so cheesy (they are PERFECT for each other and nothing is wrong with their relationship). Many plot twists can only be found in stories, for example, the main character needs to find a girl and it JUST SO happens that the first guy he met at a CONCERT knows who she is, and it JUST SO happens that the girl missed her plane ride when he got to the airplane. There are just way too many convenient conincidences to tell a story. There were also many inconsistencies of the book, and Brown seemed like he did a bad job researching about Asian cultures. I enjoyed Dan Brown's other books, but this one was disappointing.

Digital Fortress offers up nail biting suspense but only with characters that could have used greater development. The heroes and villains lack depth and complexity but nevertheless follow a plot line that is interesting and informative and with occasional surprises to make this an overall good read. Since a lot of thrillers seem to follow this formula I didn't really fault this book too much for the above mentioned defects.

Having read Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons, and Digital Fortress I can only say he spins a good story if you can get past the nonsense. This one was the hardest to get through and the absolute worst of those 3 (not that the other 2 are stellar either). The plot is predictable and the characters are stupid (even though they hold degrees I can only dream of). Others far more knowledgeable than I can tell you how bad the technical stuff was, my limited knowledge just made it bad enough to wish he'd done just a little research to make it sound a bit more plausible. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, not even an enemy.