Digital Fortress : A Thriller
Brown, Dan
I thought The Da Vinci Code was ok but ultimately implausible and I thought the ending was pulled out of a hat. On the other hand, there’s no question that Dan Brown can write a good page turner, so I went looking for his earlier books (what can I say, when it comes to reading I am a gourmand not a gourmet). Digital Fortress was Brown’s first book, I believe, and I found it much more satisfying than the Da Vinci Code. What I found particularly interesting is how he explores how technical plausibility collides with the human dimensions of fear and paranoia in large organizations. His canvas here is the NSA, but the lessons are worth thinking about in more mundane contexts. So you get a nice thriller that moves and some food for thought about how digital technology affects big organizations. A nice twofer.