"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."

"Information age terrorism is the topical subject of Brown's inventive debut thriller about a virtual attack on the National Security Agency's top-secret super computer, TRANSLTR. Although TRANSLTR is meant to monitor and decode e-mail between terrorists, the computer can also covertly intercept e-mail between private citizens. The latter capability drives former NSA programmer Ensei Tankado to paralyze TRANSLTR with Digital Fortress, a devious mathematical formula with an unbreakable code. Tankado then demands that the NSA publicly admit TRANSLTR's existence or he will auction Digital Fortress's pass-key to the highest bidder. Brown cleverly makes ironic, mischievous Tankado (who dies in the first chapter) the most interesting character in the book and its real protagonist, as the programmer posthumously outmaneuvers his opposition, countering their obsessive quest for complex solutions with brilliant simplicity. His favorite saying, "Who will guard the guards?" stands in noble contrast to the NSA agents self-righteous insistence that they always know what is best for America... In this fast-paced, plausible tale, Brown blurs the line between good and evil enough to delight patriots and paranoids alike."

"You are not going to forget Dan Brown! Comparisons of Brown to Tom Clancy are inevitable and justified. What Clancy has written so convincingly about the CIA and the FBI, Brown has accomplished masterfully for the secretive National Security Agency in "Digital Fortress". Dan Brown has crafted a powerful and memorable novel that is alive and kicking with intrigue, covert action, and more twists and turns than the NSA has underground bunkers. No longer can we think of Tom Clancy as the dominant literary icon with unequaled insight into the intelligence community: Dan Brown has charged that intrepid hill and now occupies the same high ground. "Digital Fortress" is frighteningly real, filled with honor and dishonor, passion and conviction, life and death, the love of country, and the inescapable conclusion that each of us understands deep inside: the complex simplicity of right and wrong and the strength of love are our beacons of hope."

"The National Security Agency (NSA) is one setting for this exciting thriller; the other is Seville, where on page 1 the protagonist, lately dismissed from NSA, drops dead of a supposed heart attack. Though dead, he enjoys a dramaturgical afterlife in the form of his computer program. Digital Fortress creates unbreakable codes, which could render useless NSA's code-cracking supercomputer called TRANSLTR, but the deceased programmer slyly embossed a decryption key on a ring he wore. Pursuit of this ring is the engine of the plot. NSA cryptology boss Trevor Strathmore dispatches linguist Dave Becker to recover the ring, while he and Becker's lover, senior code-cracker Susan Fletcher, ponder the vulnerability of TRANSLTR. In Seville, over-the-top chase scenes abound; meanwhile, the critical events unfold at NSA. In a crescendo of murder, infernos, and explosions, Brown's skill at hinting and concealing the twist will rivet cyber-minded readers."

This crisp and pungent first thriller by Dan Brown, who teaches English at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, will delight all sorts of readers--especially anyone who knows anything about computers and encryption software such as PGP (for Pretty Good Privacy). "To make their charade of incompetence complete," Brown writes, "the NSA [National Security Agency, but so secret that it's also known as No Such Agency] lobbied fiercely against all new encryption software, insisting it crippled them and made it impossible for lawmakers to catch and prosecute the criminals. Civil rights groups cried foul, insisting the NSA shouldn't be reading their mail anyway. Encryption software kept rolling off the presses. The NSA had lost the battle--exactly as it had planned." In Digital Fortress, the NSA's secret weapon is a giant, multibillion-dollar computer called TRANSLTR, which can crack any code in seconds. The trouble starts when a renegade scientist comes up with an unbreakable code, Digital Fortress, and then threatens to give it away on the Internet. Along with the techno-babble, there are some very interesting human characters, including a heroic anguage teacher-turned-spy.

"A disturbing, cutting-edge techno-thriller which should galvanize everyone who sends or receives E-mail or even dreams of navigating the Web. Dan Brown has unleashed a surprise: a gripping story on the frontier of cyberspace which adroitly explores the frighteningly delicate line between defending us and controlling us."

"A techno-thriller is only as thrilling as its realness--and if Dan Brown's gut-churning story were any realer, its plot turns would hurl you against the wall."