Digital Fortress
by Dan Brown · first published 1998
26% recommend37% neutral37% critical
Why HN recommends it
A fun, fast-paced thriller centred on cryptography and NSA intrigue. It offers an entertaining take on codebreaking and government conspiracy, and suits those who want a light, gripping techno-thriller.
Common criticism: Cryptography is portrayed inaccurately, which bothers readers who know the subject well.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Digital Fortress is a techno-thriller novel written by American author Dan Brown and published in 1998 by St. Martin's Press. The book explores the theme of government surveillance of electronically stored information on the private lives of citizens, and the possible civil liberties and ethical implications of using such technology.
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I have worked my ass of this year, therefore, I am looking forward to a nice 2 week break in the sun. I read digital fortress by Dan Brown a while back (liked it except for the NSA being glamourised) and loved the Mother of God (the rise of AI by David Ambrose). Would really appreciate some suggestions from the community on…
on “Ask HN: Anyone recommend any good hacker themed books for my hols?” ↗I liked Cryptonomicon, but more for the WWII side of the story. If you liked that part, check out Colossus by Jack Copeland. The Randy Waterhouse side of the story actually reminded me a lot of Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. Say what you will about Dan Brown, but I thought Digital Fortress was great.
on “Ask HN: Recommend any good business/hacker fiction?” ↗I would recommend Digital Fortress by Dan Brown, I would not say Linux plays a significant role, but the whole cryptography background going on it's really fun and entertaining.
on “Ask HN: What novels or other fictional works have Linux in a significant role?” ↗On the topic of conspiracy theories and the NSA, read the novel "Digital Fortress"[0] by Dan Brown :) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Fortress
on “A riddle wrapped in a curve (2015)” ↗…should take his individual novels for what they are, and for every one I've read, they're squarely in so-bad-it's-good territory. For anyone else who enjoys such novels, I highly recommend Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. There's also commentary on the novel by the creators of RiffTrax in episodes 71 through 77 of the 372 Pages podcast: https://372pages.com/ep-71-if-bizarre-foods-went-horny
on “Don't make fun of renowned author Dan Brown (2013)” ↗> For anyone else who enjoys such novels, I highly recommend Dan Brown's Digital Fortress. I thought Digital Fortress was the better book honestly. *Spoilers ahead* – In The Davinci Code you need to suspend disbelief on many aspects of the book. However with DF, most of it is just regular…
on “Don't make fun of renowned author Dan Brown (2013)” ↗Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. I read it 5 years ago. Recommend it
on “Ask HN: Recommendations of good cybercrime novels?” ↗Dan Brown Digital Fortress noivel about cryptoanalysis
on “Ask HN: What fiction/non-fiction book should everyone read on the topic of CS?” ↗I recommend Dan Drowns Digital Fortress: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Fortress the book is filled with Cryptography, Quantum computing, NSA, Assasins... _i.e sorted me out pretty well_
on “Ask HN: Anyone recommend any good hacker themed books for my hols?” ↗I recommend Dan Drown's first book, Digital Fortress: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Fortress the book is filled with Cryptography, Quantum computing, NSA, Assasins....... Was perfect for me and will be for any other hacker!! :D
on “Ask HN: Book Recommendations?” ↗I loved these books when I was a kid, especially Digital Fortress! This article is so mean and ironically quite clumsily written itself. It's not that funny (although it's hard to be funny when you're being so mean-spirited!)
on “Don't make fun of renowned author Dan Brown (2013)” ↗While I agree with the sentiment in your analysis, the mass spying by the NSA was already well-known even in 2004 which is documented in the novel ("based on insider information") of Dan Brown: digital fortress. I know, it's fiction but it is a data point .. https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Fortress-Thriller-Dan-Brown/d... (Edit: this is the 2004 edition, original was published in 1998)
on “Nobody Knows What They're Doing (2013)” ↗Dan Brown is the author I love to hate. His Digital Fortress and Deception Point are hilariously bad. But don't bother spending any money on them; just borrow them from the library.
on “Why I won’t touch the Kindle 2 with a ten foot pole.” ↗Counterexample: if you know anything about cryptography -- anything at all -- then Dan Brown's earlier book Digital Fortress is downright painful.
on “Why I read fiction” ↗…on the latter, but they will still get plenty of the former. As I mentioned before, Frank Herbert was a very late bloomer. A more modern (but less extreme) example would be Dan Brown: his first book, Digital Fortress was just barely good enough to get him a second book deal; Angels and Demons made the best-seller list, barely; he didn't achieve superstar chart-topping success until his fourth book, Da Vinci Code.…
on “Gore, Ex-Apple Engineers Team Up to Blow Up the Book” ↗