Digital Fortress - Dan Brown (1998)

[ComicChick]

synopsis: When the NSA's invincible code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious code it cannot break, the agency calls its head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher, a brilliant and beautiful mathematician. What she uncovers sends shock waves through the corridors of power.

The NSA is being held hostage... not by guns or bombs, but by a code so ingeniously complex that if released it would cripple U.S. intelligence. Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Susan battles to save the agency she believes in. Betrayed on all sides, she finds herself fighting not only for her country, but also for her life, and in the end, for the life of the man she loves.

wiki synopsis:

Spoiler!!! Click to Read!:

When the United States' National Security Agency's code-breaking machine encounters a mysterious and ingeniously complex code called Digital Fortress that it cannot break, the agency calls in Susan Fletcher, a brilliant mathematician and their head cryptographer, to crack it. Fletcher discovers that the code, which is written in Japanese, is a viral program designed to break down the NSA's firewall and encryption systems, allowing anyone anywhere to access all of the NSA's files. She also discovers that it was written by Ensei Tankado, a former NSA employee who became displeased with the NSA's intrusion into people's private lives. Tankado, essentially holding the NDS hostage, intends to auction the code's algorithm on his website, and release it for free if he dies, threatening to cripple U.S. intelligence. Fletcher, along with her fiancé, David Becker, a skilled linguist with eidetic memory, are thrust into a global chase that takes them from Washington, DC to the towers of Tokyo to the cathedrals of Seville, Spain, where they must find a way to stop the spread of the code.

I read this years ago and decided to pick it back up. It was probably my favorite Brown book at the time and I just had an urge to read it again. The NSA/code breaking/privacy intruding stuff is pretty interesting to me.

edit: on a side note, i edited my first wiki page haha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Fortress i added the list of characters but didn't really delve into them

[VampElvis]

I read this last of the four backs he'd written at the time and because of that, I think, everything was paper thin. I saw everything that happened coming a mile a way.

I haven't read the new on yet, but of the first four Angels and Demons is to me easily the best.

[ComicChick]

yeah Angels and Demons is probably his best book. I'd like to re-read that sometime. My least favorite is probably Deception Point.

[VampElvis]

Really? I put it (Deception Point) second. It was so fast paced and so vivid to me it read like a screen play and I just couldn't put it down. I think I read it in 2 or 3 days. Granted there was some really outrageous stuff in it, but it was a thrill ride.

[amazingfantasy15]

Problem with Dan Brown books is it's basically the same book just with different characters and a different scenario. The basic plot always plays out in the same way though. Read all four back to back about 4-5 years ago, really got sick of them by the end.

[AndThePickles]

Is it bad that I've probably read this and forgotten it? I agree with amazingfantasy, all of Brown's plots are so similar that they kinda just flow together in a big jumble for me.

[ComicChick]

they do all flow together, but they're entertaining for the most part. it's the history and clues and riddles i enjoy, whether they're true or not. i just like the way he mixes them up.

[AndThePickles]

They're entertaining, for sure. I just wish they were more memorable; it makes me feel like my brain sucks