Digital Fortress

So this past summer I've been doing a job that basically requires me to drive to Florida NY, which is about an hour drive, pick up some suitcases, and then drive back home. Who knows what's in those suitcases though O.o. Nah, its just boring mail. Still, I figured that instead of just jamming out to the radio everyday while I drove up there, I would get a few audiobooks from the library. I actually think I've gotten through eight books that way this summer. Digital Fortress was one of the first, and caught my eye since it was written by Dan Brown, who is better known for his books Angels and Demons, and The De Vinci Code. I was also recommended this book by a friend a few months ago and figured it was as good a time as any to pick it up. The story is set up around an United States Agency who's main purpose is cracking digital codes. Code breaking has been a fundamental part of war since ancient times, and became especially important in WWII, when the allies had to use cryptologists in order to break German and Japanese coded messages. After that war, the usefulness of cryptology became very apparent, and so the United States National Security Agency was created (in the book). Their job was mainly to decode messages that the US intercepted as quickly as possible. A big change happened though with the age of computers, and information was easily accessible by this agency through peoples unprotected emails. After many convictions because of lax digital security, long digital codes were made to increase security. In order to counter this new obstacle, the U.S.N.C.A . used a method of hard cracking, which basically meant they had a computer try every combination possible on the messages they wanted to see. This went back and forth with longer codes being made, and better computers to counter then, until the U.S.N.C.A created TRANSLTR, a advance code breaking computer the could handle the hardest codes in several minutes.
Our story really starts here, when TRANSLTR is challenged by a code it cannot break, called Digital Fortress. This Digital Fortress was created by a former colleague named Ensei Tankado, who believed, "We all have the right to keep secrets." He built Digital Fortress in order to to combat TRANSLTR, and has said he will release it to the highest bidder in the next twenty-four hours, or to the public in the case of his demise, unless the U.S.N.C.A. admits openly about the existence of TRANSLTR. The story starts off with us seeing Tankado having a heart attack in Spain, the same day these events unfold. The main protagonist, David Becker, is asked to go to Spain in order to retrieve all of Tankado's belongings, in the hope he had the code to access Digital fortress on him. Things get complicated for David, who is only a language consultant for U.S.N.C.A, when he finds out that Tankado gave away his ring, which might have the code on it, with his last dying breaths. David has to race against the clock in order to find this ring before Digital reaches the end of the bidding time, or before NDAKOTA, Tankado's partner, who is t release the Digital Fortress to the public if he gets word of Tankado's disappearance, or untimely death, finds out that Tankado's already dead in the heat of Spain.
This book has a lot of twist and turns, like most of Brown's books do, and is only not as known as his two hits, Angels and Demons, and The De Vinci Code, because it isn't as controversial. I personally think its better then those two, and has a great audio book reading of it. The show is stolen a little by Commander Trevor Strathmore on the audio version, since the voice actor decided to give him a voice very similar to that of Sean Connery, and is part of why I recommend the audio version. This really is a great book to pick up if your into light science fiction, or just like a good mystery story at the end of a day. Thank you so much for reading, and hope you take a look at this book.