Review of Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
When my book group decided to read Digital Fortress, I was both curious and apprehensive. My awareness of Dan Brown as a bestselling author has always existed in a sort of distant admiration—his name gleams on bestsellers lists, and yet, I never felt compelled to explore his work. My presumption was that his thrillers wouldn’t resonate with me. Little did I know that diving into the pages of this book would lead to quite an entertaining, albeit frustrating, journey.
At its core, Digital Fortress grapples with themes of secrecy, intelligence, and the moral dilemmas of technology. It follows Susan Fletcher, a brilliant codebreaker at the NSA who faces a mysterious threat to national security. While Susan is portrayed as the epitome of beauty and intellect—a fact Dan Brown clearly emphasizes with relentless repetition—her character ultimately felt two-dimensional. Every few paragraphs, I was reminded of her superior intelligence and beauty, as if Brown feared we’d forget her significance. Trust me, Dan, that Susan Fletcher is an important character was evident; my struggle was with how one-dimensional she remained.
The plot spirals into a chase involving Susan’s fiancé, David Becker, who is unwittingly plunged into a convoluted scavenger hunt in Spain. With minimal training, he somehow morphed into a master detective—albeit with the assistance of a series of convenient coincidences. Reading this was like watching a suspenseful action movie unravel with a few too many cheese-laden lines. The pacing often felt inconsistent, teetering between frantic bursts of action and drawn-out explanations that made me feel like I was back in a high school lecture on cryptography.
Yet, amidst the absurdities, there were a few moments where the tension took me by surprise. I genuinely didn’t foresee the identity of some characters, which kept me engaged. There’s something disarming about being on the edge of your seat, even when the narrative structure brings you back to familiar territory—the many intricate escape plans and the looming threat to the NSA. But ultimately, Dan Brown’s insistence on “telling” rather than “showing” left me rolling my eyes more often than not.
Oh, and let’s not forget the drinking games I humorously concocted in my mind! Take a sip whenever someone chuckles or when eyes are described with excessively rare colors; trust me, you’d end up tipsy—or doing push-ups—by the time you finished. This whimsical meandering into the text was save-room for laughs amidst the frustration.
So, would I recommend Digital Fortress? It’s tough to say. If you’re a fan of over-the-top thrillers with plenty of romantic tension and high-tech espionage, this might be right up your alley. But for those who crave depth in character development and nuanced writing, you might find yourself as baffled as I was wondering how this got on a must-read list.
In the end, my book group and I can reflect on this experience together—probably with a glass of something strong in hand—grateful to bond over our shared disbelief. While I have no plans to pick up another Dan Brown novel anytime soon, I appreciate the lively discussion we’ll likely have tomorrow at our meeting. Who knew I’d find such unexpected comradery through a book I initially dreaded? Here’s to the power of bad reads-turned-great conversations!