The Literary Pentameter. Review on Digital Fortress - Dan Brown

Imagine a system so advanced in it's nature, that there exists no code on this planet that cannot be broken. Imagine the fact that all digitally borne messages i.e e-mail, s.m.s. and so on and so forth can be intercepted and fed to this system and if any encryption exists it could be broken in six minutes flat.

Well welcome to next generation computing and say hello to TRANSLTR, yes you guessed it right, its the short form for Translator, the computer with three million parallel processors, that makes present day computing as we know it a big joke. Now am not being paranoid,

but this is supposed to be the the system that forms the basis of this particular book.

Dan Brown's effort titled ''Digital Fortress'', does impress you to a point, especially when it comes to the analytical description of computer technology. And thats how far as I would go in supporting this book. The rest of the book is based on a whitewash of trails, clue's and congenital brainstorms. The three key characters of the book are I should say a bit shaky in certain fronts.

Then there is always the omnipresent but clinically dead scientist who causes all the problems in the book. Forgive me folks, but when I read a set of books by one author, I naturally expect him to be a bit more creative in his writing and naturally it follows that I also expect him to, refresh his writing style. But when an author fails to do that and he starts writing novels with type cast storylines and all that same mumbo jumbo, which he has written in three other books, then I would do only one thing.

Stop Reading His Books!

In three other reviews I have tried to point out the glaring anomalies in Dan Brown's books, but this time around I have decided that instead of being plain critical, I will point out why his books don't appease me, by the use of plain and simple Logic. And thats something that his books lack. Lets go ahead and see why.

Point One:- A key character who is either directly or indirectly involved in the cause of troubles in the book, dies at the very start. (Jacques Sauniere in Da Vinci Code, Tankado in Digital Fortress, The Canadian Scientist {forgive me I forgot his name} in Deception Point, Vetra in Angels And Demons) To be precise they are murdered.

Point Two:- There is always some secret or semi secret society in place, to stake claim for the murders and then there is a great deal of explanation about these societies. (The Priory Of Sion/Da Vinci Code, The Illuminati/Angels And Demons, The Delta Force/Deception Point, The Hulohyot/Digital Fortress). For Gods sake authors have written about secret societies in many books but they have atleast made a feeble and honest attempt in chaging the way these societies are portrayed, from book to book.

Point Three:- There is always a clue or hint, especially in the form of a four line poem in Iambic parameter!

Point Four:- The so called iconography, and thats a bad joke, is always a rescuer. If one pentagram is good then two are better. (remember The Da Vinci Code) Well let me tell you something, the origin of the pentagram as a fact is that initially the pentagram was the board layout for a turn based game in the ancient mesopotamian civilisation, infact if some of you have played small games as kids, with your grand parents then maybe you would recognise it instantly. (Chineese Checkers, remember the game and how it's board looks? )

Point Five:- The usual suspects. It always happens that initially the author makes sure that one of the characters is seemingly the bad 'un but then later on, it turns out to be that someone in a position of obvious power, who is involved in the main plot of the story turns out to be the bad guy. (W Pickering/Deception Point, armalengo Ventresca/ Angels And Demons, Leigh Teabing/ Da Vinci Code, The Commander/Digital Fortress!). hell am getting tired of this.

And since I have described everything in exactly five points, then maybe I should lay claim for developing the worlds first Literary Pentagram. (Am applying for a opyright!) Well all I can say is, the author needs to grow out of his shell of concepts and start writing something that is a bit more digestable. Adios Amigo's, go ahead borrow Mr. Brown's books from your friends and read them, get impressed by his material, then go to the internet, type https://google.com in the address bar of your browser, search for the things you learned newly and then appriciate the beauty of his books! And me am back to reading my torn copy of the last Forsyth!

Oh and one more thing, an odd question, if I am so critical of Dan Brown's books then why on the earth did I choose to write reviews on every one of his books. The answer is simple, people need to know the Skeletons in the cupboard especially in cases of books like these.