Comment Stank is too kind. (Score 1) 217
Written as if by veteran author of Days of Our Lives Friday afternoon-episode scripts? Check.
I really enjoyed The DaVinci Code as well, though I thought the writing had some major weak points. Nevertheless, I decided to give Digital Fortress a try. Big mistake. It has all of Code's flaws, but massively amplified. I listened to this book in the car, which I do not recommend, as it is sure to induce road rage due to major pacing and accuracy issues.
The pacing is unforgiveable. At the end of every chapter, Dan reveals some new tiny fragment of whatever the solution to the mystery du jour is a la [insert name of Soap Opera]. The repetition is maddening, particularly so because generally you (and Shaggy and Scoob) were able to unlock the big enigma sometime around chapter 2 although the random expert characters will bumble around looking attractive but confused for at least 100 more chapters. You start to to really resent the way the hero and heroine seem to cheat death every other chapter. Or not... maybe a quick death would be too kind for people this stupid.
In terms of subject matter, I should have been awed by its genius from start to finish since I am a fairly non-logical, non-crypto-oriented person. Instead, I found myself yelling the obvious solutions to the riddles at the car stereo. After not many pages, you start to doubt the validity of the IQ test that put our heroine's quotient at 170--
Random Character: Susan, event X has taken place!
Susan: But that's not possible.
R.C.: Nevertheless, it has happened. Please listen to four pages of proof and review these substantiating artifacts
Susan: I'm looking at the proof, yet still I must remain stunned and doubtful and repeat my feelings of disbelief for chapters and chapters and chapters. I must do this everytime a new fact is presented. And don't forget, I have a near-genius IQ and great legs. Also, I am a strawberry blonde.
And as others have pointed out repeatedly, the book is full of errors. And not just technical details that anyone capable of reformatting a floppy disk might notice-- cultural details are wrong, excerpts of foreign languages are often incorrect (very annoying since the male hero is allegedly a "brilliant" linguist--how hard is it to find a native speaker to run an eye over your draft, Dan?). And to add insult to injury, you are usually treated to these mistakes in the form of lengthy lectures, mental cut-away shots that generally occur during moments of high tension:
"Bob heard the bullets whizzing by his head. In his desperation to cheat death, he flung his body into the nearest open doorway, that of a soap shop on the Rue de Blah Blah Blah. As he leaped over a counter piled high with rose-shaped guest soaps, he suddenly remembered that soap in ancient times was created from rendered fat with lye and salt added to create the slippery, bubbly texture billions of people now used to remove dirt from their nailbeds. Soap has many uses, including as a medium for carving and toy-boat making (insert 3-4 additional pages on the history of soap)... the hot lead that embedded itself in his ass jerked Bob forcibly from his meditation on soap..."
This book does not merely stink, it reeks. The research reeks, the writing reeks... But if you're a precocious 10-year-old who wants to think "Wow, I'm neck and neck with a beautiful, busty NSA cryptographer with a 170 IQ when it comes to solving mysteries and breaking codes!"... then baby, this book's for you.
I really enjoyed The DaVinci Code as well, though I thought the writing had some major weak points. Nevertheless, I decided to give Digital Fortress a try. Big mistake. It has all of Code's flaws, but massively amplified. I listened to this book in the car, which I do not recommend, as it is sure to induce road rage due to major pacing and accuracy issues.
The pacing is unforgiveable. At the end of every chapter, Dan reveals some new tiny fragment of whatever the solution to the mystery du jour is a la [insert name of Soap Opera]. The repetition is maddening, particularly so because generally you (and Shaggy and Scoob) were able to unlock the big enigma sometime around chapter 2 although the random expert characters will bumble around looking attractive but confused for at least 100 more chapters. You start to to really resent the way the hero and heroine seem to cheat death every other chapter. Or not... maybe a quick death would be too kind for people this stupid.
In terms of subject matter, I should have been awed by its genius from start to finish since I am a fairly non-logical, non-crypto-oriented person. Instead, I found myself yelling the obvious solutions to the riddles at the car stereo. After not many pages, you start to doubt the validity of the IQ test that put our heroine's quotient at 170--
Random Character: Susan, event X has taken place!
Susan: But that's not possible.
R.C.: Nevertheless, it has happened. Please listen to four pages of proof and review these substantiating artifacts
Susan: I'm looking at the proof, yet still I must remain stunned and doubtful and repeat my feelings of disbelief for chapters and chapters and chapters. I must do this everytime a new fact is presented. And don't forget, I have a near-genius IQ and great legs. Also, I am a strawberry blonde.
And as others have pointed out repeatedly, the book is full of errors. And not just technical details that anyone capable of reformatting a floppy disk might notice-- cultural details are wrong, excerpts of foreign languages are often incorrect (very annoying since the male hero is allegedly a "brilliant" linguist--how hard is it to find a native speaker to run an eye over your draft, Dan?). And to add insult to injury, you are usually treated to these mistakes in the form of lengthy lectures, mental cut-away shots that generally occur during moments of high tension:
"Bob heard the bullets whizzing by his head. In his desperation to cheat death, he flung his body into the nearest open doorway, that of a soap shop on the Rue de Blah Blah Blah. As he leaped over a counter piled high with rose-shaped guest soaps, he suddenly remembered that soap in ancient times was created from rendered fat with lye and salt added to create the slippery, bubbly texture billions of people now used to remove dirt from their nailbeds. Soap has many uses, including as a medium for carving and toy-boat making (insert 3-4 additional pages on the history of soap)... the hot lead that embedded itself in his ass jerked Bob forcibly from his meditation on soap..."
This book does not merely stink, it reeks. The research reeks, the writing reeks... But if you're a precocious 10-year-old who wants to think "Wow, I'm neck and neck with a beautiful, busty NSA cryptographer with a 170 IQ when it comes to solving mysteries and breaking codes!"... then baby, this book's for you.
