Digital Fortress
Sep. 6th, 2005 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liralenIt's rare when I read a book that I've wanted to throw across the room into a wall half a dozen times.
Usually, after one or two throws I'm done, it's not worth my time. Dan Brown makes so many misstatements about computer technology and encryption and decryption that the book would have been pretty battered if it weren't library property; but the people and the mystery and the sheer action of it was enough to lure me back. I was also bemused to see that cliches that the romance novel industry now routinely edit out made their way into a techno-thriller with no problem. Bleh. It ended with a point that was too cute for belief, but most of the rest of it made sense. And the elegant solution was exactly that, which won enough points for me to keep being interested in Brown as an author.
The Too-Smart single woman in the midst of a male-dominated culture made me wince a bit, as it's too close to home, in some ways, but how he wrote it was too far away from reality. If she'd really been in that situation as long as she was supposed to have been there to get where she was going, she would have known how to handle genius boys much better than her shrinking violet methods, and she wouldn't be wearing the kinds of things he had her wearing if she had any sense. It makes sense for a best-seller, but no sense from an old, out-numbered, techno-girl point of view. Just made me doubt her supposed IQ.
There were points where she did come up with the cool answer. It was also fun to solve the crypto puzzles when the data was first presented, though why they were in digital instead of hex is another one of those techno-booboos that I hated. They were simple enough to make the exercise kinda fun instead of frustrating, so that was kinda cool, though it did throw me out of the "this is hard stuff" belief... okay... okay... so I studied the mathematics of digital communication theory for a year at Caltech... but I forgot everything but the first principles! Shouldn't that make it harder? Ahem...
I couldn't get The Da Vince Code at the local library. 29 copies and they're all checked out. So I started with some of his other books. Angels & Demons is pretty cool, calligraphy-wise, but I've already thrown it a couple of times for stupidity points and technology muddle-speak. But the mystery's been interesting.
Usually, after one or two throws I'm done, it's not worth my time. Dan Brown makes so many misstatements about computer technology and encryption and decryption that the book would have been pretty battered if it weren't library property; but the people and the mystery and the sheer action of it was enough to lure me back. I was also bemused to see that cliches that the romance novel industry now routinely edit out made their way into a techno-thriller with no problem. Bleh. It ended with a point that was too cute for belief, but most of the rest of it made sense. And the elegant solution was exactly that, which won enough points for me to keep being interested in Brown as an author.
The Too-Smart single woman in the midst of a male-dominated culture made me wince a bit, as it's too close to home, in some ways, but how he wrote it was too far away from reality. If she'd really been in that situation as long as she was supposed to have been there to get where she was going, she would have known how to handle genius boys much better than her shrinking violet methods, and she wouldn't be wearing the kinds of things he had her wearing if she had any sense. It makes sense for a best-seller, but no sense from an old, out-numbered, techno-girl point of view. Just made me doubt her supposed IQ.
There were points where she did come up with the cool answer. It was also fun to solve the crypto puzzles when the data was first presented, though why they were in digital instead of hex is another one of those techno-booboos that I hated. They were simple enough to make the exercise kinda fun instead of frustrating, so that was kinda cool, though it did throw me out of the "this is hard stuff" belief... okay... okay... so I studied the mathematics of digital communication theory for a year at Caltech... but I forgot everything but the first principles! Shouldn't that make it harder? Ahem...
I couldn't get The Da Vince Code at the local library. 29 copies and they're all checked out. So I started with some of his other books. Angels & Demons is pretty cool, calligraphy-wise, but I've already thrown it a couple of times for stupidity points and technology muddle-speak. But the mystery's been interesting.
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:38 pm (UTC):-) It's quite bad, technically. But interesting in a daisy-chain kind of way.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:40 pm (UTC)I hate it when incompitency is rewarded by mega-bucks. Shallow thrillers... but I guess something has to be said for "engaging".
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:49 pm (UTC)Sad, sad.
If you're looking for recommendations, I've been plowing through Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver and The Confusion, and I've thoroughly enjoyed them. Of course, they're interminably long, but still.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 10:12 pm (UTC)I should probably read that new series anyway and see if he's improved at all.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 06:56 pm (UTC)i haven't read "digital fortress", but i suspect i couldn't handle the tech blunders.
i read the davinci code on a plane and kept figuring things out before the main characters (which is annoying since they're supposed to be smart), and found almost nothing new in conspiracy theory stuff that wasn't covered elsewhere in stuff i've read.
"deception point" has physics blunders and such.
they're airplane books, pretty much. cotton candy, imao.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-06 09:37 pm (UTC)The tech blunders just made me roll my eyes. There were so many it just made me go ahhg.
And, yeah, I had the same reaction you did to figuring out things pages and pages and even chapters before the main characters did. They're *supposed* to be *smart*. Okay, so we're smart, too, by the normal definition of things (not that that's what I think when they're supposed to be smart), but these guys were supposed to be better if the description had anything to do with it!
Ha.
I like "cotton candy"... that's a good descriptor.