Digital Fortress by Dawn Brown

By

Dan Brown

The story revolves around an international decoding organization named NSA (National Security Agency). Their cryptophers prided the organization not only because the NSA was the most secretive and intelligent organization in the world, but also for the $2million   TRANSLTR (the best decoding machine) that they possessed. In the final years of the World War II, when USA dropped the atom bomb in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a boy named Tankado mysteriously survives the war with three fingers in each hand and a layer of skin highly exposed to radiation. He later overcomes all his disabilities and proves his talent in mathematical reasoning and decoding. IN no time he joins the NSA and designed the model of the TRANSLTR along with commander Strathmore. After building the TRANSLTR, commander Strathmore lied to the world that the TRANSLTR was a complete failure that the NSA were devising plans to make it work, while in reality the TRANSLTR was intercepting coded E – mails from terrorists and drug lords, and warned detective agencies like the CIA. But Tankado was against hiding the existence of the TRANSLTR and so he was fired. IN the hope of taking revenge he warned the NSA that he would one day build a coding machine that will confuse even the TRANSLTR. No one paid any heed to him because they knew that according to the Bergofsky principle every code is breakable. What they didn’t know was that one day they would have to take it all back.

Coming to the present, Susan Fletcher wakes up one morning with a call from Strathmore asking her to come over to the NSA in the light of an emergency situation. Strathmore also tells her that he has sent David to Spain to get the belongings of the late Tankado.  Later she finds out that Tankado succeeded in developing not an unbreakable code as they initially suspected but a super powerful worm that was supposed to infiltrate the databanks of the country that destroyed Japan in the final years of the deadliest war ever. As Susan Fletcher tries unsuccessfully to deactivate the worm by inserting possible combinations of the kill code, David obtains Tankado’s ring on which is engraved a puzzle that ultimately leads them to the kill code – 3 (the number of fingers on Tankado’s hand). It has a thrilling climax.

I really liked this science novel. The ideas expressed are profound and exciting. There are many twists and turns in the story which present humorous thoughts and ideas. It is quite ironical to know that such a secretive agency actually exists. Digital Fortress is closer to truth than any of us dare imagine. 

Reviewed by

Firoz Baker, IX A

 

Da Vinci Code

“Blinded ignorance does mislead us

O!Wretched mortals open your eyes”

These words were said by the famous painter LEONARDO DA VINCI,

the creator of the world famous paintings like The Mona Lisa , the Last Supper,

the Vtruvian man etc. He was an expert in many fields. It is said that  Da Vinci has leftmany codes in his paintings.

In the year 2003, a novel by DAN BROWN established that Da Vinci has certainly left many secrets. The book was none other than THE DA VINCI CODE. It is a fiction featuring

Robert Langdon, a symbologist and Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist who deals with numerical code breaking. The story starts with a murder. The curator of The Louvre Jacques Saunere’s murder and the message left by him Langdon and Neveu towards a new world of thousands of years old secrets.

Although the number of characters are limited,each one plays a definite role. The language and style of writing is incredible. The main theme of the book is the journey towards the Priory keystone which leads one to the Holy grail and many other well hidden secrets. According to the myth, only the members of the Priory of Sion, a secret society knows the exact location of the Holy grail.

Da vinci being one of the grandmasters of the secret society wanted the world to know the truth and hence left many clues in his paintings. One such striking trait is visible in The last supper. Da vinci has assigned certain feminine characters to disciple John seated next to Jesus Christ. Holy grail happen to be the cup in which Jesus had wine during The last supper. Mary Magdalene is also referred to as The Holy Grail. It is said that Da Vinci has painted John as Mary Magdalene to show Jesus’s intimacy towards her.

Mary Magdalene, a prostitute who joined Christ and later became of  his favorite disciple. In the book the author establishes that Jesus had relationship with Mary Magdalene and that their bloodline exists to this century.

A huge uproar was roused by this very book. The church and many disciples of the church launched protests against the book and movie alike. In many places the authorities were forced to ban the book. The reason put forth was that The Da Vinci Code hurts their religious sentiments. To be more precise, in the book it is said that

• • The Christians overpowered the Pagan religion to establish Christianity all over the world.
  • Jesus Christ was selected as ‘ Son Of God’ by mutual voting
  • Jesus’ relationship with Magdalene proves to be a major point of controversy.
  • In the book a monk named Silas murders the members of The Priory of Sion with the help given by a bishop.

• Despite many controversies the book happen to be a best seller throughout the world. Anyone who thinks a fiction can never affect your religious beliefs may go ahead and read the book without hesitation.

  Reviewed by Karthika P (XI A, Shift-II)