Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts

2021-07-12

"Digital Fortress" by Dan Brown

 


Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Copyright: 1998.
ISBN: 9780312263126

This is the second book of Dan Brown’s that I’ve read (I read The Da Vinci Code first, not realising that it was the second book in a series). This story however is a stand-alone novel that concerns the American National Security Agency (NSA), and its cryptographic division who have a sophisticated computer program that can decode anything in a matter of minutes, until it comes across a code written by a former employee.

A high level cryptographer in the NSA is called in to solve the riddle of this new code when the agency is essentially held hostage by a code system that threatens to put put them out of business, and ensure 100% privacy to everyone in the world - something no security agency would want.

Unlike numerous thriller novels there isnt tonnes of violence, with everybody armed to the teeth, etc. This novel is could easily be considered a classic as it requires the reader to think, and understand rather than just experience the visceral pleasure.

It is great to see the emergence of strong female characters in Brown's books, as the spy/thriller genre has been centred almost solely on males for decades. An excellent novel, looking forward to reading more of his work.

2018-08-27

"Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow" by Yuval Noah Harari



Publisher:[Toronto, Ontario] : Signal, [2015]
Copyright Date:©2015
ISBN: 9780771038686
Characteristics: 440 pages :,illustrations

This is the second book from this author that I have reviewed recently. The first one was three weeks ago, and was called "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind". This book continues the narration with a look at what the future of humankind could possibly be like.

The author goes into a lot of detail by examining politics, technology, economics, sociology, anthropology, and a few other ologies that I'm not very familiar with. He gives a very in-depth examination of these various topics, and makes the case that the human species is due for a relatively drastic cultural and sociological evolution sometime in the next century or so that will make it almost unrecognizable when compared to what we currently have today.

I found this to be an extremely interesting and thought-provoking book, that was extremely difficult to put down when I got into it. I'm not sure whether I really want to see some of the changes that are being predicted happen, but then again it could be interesting to witness.

2018-06-04

"Colossus and the Crab" by D. F. Jones (1915-1981)

Colossus and the Crab



Published: New York: Berkley Pub. Corp
Year: 1977
ISBN: 0425034674
Other Physical Details: 219 p. ; 18 cm

The third and final book in the Colossus trilogy follows the events of the second book directly (whereas there was a multi-year gap between the events of the first and second). Dr. Charles Forbin is in contact with two representatives from Mars who are not as friendly as they seem. The character of Dr. Blake features quite prominantly in this book but oddly Cleo Forbin is barely mentioned at all, which I found to be a bit of a let down as her part figured highly in "The Fall of Colossus" and was what motivated Forbin to act the way he did.

The title of the book is somewhat misleading, until you get about halfway through and figure out what "the crab" is - no I won't tell you! I half expected the Martian visitors to be crab-like or something, but that was not the case.

Overall this book was an enjoyable read, and the storyline comes to a logical conclusion with no loose ends that I came across. I found Forbin's capitulation to the Martian visitors somewhat odd, as well as his change of heart and revolt as somewhat out of character as the solution that is presented at the end of the book should easily have been thought of earlier, and this would therefore have solved numerous problems.

2018-05-28

"The Fall of Colossus" by D. F. Jones (1915-1981)

The Fall of Colossus


Published: New York: Berkley Pub. Corp
Year: 1975
ISBN: 9780425027608
Other Physical Details: 188 p. ; 18 cm

This novel is a continuation of the D. F. Jones' first instalment in the series entitle "Colossus", which was made into the movie "Colossus: The Forbin Project" and reviewed last week.

It takes place five years after the first novel, and by this time two of the character Charles & Cleo are married and have a child. Colossus during this time has grown, and essentially controls the world. There is no more disease, starvation, or war etc. The world is essentially at peace. Around Colossus a cult has arisen that essentially worships him or rather it as a god, and consequently Forbin as pseudo Pope.

The majority of the book revolves around the struggles Forbin has against Colossus, his personal Life, and how to make the two mesh. Another parallel storyline deals with an underground organization that wants to destroy Colossus and return the world to it's previous state as in their opinion there has been no creative thought in the world since the take over.

This book makes a good follow-up to the original, and even though it still has the general mindset prevalent in the mid-70's with regard to women's rights and other such things it is a good read.

2018-05-21

"Colossus" by D. F. Jones (1915-1981)

Colossus


Publisher: Berkley [United States]: 1976
Edition:Unabridged.
Characteristics:246 pages

I first read this book may years ago, and was fascinated by it and the implications that it mentioned. Since then, some 40 years later a lot of what is mentioned in this novel has come true although not with the sinister implications that the book foretold. Today humans rely on computers to a great extent, and when you consider that this book was written some 20 year before the internet came to be that is pretty good.

The book itself is a good story, and delves a fair bit into human psychology, emotions, etc. It is the first in a trilogy, and I'll be reviewing the other two books in the near future.

This book was made into a movie in 1970 starring Eric Braeden, Susan Clark & Gordon Pinsent. The director Joseph Sargent was quite true to the book, and captured a great deal of the suspense, which makes the movie worth watching as well. The movie is somewhat dated in it's attitudes towards women, etc. but this is the way things were done in the 70's so unless Hollywood decides to remake this movie were are forced to put up with it. This however, is not a plea for Hollywood to remake another movie - please get some original ideas!

While I have no evidence of this I would venture to guess that this book may likely have influenced some screen writers in Hollywood as shows like the Terminator franchise, West World (original movie and series), to name just a few have technology as one of the protagonists in a classic struggle with humankind.

Going on Hiatus

 Greetings, I have decided to put a hold on doing further book reviews for a while. In fact I'm not sure if I will resume doing reviews ...