There's an unassuming hero within the book as well - a linguistics expert by the name of David Becker, who is romantically involved with the heroine of the story - and who also is one of the leading characters. The story starts off with him, and leads down a path that can only be called a roller coaster.
Dan Brown does an exceptional job of taking exceptional characters, taking them out of their element and leaving you wondering what will happen next. This book is, without a doubt in my mind, a great thriller. And yet it's more than that; it's very content teases at the issues of modern society with issues such as computer viruses, firewalls, cryptography - even mentioning the encryption mechanism with context as to what they do.
This book is an amazing journey through the issues of encryption as related to privacy, of the conscientiousness of hackers and of people in charge of their nation's security. It's a mess, not unlike our reality as it is right now. It ravels and unravels so spontaneously that not until the end do you know whether it was raveling or unraveling in the course of reading.
This book initiates the uninitiated into a world of privacy versus security - where the moral questions are prominent throughout the book, the dilemma visited on many levels that people familiar with the struggle will feel right at home.
This is a must read book. And it sealed me in as a person who will always look for Dan Brown's books.
