(5) = Best; (4) = Better; (3) = Good; (2) = Fair; (1) = OK
These abstracts serve as reminders to myself; they serve to "jog" my memory on what a book was all about. That's all. This is not a literary critique, not a social commentary, and certainly nothing profound to warrant further discussion.
(5) = means that I really enjoyed this book; (1) = means I finished reading it but wonder if my time could have been better spent elsewhere.
You have to be interested in computers, programming and cryptography to appreciate this novel. Our heroine is THE cryptographer of National Security Agency (NSA) that is able to spy on every citizen in the United States, listen in on all conversations and decipher all communications worldwide. They exist to protect the United States from all enemies. The system works well if no one knows about it.
The story is that of a disaffected person who has written a master program that is even better than what NSA has and he has distributed it worldwide through the internet. The catch is that a “key” is required to open it, so while everyone has access to it the key is needed to use it. He is blackmailing NSA to go public with what they are doing and if they do not do as he says he will release the key to the highest bidder. (3)
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