Reading is Good (May 09)

Read three books in May. Initially I wanted to write this review at the start of June... Yes yes, my procrastination skill is pretty high, it comes with being the slacker extraordinare, *ehem*.

=P

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Silencer by Campbell Armstrong is not a bad read. The story is about the disappearance of people in the US Federal Witness Protection Program, many of whom ended up being found dead.

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The former state prosecutor named Amanda Scholes, who sent a few of her witnesses to the Program, started asking difficult question and probing about the Witness Protection Program. Things like whether of not the Program was being penetrated? Whether or not corruption was in play?

The storyline unfolds in dynamic and gripping pace, however towards the middle of it it got ridiculous for me, since almost all named character end up dead. It's like, if some character was named and given a short background history of, then you can pretty much say bye bye to him or her, that person is gonna die.

That said, it's a good story nevertheless.

Quote from the novel:

"Kinda proper, kinda aloof. But hot in the sack."

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I reread Digital Fortress by Dan Brown due to two reasons:

(1) I wrote this, in which I talked about wax, which in turn reminded me about the "without wax" code, with which I signed off that entry in

(2) Angels & Demons was showing on cinemas during that time, which put Dan Brown to the front of my mind

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The story still enthralled me and made me turned the pages non-stop even when it was my second time through.

The story revolves around a USD1.9 billion, three million processors working in parallel super computer (Intel inside?) called TRANSLTR that breaks encryption by sheer brute force attack. That is, the super computer (Intel inside!) simply guesses and uses trial-and-error method to break codes.

The US government used TRANSLTR so they could read encrypted e-mails and messages sent by the terrorists. Of course they could read personal e-mails of anyone as well hence there was a strong protest aginst TRANSLTR.

Digital Fortress is about a catching story of all these, and more. In typical Dan Brown style, there are many twists and turns, hidden agendas, assasinations, secrets...

And of course, there is this code: without wax. =)

Fantastic read, in fact, all four Dan Brown's novels are fantastic reads, go grab a copy now!

Quotes from the novel:

"Everything is possible. The impossible just takes longer."

"Regardless of the country, it seems there was one universal truth when it came to offices: Nobody could stand the sound of an unanswered phone."

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (who will guard the guards?)"

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The Cobra Event by Richard Preston is scary, but great!

I couldn't find an exact image of the cover of the book I have, mine is red in colour but I simply couldn't find it so I picked this white colour version instead.

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The Cobra Event is about a devastating biological weapon that has been released in New York and the containment, detective work, investigation and tracking that led to the final take down of the criminal.

The storyline is very gripping and the description graphical which leaves vivid images in the reader's mind, the effect of the lethal biological weapon was described in such horrifying details it's totally believable. Everything was written with such authenticity it makes the story scaringly real.

Superb novel, go read!