I've never read a Brown: I got pushed abridged audio of the Da Vinci Code on its release, and the furore around it failed to attract at the time.

It feels like this one was written earlier - cellphones are very new tech and even floppy disks get an honourable mention. The crypto side of things was pretty interesting and of course the trope of teacher turned superhero is widespread. Some of the language stuff felt a little OTT at times too, and of course the last-minute array of firewalls was pure visual cinema.

all that said, I still enjoyed it, even if, quite Ironically, the book comes across as quite dated - unusual when you consider Brown's plaudits as a new voice of his generation.