Who Would Like This Book:
If you're a fan of high-stakes disaster thrillers or stories that make you ponder the fragility of modern civilization, "Blackout" is bound to captivate you. The book brilliantly imagines a continent-wide power outage caused by a cyberattack, offering a pulse-pounding glimpse into how interconnected and vulnerable society really is. You'll appreciate the international scope, the intricate (but accessible) insight into power grids, and thought-provoking questions about how we'd survive if the lights never came back on. Tech enthusiasts, conspiracy buffs, and anyone who loves a "what would really happen?" scenario should give this a try.
Who May Not Like This Book:
Some readers might find the technical explanations a bit dense, especially if they're not into IT or the workings of electrical infrastructure. The large cast of characters and constant scene shifts can also make it tough to keep track of who's who. If you want deep character development or subtle prose, this might feel more like a high-speed movie script than a nuanced novel. The translation has also been called out for making the language overly simple at times, which can flatten the tension.
About:
'Blackout' by Marc Elsberg is a thrilling novel that explores the catastrophic consequences of hackers infiltrating the power grids in Europe and the United States, causing widespread electricity outages. The story follows Piero Manzano, a reformed hacker who becomes a suspect after discovering the source of the hack and trying to assist the authorities in resolving the crisis. As the plot unfolds, readers are taken on a fast-paced journey across different countries, delving into the technical aspects of power grids and internet security while highlighting the life-threatening repercussions of prolonged power outages.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Potential content warnings include themes of disaster, violence related to a cyberattack, and societal collapse.
From The Publisher:
'Fast, tense, thrilling - and timely: this will happen one day. Highly recommended' LEE CHILD
'A dazzling debut' Marcel Berlins, The Times
THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE MONTH
THE GLOBAL MILLION-COPY BESTSELLER
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Tomorrow will be too late.
A cold night in Milan, Piero Manzano wants to get home.
Then the traffic lights fail. Manzano is thrown from his Alfa as cars pile up. And not just on this street - every light in the city is dead.
Across Europe, controllers watch in disbelief as electricity grids collapse.
Plunged into darkness, people are freezing. Food and water supplies dry up. The death toll soars.
Former hacker and activist Manzano becomes a prime suspect. But he is also the only man capable of finding the real attackers.
Can he bring down a major terrorist network before it's too late?
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'Part Dan Brown-style chase and part eco-thriller, this debut-a bestseller in Germany-will get people talking' - Booklist US
Ratings (3)
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Loved It (1) |
Reader Stats (5):
Read It (3) | |
Want To Read (2) |
What can you read after
Blackout?
About the Author:
Marc Elsberg is a former creative director in advertising. His debut thriller, the high-concept disaster thriller BLACKOUT, became a bestseller and one of the most successful thrillers of its kind in Germany. He has also given a TEDx talk on the subject of the horrors of an electrical grid failure. BLACKOUT and his follow-up, CODE ZERO were selected as Scientific Book of the Year in Germany. BLACKOUT was named Thriller of the Month by the Times. His latest bestselling thriller, GREED, contains cutting-edge research on the economy. He lives in Vienna, Austria.
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