Blackout : a novel

Title:

Blackout : a novel

Author:

Elsberg, Marc, 1967- author.

ISBN:

9781492654414

Personal Author:

Elsberg, Marc, 1967- author.

Uniform Title:

Blackout. English

Publication Information:

Naperville, Illinois : Sourcebooks Landmark, [2017]

Physical Description:

316 pages ; 24 cm

Abstract:

When the lights go out one night, no one panics. Not yet. The lights always come back on soon, don't they? Surely it's a glitch, a storm, a malfunction. But something seems strange about this night. Across Europe, controllers watch in disbelief as electrical grids collapse. There is no power, anywhere. A former hacker and activist, Piero investigates a possible cause of the disaster. The authorities don't believe him, and he soon becomes a prime suspect himself. With the United States now also at risk, Piero goes on the run with Lauren Shannon, a young American CNN reporter based in Paris, desperate to uncover who is behind the attacks. After all, the power doesn't just keep the lights on--it keeps us alive.

Language Note:

Originally published in German as, Blackout : morgen ist es zu spät ; Roman. München : Blanvalet, 2012.

Subject Term:

Computer crimes -- Investigation -- Europe -- Fiction.

Hackers -- Europe -- Fiction.

Electric power failures -- Europe -- Fiction.

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Document ID:

SD_ILS:2270783

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Library	Collection	Collection	Call Number	Status
Searching... Betty Rodriguez Library (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Adult Fiction Area	ELSBERG MA Blackou	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Clovis Branch Library (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Adult Fiction Area	ELSBERG MA Blackou	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Sanger Branch Library (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Adult Fiction Area	ELSBERG MA Blackou	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"Fast, tense, thrilling -- and timely: this will happen one day. Highly recommended." --Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series

This is no accident.

This is no act of God.

This is a Blackout.

A former hacker and activist, Piero investigates a possible cause of the disaster. The authorities don't believe him, and he soon becomes a prime suspect himself. With the United States now also at risk, Piero goes on the run with Lauren Shannon, a young American CNN reporter based in Paris, desperate to uncover who is behind the attacks. After all, the power doesn't just keep the lights on--it keeps us alive.

Author Notes

Marc Elsberg is a former creative director in advertising. His debut thriller BLACKOUT is a frighteningly plausible drama of an international blackout caused by a hacker attack. An instant bestseller in Germany, it has sold over a million copies and has been translated worldwide. Marc Elsberg lives in Vienna, Austria.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Europe is plunged into darkness, followed by further disasters, in Elsberg's U.S. debut, an uneven thriller, which was a bestseller in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The blackout, which starts in Italy and is caused by computer hackers with vague dreams of disrupting the world order, quickly spreads north. Elsberg does a good job capturing how life could break down when we lose our main power source. Within days, food riots erupt in major cities, all forms of transportation and communication cease, nuclear power plants leak radiation, and some governments fall to military coups. The plot is told largely through vignettes of various groups of people and their individual struggles. Central among the book's characters are former hacker and activist Piero Manzano and CNN reporter Lauren Shannon. Together, Piero and Lauren try to find the cause of the power loss, though for a while the authorities suspect that they are involved themselves. The plot's tension suffers, however, because so little of the story is devoted to the culprits behind the disaster and their intentions. The story's high point is a one-page shoving match toward the end when one of the hackers is wrestled to the ground and taken into custody. Readers might expect more pop after an entire continent is brought to its knees. Agent: Helen Edwards, Transworld Publishers. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Someone is taking down power grids across Europe. Italian hacker Piero Manzano may be the only person who can figure out how the systems have been breached and who is behind the attacks. Short chapters introducing characters in different countries take some time, but, once the players are defined, the book kicks into high gear. Scenarios detailing the havoc a large-scale power outage would wreak are terrifying in their specificity, from lack of access to lifesaving technology to the wails of engorged cows who can't all be milked without the machines farmers rely on. Part Dan Brown-style chase and part eco-thriller, this debut a best-seller in Germany will get people talking.--Keefe, Karen Copyright 2017 Booklist

Library Journal Review

First published in Germany, this frighteningly plausible best-selling technothriller comes to English-speaking readers for the first time. After consulting intelligence and computer security experts, Elsberg meticulously details what could believably happen when a terrorist group cuts off the power in our technology-enabled, interconnected world. Piero Manzano, a former hacker and activist, teams up with Lauren Shannon, an American CNN reporter based in Paris, to uncover the truth behind the blackout as they cross the continent in the most horrendous conditions. This earnest and watertight conceptualization raises questions on the security of the world's power supplies. VERDICT Elsberg delivers a thrilling read and sucks readers into a mind-boggling, all too scary world. [See Prepub Alert, 2/1/17.]-Jerry P. Miller. Cambridge, MA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.