Honestly, I felt myself growing bored of this book. It was a struggle to read it.

Thanks to NetGalley for access to this book.

The power goes out all over Europe, causing all sorts of hardships. No one can figure out how it's happening, except one hacker and the reporter he finds. The two go on the run, as nobody believes them, and such knowledge is dangerous.

Very good disaster movie type soap opera with a lot of tension, though it seems very European in prose style.

"Blackout" eBook was published in 2017 (original version published in 2012) and was written by Marc Elsberg (http://www.marcelsberg.com/en/). This is Mr. Elsberg's third novel.

I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains scenes of Violence. The story takes place in contemporary Europe. Several characters play significant roles in the story. The most prominent character is Italian former hacker and activist, and currently software developer Piero Manzano.

Without any warning power starts to fail across Europe. As the power outage lingers, officials soon realize that the blackout has resulted from an attack. Power companies struggle to get the grid back up, but they encounter one problem after another. Manzano makes some interesting discoveries as to the cause of the blackout, but is received with more doubt than open arms. His past make many think he is involved with the attack.

After days without power, civilization and government across Europe begins to break down. Manzano must take some severe risks to prove he isn't involved and uncover those who are.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 6.5 hours I spent reading this modern techno-thriller. I have read many technical articles concerning the power grid in both Europe and the US, and this fictional story does not sound all that far fetched. I enjoyed the wide cast of characters in the story. I'm not sure what the cover art is supposed to depict. I think there would have been other choices that would have related more to the story. I give this novel a 4.5 (rounded up to a 5) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

Interesting plot. Highly readable. Well researched.

Blackout is an interesting story about most of Europe losing power during the winter. The story is not impossible to believe, and it is scary to think of the consequences of a blackout happening in real life. The book covers the short-term and long-term consequences of the blackout well including the immediate consequences of being trapped in elevators, car accidents, not being able to pump fuel, and having no heat. The book also discusses the more serious consequences like nuclear reactors overheating, problems with agriculture, people stealing/looting/rioting/price gouging, no public and cellular phone networks, and patients in hospitals dying. The chapters are separated as days since the blackout, and within each chapter the book constantly switches back and forth between locations and characters. I found this constant switching to be confusing, and I often questioned myself, “What happened here last and who is this again?” During the first half of the book especially, there are too many characters, and they all seem to blend together. Since there were so many characters and the book constantly kept switching between perspectives, I never felt connected to any of the characters, but I did enjoy reading the parts with Piero Manzano the most. Another part of the book I found confusing was when it discussed the technical aspects of the power plants and the programming systems for the electric companies. I actually stopped reading this book halfway through because it just got so overwhelming with all the characters, and I got tired of trying to keep track of who was who. After several months, I decided I would try to finish the book because I wanted to know how it ended. I finally finished the book several days later, and I found the ending bitter-sweet because there were still the long-term consequences of the blackout that needed to be dealt with. I did like the story, but I felt like all the different perspectives hurt it. I do not mind reading books that have multiple perspectives, and I understand Elsberg wanting to give multiple perspectives of the people involved in the blackout, but he could have gone about it a different way instead of having 10 or so perspectives that are constantly changing during each chapter.
Blackout by Marc Elsberg is an interesting story that makes you think about the consequences of a blackout in real life, but there are too many characters to keep track of which really hurts the core of the story.

Blackout is a timely thriller about the vulnerability of our electrical grid to a hacking attack, and the far-reaching implications when the power goes out for an extended period of time. Blackout begins when the lights begin to go out in Italy, and soon a cascading failure leaves all of Europe without power. Former hacker Piero Manzano quickly realizes that the grid has been hacked. When he alerts authorities to this, they believe him, but then come to believe that he is the one responsible. Now Piero is on the run with an American reporter based in Paris, Lauren Shannon, and if they don’t find the people responsible and figure out a way to stop them, all of Europe could plunge into chaos. For while nuclear power plants generate electricity, they also need electricity to stay cool. And some of the reactors are starting to get hot.

Elsberg lays out a frightening and believable scenario. The dependence on electricity, and the interconnected grid both in Europe and elsewhere around the world make the vulnerability of that which we take for granted that much more terrifying. The book does a good job at laying out the dominoes that would begin to fall both when electricity is initially unavailable as well as those that fall when it is out for an extended period of time. Watching the international effort to both restore power and find the people responsible for the disaster is exciting. The only drawback is the lack of developed characters which leaks tension out of the story. Manzano and Shannon are interesting, but not terribly compelling. Some of the people involved with trying to restore the power were so unlikeable that I suspected them of being part of the group that brought the power grid down. The actual people responsible barely register as more than names and vague motivations.

The strength of Blackout lies in the realistic scenario and the action involved in both restoring power and ending the threat posed by the perpetrators. The audio version of the book is narrated by Luis Moreno who does a fine job with a number of characters from different parts of the world that he makes distinguishable and easy to follow. He conveys the urgency and the tension in the story.

I was provided a copy of the audiobook by the publishers.

I love this book. I really like the story line where this could really happen. The more society gets away from people doing jobs and giving them over to automation it is scary what can happen.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I did not enjoy reading this book. The concept is fascinating; that a group of terrorists could use simple technology to bring down society by turning off the electric grid. Their motivations were simple—they wanted to bring down the rich bosses of the world and equalize things worldwide. Never mind the 1000s or maybe millions of people killed as bystanders. Just despicable.

My problem with the book was the fractured writing style. Most chapters were only a couple pages long which resulted in a choppy style that never allowed me to really get to know any of the characters very well. Some of the characters (although not the main couple) seemed like they could have been very interesting but I felt like I never got to know them. The main couple who defied power outages and gunshot wounds, stolen cars, stolen laptops (that held the key to the plot, of course) were just flat. I wanted to like the woman reporter, but unfortunately she just ended up flat.

The word “flat”sums up my feelings about this book. I felt like I was reading a well developed outline of a book-the skeleton of a novel in progress. The morning after I finished I dove into a book that won’t be named here-one by an author who is excellent at character development and story telling- and I sighed with relief.

This review is posted on Goodreads.

Sorry to say, this book was hard for me to finish. It was all too plausible and made me uncomfortable. Also too technical with the electrical grid, I'm pretty sure I missed a lot. This was not the kind of thriller I usually read. Given my negative feelings, if you like thrillers that scare you and might possibly happen, then this might be just the book for you.

Enjoyable xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

4.0 - this wavered between containing too many details and not enough details - but the overall concept was mesmerizing; probably not the best choice to read when hurricanes are knocking out power throughout parts of the country, but maybe that made it even more dynamic

It was hard for me to enjoy this. I can appreciate the amount of research that the author put into this, is obvious. But when the first 15% of a book is dragged down and slow, hard to trudge through, because of all the technical details. I had to push through to get to anything thrilling or suspenseful. I feel if that had been cut back a little and the plot brought out quicker, this could have been a 4 or 5 star read. I think the author has a knack for thrilling stories, and I'm willing to try something else. Hopefully they remember that sometimes, too much detail, can ruin a book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the North American edition. A good read about what happens when the power goes out throughout most of Europe. A lot of people and locations to keep track of, but still enjoyable. Recommended.

A little hard to follow at times, but overall a fascinating and engaging read!

Great as a techno-thriller (which to be fair is how it was marketed) but it definitely lacked in depth of character and believability. Quick, interesting read.

What happens when the lights go out and … they don’t come back on? In “Blackout”, Marc Elsberg explores just that question. Electrical grids have failed all across Europe, no one knows why. As the blackouts consume more and more of Europe, power plants and governments are all scrambling to find a solution. In Italy, Piero Manzano finds an anomaly on a power meter but will anyone believe him, will he be able to find the saboteur, will he come out of this alive?

This book is packed with thrills, largely because it all seems incredibly plausible. I was completely captivated with the scenario laid out in this book. The story never lets up and the characters are great. The author even manages to slip a little bit of romance in between the riots and shortages. This is the author’s debut novel and it was just released in the U.S. this summer. If catastrophe stories are something you like, then you will definitely enjoy this book. I don’t want to give anything away but I do highly recommend this book and hope the author’s subsequent work will be made available soon.

Not my book,it should have been. If it had been a movie I don't think I could have eaten the popcorn quick enough but has a book the technical jargon just put me to sleep and not in a good way.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
What if a hacker caused a total power failure for all of Europe? Could this happen to the USA and if so, what would we do?
This was a type of book I would not normally read and really didn't like to details, but it get me thinking "what if?!"

A vivid look at the world and how it reacts when the grid goes down.