I was given an early copy to review of the latest edition of Marc Elsberg's Blackout. Scary in it's implications. In the scenario Elsberg describes it wouldn't take long for our lives to change for years. Blackout is difficult to follow at times. A lot of back and forth between locations and characters.

I like the books which impart a bit of knowledge or make you to stop and think, and Blackout certainly falls into this category. The research that went into this novel is certainly top-notch but Marc Elsberg fails to execute it properly. With the given premise and the amount of research done it could have been written into a much larger and more complex story, but Elsberg tries to make his point in a short, non-fiction book like prose. But certainly a must read.

A fun, fast paced, provocative thriller. I enjoyed the read quite a lot. As a retired IT exec having had responsibility for securing systems, I frequently found myself muttering "been there, done that" or "that would never happen ... but then again...".. We operate a lot on faith that our systems and processes will protect us, that those nagging issues we know exist and maybe fought battles to address but lost the cost vs benefit arguments on will never actually occur, and if they do occur, we hope we are good enough to react fast enough to mitigate the issues or could not have realistically done anything to prevent them anyway and just have to take the hit. It can get ugly. Yeah, like I said, this one is provocative. I am glad I am now retired and no longer lose sleep over it. Read this book, and you may experience a bit of the sleeplessness that we IT pros experience frequently.

The .pdf provided was such a mess of jumbled formatting with inconsistent paragraphing and incoherent line breaks that it was just too difficult to read it and I gave up after about a hundred pages. Why would a publisher release something this screwed up and expect anyone to provide a sensible review? Didn't anyone at the publisher even look at it before they released it? Really annoying. Is this what publishing has come to?

This book is a fast paced read! One of my best reads this 2017!

I enjoyed reading this book but felt there were too many characters... it got a bit difficult to remember who was who. Good concept.

A NetGalley e-book in exchange for an honest review.

A modern reality on the end of the world. Blackout is about… a blackout. All of Europe is plunged into the dark. The electric grids collapse and surges in power and technical failures keep everyone in the dark. In our modern world everything relies on electricity, and I do mean EVERYTHING. Take a moment and just go through your morning routine.

*alarm goes off, typically these days that is your phone, the one that you plugged in to charge while you slept *head to the bathroom to get ready. Can your toilet flush more than once? Can your taps turn on? Do you have enough windows to let in natural light to see what you are doing? *breakfast. Can your food last without electricity? Where do you even get your food? Where do they get their food? *jump in the car to head to work. Electric cars, electric trains and other public transports, do those affect your commute? *at work, do you use a computer? Electric equipment? *Gas, how is that pumped to the surface to fill up your gas tank? * and just keep going from there.

What caused the blackout though? How did an entire nation’s grid collapse?

A former hacker starts investigating the situation when he notices some anomalies. Of course he becomes prime suspect in the disaster and the following chaos as millions of people are left without power, food, water and basic sanitation needs.

I wanted to love this book. This is quickly becoming a huge subgenre in the thriller/post-apocalyptic world. The loss of power would not kill people, the symptoms of lost power would though. By the thousands people will die.
I just couldn’t fall into the story. It was hard to fall into the characters and felt a little disjointed. It was good to see the effects on different groups of people but I felt this part was dragged out and not executed in the best way. I liked the technical and dry side of explaining how the electric grids were connected and what that would mean for the people that are so heavily reliant on them. It definitely makes you take a pause and review your own life. What would happen if you were in a blackout that lasted longer than a few hours?

Wow. It has taken me several days to write a review on Blackout as I have been digesting it slowly since I finished reading. You know a book has gripped you when days later you are wondering what happened next and thinking about the ways in which the characters would have changed or adapted to their situations.

The subject of this book is terrifying, a total electrical failure across Europe and the US, lasting for nearly 2 weeks. In which time, the fabric of society breaks down and citizens revert to a pre-industrial state, fighting for food, stealing, becoming sick and dying due to lack of medicines.

Blackout really made me think about the impact of such a scenario. That we wouldn't simply lose a fridge or a computer or heating, but that goods wouldn't be transported, medicines couldn't be produced, fuel couldn't be pumped, communications would be impossible.

I really enjoyed the pace of Blackout and kept sneaking times into my day when I could sit down with my Kindle and keep reading.

I have given 4 stars rather than 5 as I thought that some of the characters could have been developed a bit more and some of the bit part characters reduced. I would also like to know what happened to Annette and whether she did indeed have Radiation sickness.

I highly recommend Blackout. It is possible that I found it even more compelling due to current world events and the threats the west is facing from Terrorism. Read this book, it is both terrifying and thought provoking.

Imagine a huge power failure extending from Europe to Britain and beyond. Manzano is Italian and discovers smart meters are the key and he sets out to convince authorities. The implications for such an event are far reaching when power systems are compromised by hackers intent on their view of a better future even if thousands have to perish during the process. Authorities are skeptical of Manzano’s claims considering he was a hacker in his youth and it is a struggle for him to convince them there is truth in his claims.
It was very interesting to read how government bodies, private interests and ordinary citizens responded. I think something like this would bring out the best and worst of human nature e.g. those who try to profit no matter what.
Originally published in Germany in 2012 this story still has great merit. I have to confess I had never given any thought to something like this happening. I know it was only a novel but it has made me really think about the repercussions and the likely effect on society. It all seems so plausible, chilling, compelling and captivating.
Everyone should read this book!
Thank you for the digital copy of this book obtained from the publisher via Netgalley and I am happy to say the review is solely mine.
Reviews will be posted on Amazon Au and Goodreads closer to the publication date.

Fantastic book! Even though it was originally published a few years ago, it is still pertinent. Very suspenseful pageturner; gives you lots to think about and to discuss. Highly recommended.

I didn't finish this; it just didn't hold my attention. The writing style was too pedantic.

The idea of terrorism using computers and the electricity grid is fair enough. The descent in chaos was almost believable but very quickly the combination of the prose style, translation and frankly, daft events made this book read like a bad Dan Brown story.

The translation was truly awful. Who says 'A quarter of seven' - having spoken to my 14 year old daughter apparently that is the very literal translation of the German. There is a scene involving a truck and someone tries to get in/out of the cab. In the next sentence the cab drives off - I reread it a number of times as up to that point there had not been a taxi involved, then realised that somehow the cab of the truck was apparently driving off by itself - really?

The prose is clunky, I appreciate the translation did not help but I laughed aloud when the lady love interest put her arm around the 'thickening waist' of the Italian IT specialist. There were so many moments when I thought 'Come on'. The whole of Europe is in disarray due to terrorist attacks on the power network. One of the main characters works in the EU, she takes two people with her to the EU offices. As the electricity is down the security passes are not working so the security guard lets the three in. Again, really? Two complete strangers into the EU offices which should be on high alert.

Later the EU lady gives a presentation - with pictures, as obviously these top level diplomats and managers would not be able to take it in without pictures - on how it is going to take weeks to get the water purification plant, the sewage systems and even the water pipes working. After her presentation she goes to a luxury hotel and has a hot shower. A few pages later this gaffe is explained away by saying that the luxury hotels have got water as top level people use them. Magic how you can get all that infrastructure to work for selected buildings.

If IP addresses are your sort of excitement then this could be the thriller for you, but please don't expect much.

Blackout had me on the edge of my favourite reading chair,read in two sittings brilliant characters and a intriguing plot I would recommend this to anyone an awesome read