Blackout

June 5, 2017
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.

May 1, 2017
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 Brownstyle chase and part eco-thriller, this debuta best-seller in Germanywill get people talking.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2017

The lights have gone out all over Europe, with nuclear reactors beginning to overheat, and when he tries to investigate, a former hacktivist is accused of causing the blackout. A million-copy international best seller; join the fun.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017

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 Journal, LLC Used with permission.