Seit mehreren Jahren -wieder einen Roman auf Deutsch gelesen. Ich weiß nicht ob es daran lag, dass ich es ganz schlecht geschrieben fand. Zu lange, komplexe Sätze, redundante und irrelevante Infos, eine Story, die zu sehr Wert legt auf Charaktere und weniger auf Geschehen, und ein Autor, der im Nachwort explizit die Bedeutung von Wikipedia für seine Recherche hervorhebt, was die ohnehin schon zweifelhafte Authentizität so mancher dargestellter Auswirkungen des Blackout noch etwas mehr in Zweifel zieht. Die Begeisterung des Tippgebers kann ich also überhaupt nicht nachvollziehen.

MB, This book is a poor choice to read after a day's-long, hurricane-caused power outage. It's saving grace is that it's not set in the US. ( )

Terrific thriller that leaves you hanging on every word. Terrifying to think that something like this could happen in our interconnected world. Really makes you think. Thanks to Netgalley for the copy in exchange for my honest review. ( )

This is an intriguing premise, though the story has many subplots and threads to mind, and the pacing is uneven. ( )

I was really eager to read this book and I made the fatal mistake of having a sneaky read of the first page when it arrived meaning that I had to start it immediately. It literally starts with a bang as the traffic lights go out in Milan causing mass chaos on the roads as cars pile into each other. The main character, Piero Manzano, is one of those affected as he is driving home when the lights go out. As the plot thickens it would appear that somebody has attacked not just Milan, but Europe itself.

There were so many things I didn't think of if there was no electricity and Blackout certainly gets you thinking about what you would do if there was no electricity. There would be no fuel at the petrol stations as the pumps use electricity to pump fuel to the forecourt from the underground tanks. Patients in ITU on life support would die without electricity to power life support machines and monitor vital signs. The main effect that really shocked me was the inability to cool down the nuclear reactors which leads to the main sweaty palm moments in Blackout.

My brain was whirring throughout the story, but more about our reliance on electricity than the events in the book. After all, it's not that long ago when electricty wasn't available in every home and streets were still lit by gas lamps during World War II. I think the world would literally grind to a halt if our power supply was removed but I also think it would be quite liberating to go back to more simple manual times. We may then discover some of that elusive time, of which we never seem to have enough.

Overall I wasn't as gripped and panicked as I thought I would be. I think that sometimes it was quite technical and a little bit over my head, but I admit that when people start talking in IT-speak my brain tends to go into meltdown. There were a few too many characters in the book to keep track of who was who and in hindsight I wish I'd written them down and created my own cast list.

Blackout is the most thought-provoking book I have read in a long time and I have continued to think about the devastating effects long after turning the final page. I was just slightly disappointed that I didn't get the feeling of panic and fear coming through in the writing, but it could perhaps have been a little bit lost in the translation from German to English. It's well worth a read though, just to realise how lucky we are to have power at the flick of a switch.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion. ( )

I've written a review of this wonderful book in French, as I read the French translation as soon as it came out, in 2015, I believe, but my review of that version seems to be hiding in the ether...
Excellent plot, decent characterization, fantastic themes, well-worth reading in French, but it appears that other translations have not done justice to the original German, perhaps?

Nur durch Zufall gelesen, denn ich habe das Buch in einem Urlaubshotel auf Fuerteventura gefunden.


Der Anfang ist etwas zäh und es geschehen insgesamt etwas zu viele Zufälle. Doch wenn man die Zufälle erstmal akzeptiert hat, dann ist es spannend.


Die konstruierte Liebesgeschichte stört. Es wirkt so, als habe der Autor die aus verkaufstechnischen Gründen einbauen müssen. Ich hätte stattdessen lieber mehr technische Details beschrieben bekommen.
4 1/2 Stern


( )

Blackout est un thriller qui donne un vision des sombres possibilités mais aussi qu'inspire l’espoir. Le réalisme effrayant du comportement humain est visible, mais la coopération et aussi visible. Pourtant, je ne voudrais jamais prendre un ascenseur autre fois !

Blackout is a thriller that gives a vision of terrible possibilities, but also inspires hope. The frightening reality of human behavior, but also of cooperation, are both visibme. Still, I hope never to take an elevator again! ( )

J'ai lu le version français juste après qu'il soit publié en France, avec les commentaires d'un Breton qui l'avais lu en allemand, donc je ne suis pas trop objective, mais je l'ai trouvé très très bien comment histoire tant comment conte précautionner.

I read it in French just after it came out in France, with comments from a German-speaking Frenchman from Britanny who'd read it in German, so I'm not really objective on it, but I loved the story and the theme. ( )

I've written a review of this wonderful book in French, as I read the French translation as soon as it came out, in 2015, I believe, but my review of that version seems to be hiding in the ether...
Excellent plot, decent characterization, fantastic themes, well-worth reading in French, but it appears that other translations have not done justice to the original German, perhaps?

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. ( )

BLACKOUT
MARC ELSBERG

MY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️
PUBLISHER Sourcebooks Landmark
PUBLISHED June 6, 2017

A terrifying but gripping electrical outage disaster, one that is hard to forget.

SUMMARY
The lights go out all across Europe. Hackers have infiltrated the interconnected electrical grid software through smart meters. The grid collapses. Fires are destroying substations and transmission towers are being blown up. Power generation units cannot be restarted. A nuclear unit in France is overheating. And that's just in the first three days.

It's February and it's cold in Europe. Germany is hovering around zero degrees. As the outage continues there are major problems. There is no water. Gas station can't pump fuel, food supplies are depleted, banks are out of cash, and hospital backup generators are shutting down. Stocks are plummeting and the European market is closed. People are becoming desperate. United States, Russia, China and Turkey are preparing to send aid. And then the U.S. goes black.

A former hacker in Milan Italy, Piero Manzano notices something abnormal about his smart meter. He notifies the authorities, who are wary of his background and they wonder if he might actually be the culprit. Manzano ultimately is forced to go on the run with American CNN reporter Lauren Shannon. Both are desperate to find out who is responsible for the attacks before things get any worse.

REVIEW
Having worked for thirty years in electric regulation, and seen the advent and evolution of SCADA systems and smart meters, this book fascinated me. MARC ELSBERG has taken a complex multifaceted scenario and woven a thought-provoking tale of our dependence on software and the electric grid for every day life. Typically, when we have an outage the electricity always comes back on, doesn't it? But what if it didn't.

The story involves a cyberattack of transmission and generation SCADA software and applies it to continental Europe, a huge geographic area. To bring a interconnected system of this magnitude back online requires an immense amount of cooperation and coordination. As BLACKOUT shows, cooperation and coordination is difficult at best, if not impossible in times of a crisis. And a cyberattack will be nothing like the recovery from a natural disaster. First you have to find the saboteur and what they did.

The geographic scope in BLACKOUT is immense, unlike anything ever experienced before. And hopefully we never will. The story shifts between Italy, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, and France. Each country experiences its own set of issues in responding to the power outage and its aftermath. Transitioning to the various locations adds to the complexity of the book and there are a multitude of characters to keep up with.

ELSBERG gives us a small taste of what would happen to our society, if our food supply, transportation system, communication network, healthcare system, financial markets and water and wastewater systems were interrupted. He also raises awareness of how all of these systems are all interdependent on one another. Despite the magnitude of the story, BLACKOUT is very readable. It's a must read to truly understand the impact of a nationwide outage lasting more than three days.

Living in Florida, I have experienced many multiple day outages following hurricanes. We always stock up on groceries, water and batteries in advance. It is drilled into us to be prepared. In the aftermath, we have always been fortunate to have neighboring cities or states help with our relief and disaster recovery efforts. But what if there is no warning and the lights just go out. How long could we actually survive without power. What if our neighbors couldn't help? What if we were all in the same boat? What if the outage was nationwide?

MARC ELSBERG an Austrian author, researched this book by conducting interviews with intelligence, disaster, energy and computer security officials. His story has taken cues from previous large outage experiences in the U.S. and Europe. BLACKOUT was originally published in Germany in 2012 and has been translated into fifteen languages and sold a billion copies. It will be published in the United States for the first time in June, 2017.

Thanks to Netgalley, Sourcebooks and Marc Elsberg for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

This book is subtitled "A Novel" but it really isn't. It is a movie treatment in prose. I paged through it for a while before deciding that I would rather just wait and watch the film on an airplane sometime.

I received a review copy of "Blackout: A Novel" by Marc Elsberg (Sourcebooks Landmark) through NetGalley.com. ( )

Blackout by Marc Elsberg is a recommended novel about the power grid going out across Europe. This was originally published in Germany in 2012.

When the power grid starts to go down, station by station, Piero Manzano, a former hacker and activist, figures out what may have caused the collapse. As Manzano battles the authorities to get them to listen to him, Lauren Shannon, an American CNN camera operator/reporter follows the story. As suspicions fly and answers are not evident, the grid in the USA goes down, and the disaster is becoming worldwide. While trying to help Manzano becomes the prime suspect and ends up having to run from authorities as he still tries to find the answers.

This is not a techno-thriller as much as it is a semi-realistic scenario of what would happen if the power grids failed due to the actions of a terrorist group. In this scenario the terrorists are well educated, well connected and wealthy, which wouldn't necessarily always be the case. The important fact to take away from Blackout is that we, all countries, need to safe guard our power plants. After all, it's not just electricity at stake. No power would affect so much more, like the food supply, healthcare, communication, and the water supply. The concern over what could happen is real and Blackout does a service pointing attention to this.

While the concept of the book is chilling and could be more frightening than many nightmares in the hands of some writers, in this instance the execution of the novel doesn't quite live up to the description. Elsberg did his research, which is evident, and that definitely helps the novel and gives it an edge, but the actual presentation of the action is not quite as realistic and the plot suffers. Manzano just keeps getting out of one desperate situation after another. While it is an interesting book and did hold my attention I couldn't help but think that perhaps a nonfiction novel would have been a better choice to present all the facts.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Sourcebooks. ( )

Blackout is a fascinating, yet frightening story about hackers getting into the power grids and causing electricity to go out all over Europe and the United States. Life as we know it comes to a standstill as the governments, power companies and IT professionals try to restore power.

The story follows Piero Manzano, a reformed hacker who discovers how it may have started and tips off the authorities, which in turn makes him a possible suspect. As Piero tries to help find the bug, he also finds himself on the run with the help of an American journalist, who believes in his innocence.

This is a fast, easy read with a great subject, but not much in the way of character development. The story skips around from country to country, letting the reader know what was happening in each location. There is also quite a bit of technical talk about the power grids and internet security.

Going for days with no power had many life-threatening repercussions that were pointed out along the way, but the meat of the story was Piero and his attempts to solve the problem and expose the hackers.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Wow, what a sensational read this was. All the power has gone out in Europe. The author provides you a first hand look at what that actually means. The shortage of things that you wouldn't even think about happens. Food supplies, toilet backups due to sewers drying out, meat supplies short for years because of all the deaths of the livestock, and nuclear plants overheating causing widespread damage that will be a factor for decades. Truly, eye opening.

Then you have the action, and I do mean action - a lot of it, of the governments and one ex-hacker who thinks like the terrorists and starts to figure things out. Of course, the governments think he is part of the scheme and are after him. And, the terrorists are not happy that he is figuring things out. This poor man is running, he's not safe anywhere. He's shot, put in prison, chased and never given a moments rest.

This book was so full of action and I was certainly entertained and very glad that I believed the hype and requested this book. It was definitely worth my 8 or 9 hours it took to read it. Which is another good selling point. I think if a book keeps you entertained for that long, definitely a good buy!

Thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. ( )

Blackout is supposed to be a timely, prescient thriller that shows a potential future disaster scenario. After all, there has long been a general belief that power grids are extremely vulnerable to hackers and/or terrorist threats. Marc Elsberg simply takes this belief and brings it to life in his Dan Brown-esque story of hackers gone wild.

Unfortunately, there is nothing sexy or intriguing about the power grids across Europe. Instead, they are so complicated that Herr Elsberg has to devote a lot of story time to explain how the grids work in order to explain how the hackers were able to compromise them thus highlighting the brilliance of their plan. The sad part is there is no way to make that large swatch of the novel interesting; it reads like a science textbook, and there is nothing suspenseful about a textbook. While informative – you do walk away from the novel with a greater understanding of how countries generate electricity and how it gets to your house or business – it does not do much to create any tension.

There is also an issue with the large cast of characters, some of whom never even meet. We see the disaster through a German minster’s eyes, through Piero’s eyes, through Lauren’s eyes, through the hackers’ eyes, through various electrical plant workers and regular citizens. The characters jumble together so much that it becomes difficult to remember who is working for the EU, who is working for the local government, and who is a company man. There are simply too many narrators and too little connection between them.

To make matters even worse, readers must accept that Piero is the only person in all of Europe who is capable of uncovering the piece of code that creates havoc in the power grids. They must also accept that he is also the only person who can discover not only the persons of interest but also the overarching goal the POIs hope to obtain as well as their secret communiques telegraphing instructions to each other. Not only that, but in order to discover all of this, he must be involved in a high-speed chase, have others shoot at him, and have the good guys consider him to be the perpetrator. It is all a bit too far-fetched.

I suspect that my main issues with Blackout are due more to the translation than to Herr Elsberg’s original story. The story is tedious in part because of the simplistic syntax used throughout the novel. There is no depth to the sentences, and the word choices are elementary at best. I would almost like to read this in its original German to determine if my hunch is correct; the sentence structure is just too simple for a technological thriller.

Of course, any re-read would indicate a level of interest on my part, and I was not into the story or the characters enough to warrant that. There is no character development. There is no plot development, no backstory, no use of nuanced language. Blackout is nothing but a thriller at its most basic. The comparison to Dan Brown is apt; just switch Piero for Robert Langdon, Lauren for Sophie, the hackers for the Illuminati and the grid disruption for the Holy Grail. The story is plays out in very similar fashion, except one is much more technical and less thrilling.

Started July 15th, 2013 just after finishing [b:Homeland|12917338|Homeland|Cory Doctorow|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1340259004s/12917338.jpg|18072409] .
As I am living in the EU - Germany - Hamburg, German is my first language and I am reading this in German, so far there is no english translation, imho.
Long. A bit too long.
Very good scenes and good main characters, the IT-technology is also while simplified spot on - there where no obvious errors in the computer scenes and it was very real for me.
One scene - a very horrifying one - felt familiar, that was explained in the afterword, that was based on a NYT article/series.
Must read, strongly recommended.
So why only 4 stars?
Too long and the twist in the end was not fully solved, could be a hint for a sequel, but then it is not enough material there for a sequel.
If this is translated, be sure to pick it up, as a warning for putting every device incl. smart-meters on the internet.
If it is filmed be sure to see the film. ( )

Man wird auf den elendslangen 800 Seiten den Eindruck nicht los, dass der Autor - nicht umsonst ist er in einer linkslinken Redaktion trainiert worden - am liebsten selbst angepackt hätte, um "Ungerechtigkeit, Raubtierkapitalismus" und allerlei mehr, das er nicht versteht, mit einem Blackout "auszurotten".

Unterm Strich: Nur für jene, die noch immer stolz darauf sind, Etatist zu sein oder davon leben (auf 800 Seiten bekommst du, lieber Leser, hier eingeimpft, dass es nur staatliche Stellen sein können, die dir helfen in der Not) bzw. von kritischen Infrastrukturen nun wirklich rein gar nichts wissen.

Wirklich froh war ich, als ich endlich fertig war mit dem Schinken ... ( )