Scan barcode
A review by tanja_alina_berg
Blackout. Morgen ist es zu spät by Marc Elsberg
2.0
The premise for this book is great, a Europe-wide black-out in a clever and well-planned act of terrorism. We are desperately dependent on electricity for our lives to function. Without it, there is no water out the tap, it's not possible to fill your car with gas because the pumps won't function and you can't pay with your credit card. The food in the fridge goes bad, there is no way to cook what you have anyway (unless you have access to fire and coal). So absolutely, a book of the calamity that ensues when framework for our modern world disintegrates, fantastic.
The execution does not live up to expectations though. Evidently this author hasn't heard of "show, don't tell". There are endless political meetings. The book is at least twice as long as it needs to be. There is no hint of the perpetrators until almost half of this 800 pages long book has passed. The characters are okay, the main one being the Italian hacker Manzano, who quickly ends up as a suspect.
Calling this a thriller is going a bit a far. It's definitely an end-of-the-world scenario, but it could have been told better. It definitely was an eye-opener on our dependency on electricity. However, the plot really did not need 800 pages. Half would have been more than enough.
The execution does not live up to expectations though. Evidently this author hasn't heard of "show, don't tell". There are endless political meetings. The book is at least twice as long as it needs to be. There is no hint of the perpetrators until almost half of this 800 pages long book has passed. The characters are okay, the main one being the Italian hacker Manzano, who quickly ends up as a suspect.
Calling this a thriller is going a bit a far. It's definitely an end-of-the-world scenario, but it could have been told better. It definitely was an eye-opener on our dependency on electricity. However, the plot really did not need 800 pages. Half would have been more than enough.