She Treads Softly: Blackout

Friday, June 2, 2017

Blackout

Blackout by Marc Elsberg
Sourcebooks: 6/6/17
eBook review copy; 320 pages
ISBN-13: 9781492654414

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.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.