Blackout by Marc Elsberg

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.

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