Scan barcode
tarareadsalot's review
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I felt so many emotions reading this - from disgust, sadness, anger to full on happiness. The multiple POVs can be a bit challenging in the beginning but they are needed for this kind of setting. Generally very tense, while it could get a bit long in some parts where the characters are just miserable and I was hoping for it to be over - but then something happened and we had movement in the complex story again. I guess it was kind of the point though? Everyone being miserable, still hard to read.
ehhilary's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
guerki's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
sapphicreads64's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Unique premise, and got entertaining towards the end, but the beginning was somewhat boring, and the Italian main character was such an obvious self insert. Also the whole book was a little cheesy.
horsley123's review against another edition
2.0
The idea of terrorism using computers and the electricity grid is fair enough. The descent in chaos was almost believable but very quickly the combination of the prose style, translation and frankly, daft events made this book read like a bad Dan Brown story.
The translation was truly awful. Who says 'A quarter of seven' - having spoken to my 14 year old daughter apparently that is the very literal translation of the German. There is a scene involving a truck and someone tries to get in/out of the cab. In the next sentence the cab drives off - I reread it a number of times as up to that point there had not been a taxi involved, then realised that somehow the cab of the truck was apparently driving off by itself - really?
The prose is clunky, I appreciate the translation did not help but I laughed aloud when the lady love interest put her arm around the 'thickening waist' of the Italian IT specialist. There were so many moments when I thought 'Come on'. The whole of Europe is in disarray due to terrorist attacks on the power network. One of the main characters works in the EU, she takes two people with her to the EU offices. As the electricity is down the security passes are not working so the security guard lets the three in. Again, really? Two complete strangers into the EU offices which should be on high alert.
Later the EU lady gives a presentation - with pictures, as obviously these top level diplomats and managers would not be able to take it in without pictures - on how it is going to take weeks to get the water purification plant, the sewage systems and even the water pipes working. After her presentation she goes to a luxury hotel and has a hot shower. A few pages later this gaffe is explained away by saying that the luxury hotels have got water as top level people use them. Magic how you can get all that infrastructure to work for selected buildings.
If IP addresses are your sort of excitement then this could be the thriller for you, but please don't expect much.
The translation was truly awful. Who says 'A quarter of seven' - having spoken to my 14 year old daughter apparently that is the very literal translation of the German. There is a scene involving a truck and someone tries to get in/out of the cab. In the next sentence the cab drives off - I reread it a number of times as up to that point there had not been a taxi involved, then realised that somehow the cab of the truck was apparently driving off by itself - really?
The prose is clunky, I appreciate the translation did not help but I laughed aloud when the lady love interest put her arm around the 'thickening waist' of the Italian IT specialist. There were so many moments when I thought 'Come on'. The whole of Europe is in disarray due to terrorist attacks on the power network. One of the main characters works in the EU, she takes two people with her to the EU offices. As the electricity is down the security passes are not working so the security guard lets the three in. Again, really? Two complete strangers into the EU offices which should be on high alert.
Later the EU lady gives a presentation - with pictures, as obviously these top level diplomats and managers would not be able to take it in without pictures - on how it is going to take weeks to get the water purification plant, the sewage systems and even the water pipes working. After her presentation she goes to a luxury hotel and has a hot shower. A few pages later this gaffe is explained away by saying that the luxury hotels have got water as top level people use them. Magic how you can get all that infrastructure to work for selected buildings.
If IP addresses are your sort of excitement then this could be the thriller for you, but please don't expect much.
phantastic_jules's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
tswe's review against another edition
dark
informative
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
jude99's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
3.5
Der Anfang war super aber dann hat es sich sehr gezogen