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A review by horsley123
Blackout. Morgen ist es zu spät by Marc Elsberg
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.