Blackout City
A cyberattack takes down the entire power grid of the Eastern Seaboard. of the Eastern Seaboard. In an instant, twenty million people are without electricity, without communications, without the systems that keep modern society running. Former Army Ranger Jake Sullivan is in New York City when the lights go out, and he knows immediately that this is not a normal outage. Within hours, the city descends into chaos. Looting, fires, and violence spread faster than the authorities can respond. Jake's only goal is to get his daughter out of the city, but the journey through a darkened metropolis is fraught with danger. Meanwhile, FBI cybercrime specialist Rachel Kim is working to trace the attack back to its source, and what she finds suggests the grid failure was a test run for something much larger. As Jake fights his way through the streets and Rachel races to identify the attackers, both discover that the real threat is not the blackout itself, but what comes after it.
📖 Story Synopsis
A cyberattack takes down the entire power grid of the Eastern Seaboard. of the Eastern Seaboard. In an instant, twenty million people are without electricity, without communications, without the systems that keep modern society running. Former Army Ranger Jake Sullivan is in New York City when the lights go out, and he knows immediately that this is not a normal outage. Within hours, the city descends into chaos. Looting, fires, and violence spread faster than the authorities can respond. Jake's only goal is to get his daughter out of the city, but the journey through a darkened metropolis is fraught with danger. Meanwhile, FBI cybercrime specialist Rachel Kim is working to trace the attack back to its source, and what she finds suggests the grid failure was a test run for something much larger. As Jake fights his way through the streets and Rachel races to identify the attackers, both discover that the real threat is not the blackout itself, but what comes after it.
✎ Editor's Review
Marcus Webb's blackout thriller is terrifyingly plausible. The power grid collapse scenario is well-researched, and the societal breakdown that follows feels realistic rather than exaggerated. Jake is a capable protagonist whose military background serves the story without becoming a super-soldier fantasy. Rachel's cyber investigation provides a strong counterpoint to the street-level survival story. The dual narrative works well, though the cyber-attack explanation is somewhat thin. The strength of the novel is in its depiction of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. A gripping, unsettling read.
