Blackout
Morgen ist es zu spät
by Marc Elsberg · first published 2013
44% recommend56% neutral
When the lights go out one night, no one panics. Not yet. The lights always come back on soon, don't they? Surely it's a glitch, a storm, a malfunction. But something seems strange about this night. Across Europe, controllers watch in disbelief as electrical grids collapse. There is no power, anywhere. A former hacker and activist, Piero investigates a possible cause of the disaster. The authorities don't believe him, and he soon becomes a prime suspect himself. With the United States now also at risk, Piero goes on the run with Lauren Shannon, a young American CNN reporter based in Paris, des
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My favorite reads of the year: - Futu.re by Dmitry Glukhovsky (author of Metro 2033 series). Interesting take of how life would look like if humans became immortal. - Blackout by Marc Elsberg. A semi-realistic depiction of a 2-week long blackout in Europe caused by a terrorist attack. - Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larson. Murder mystery in Sweden. Really enjoyed the setting.
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗There is a great book with this exact topic called „Blackout“ by Marc Elsberg. Highly recommend! Edit: Amazon link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FCQLSPC
on “DDoS attack halts heating in Finland amidst winter” ↗I'll just drop this book recommendation here, which I found to be an interesting read during this pandemic: Blackout: Tomorrow Will Be Too Late (2012) Marc Elsberg
on “US unprepared for an electrical grid collapse, but it costs only $300M” ↗The "Blackout" novel comes to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(Elsberg_novel)
on “Widespread power outage in Spain and Portugal” ↗This was the subject of the novel Blackout by Marc Elsberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(Elsberg_novel))
on “The Stuxnet worm may be the most sophisticated software ever written” ↗Citing Wikipedia: "Blackout: Tomorrow Will Be Too Late" is a disaster thriller book by the Austrian author Marc Elsberg, described by Penguin Books as "a 21st-century high-concept disaster thriller". The novel is about a European…
on “Ask HN: Recommendations of good cybercrime novels?” ↗…when somebody mounts an overload attack? What happens if the attacker generated a (e.g. periodic) pattern of load changes that excites control mechanisms at their resonant frequency? Maybe the book "Blackout" [1] (which I haven't read myself) has more (fictional) details about what can go wrong. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(Elsberg_novel)
on “Tesla PowerWall 2 Hack” ↗…not sure how well that translates to the US. However when looking at the brittle electric grid in parts of the US, I believe such attacks could be even worse there. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(Elsberg_novel) [2]: https://www.amazon.com/Blackout-heart-stopping-techno-thrill...)
on “Woman dies during a ransomware attack on a German hospital” ↗Anyone read Blackout[1]? So it begins. Both countries completed (or almost completed) their smart meter rollout… [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_(Elsberg_novel)
on “Widespread power outage in Spain and Portugal” ↗