Books › Lights out
Lights out
356 pages
A chilling, authoritative wake-up call about the fragility of modern infrastructure and the looming threat of a darkened world.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like staring into the abyss of our modern dependencies. It is a brisk, sobering investigation that wraps the reader in a dread-soaked atmosphere of impending catastrophe. The prose is authoritative and journalistic, delivering alarming facts about cyberterrorism and systemic vulnerability with chilling clarity. Instead of a traditional narrative arc, the emotional journey plunges you into the terrifying reality of a prolonged blackout, where water, food, and order vanish, before pivoting to a stark examination of self-reliance and government negligence. It is an urgent, tense experience designed for readers who devour issue-driven non-fiction and are fascinated by the fragile threads holding society together. You will leave this book looking at every light switch with a newfound sense of unease.
- Mood
- dread-soaked
- tense
- sobering
- apocalyptic
- Tone
- urgent
- journalistic
- alarming
- serious
- investigative
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- systemic vulnerability · societal collapse · self-reliance · technological dependence · government negligence
- The writing
- Clear, authoritative, and deeply investigative, delivering terrifying facts with journalistic precision.
- The arc
- Moves from a chilling realization of systemic vulnerability to a sobering contemplation of survival and self-reliance.
- Who it's for
- Readers who devour urgent, issue-driven non-fiction and are fascinated by infrastructure, cybersecurity, and disaster preparedness.
Content notes
- societal collapse
- looting
- cyberterrorism
- disaster scenarios
About the book
Imagine a blackout lasting not days, but weeks or months. Tens of millions of people over several states are affected. For those without access to a generator, there is no running water, no sewage, no refrigeration or light. Food and medical supplies are dwindling. Devices we rely on have gone dark. Banks no longer function, looting is widespread, and law and order are being tested as never before. It isn't just a scenario. A well-designed attack on just one of the nation's three electric power grids could cripple much of our infrastructure--and in the age of cyberwarfare, a laptop has become the only necessary weapon. Several nations hostile to the United States could launch such an assault at any time. In fact, as a former chief scientist of the NSA reveals, China and Russia have already penetrated the grid. And a cybersecurity advisor to President Obama believes that independent actors--from "hacktivists" to terrorists--have the capability as well. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when. And yet, as Koppel makes clear, the federal government, while well prepared for natural disasters, has no plan for the aftermath of an attack on the power grid. In the absence of a government plan, some individuals and communities have taken matters into their own hands. But how, Koppel asks, will ordinary civilians survive? One of our most renowned journalists examines a threat unique to our time and evaluates potential ways to prepare for a catastrophe that is all but inevitable.--Adapted from book jacket.
Description from Open Library.
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