Blackout - Hardcover

Ryan, Chris

3.9

1,515 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1844133842 ISBN 13: 9781844133840

Publisher: Century, 2005

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Physical description; 346 p. ; 24 cm. Notes; SIGNED by the author. NOT price-clipped. First edition and first printing. Summary; Blackout - three cities all loose power. No-one claims responsibility. Fears of a terrorist strike are imminent. Josh Harding is a tough SAS soldier. Yet his disregard for authority has landed him a secondment to MI6's anti-terrorism unit. In the wake of the mysterious 'Three Cities' attacks, Josh finds himself on the way to the USA, on the trail of a pair on intrepid young hackers who are out to try and make themselves a fortune, and who are in grave danger from those who would kill for the secrets they have managed to uncover - how to control the power of the Western world. But soon Josh finds himself waking up in a ditch bloody and wounded, and with no memory of who he is, how he got there, or how he got hurt. Yet one thing is for certain - Josh is in danger. Stranded in the Wild West, Josh must rely on his instincts as a soldier and on the kindness of a beautiful stranger in order to escape those who appear intent on tracking him down and killing him - all for a secret he can't remember. His determination to discover who he is, and what he was doing there leads him into an explosive web of corporate blackmail, deceit and greed - where the stakes are high and where no-one can be trusted. Subjects; Secret service - Fiction. Terrorism - Fiction. Adventure / thriller. Fiction / Thrillers. Genre; Fiction.

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Product Description:

Blackout - three cities all loose power. No-one claims responsibility. Fears of a terrorist strike are imminent. Josh Harding is a tough SAS soldier. Yet his disregard for authority has landed him a secondment to MI6's anti-terrorism unit. In the wake of the mysterious 'Three Cities' attacks, Josh finds himself on the way to the USA, on the trail of a pair on intrepid young hackers who are out to try and make themselves a fortune, and who are in grave danger from those who would kill for the secrets they have managed to uncover - how to control the power of the Western world. But soon Josh finds himself waking up in a ditch bloody and wounded, and with no memory of who he is, how he got there, or how he got hurt. Yet one thing is for certain - Josh is in danger. Stranded in the Wild West, Josh must rely on his instincts as a soldier and on the kindness of a beautiful stranger in order to escape those who appear intent on tracking him down and killing him - all for a secret he can't remember. His determination to discover who he is, and what he was doing there leads him into an explosive web of corporate blackmail, deceit and greed - where the stakes are high and where no-one can be trusted.

Review:

Chris Ryan's time has come. For years now, the ex-SAS writer has been turning out flint-edged, fast-moving novels without a trace of subcutaneous fat: barrelling narratives that handled characterisation with extreme economy (too much economy for some tastes), but never cheated on the pulse-accelerating tension that is his hallmark. But with Blackout, Ryan's key subject -- the threat of terrorism to all our lives -- could not be more � propos, and that old journalistic clich�, 'ripped from today's headlines', actually gets it just right with this one.

When three major cities lose all electrical power, there is, surprisingly, no claim of responsibility from any terrorist group. But a grim paranoia grips the nation. In the deserts of Arizona, a badly wounded SAS operative is found, his mind wiped clean. But this soldier is the key to crucial information about the terrorist threat: his amnesia is blocking the knowledge of a computer hacker with access to dangerous secrets, double agents who have been turned by Al Qaeda and even top-level government corruption. It's up to SAS man Josh Harding to unlock his mind before the people tracking him down pull the trigger.

For 10 years, Chris Ryan put his life on the line in real-life SAS operations, and his subsequent literary career has drawn heavily on his knowledge of the tradecraft and danger of those days. What makes his no-frills thrillers so compelling is this sense of verisimilitude. Ryan will never be a literary stylist, but one doesn't turn to his books for elegant prose -- it's the steadily accelerating tension and frighteningly plausible plots that have made him quite as successful author as he ever was an SAS commander. --Barry Forshaw

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