REVIEW: CyberStorm

 CyberStorm
Author: Matthew Mather

Mike Mitchell and his wife live in New York with their young son, Luke. They are battling modern problems -- stresses of city life, his wife wanting to return to work, the joys and fears of parenthood -- when things go horribly wrong. A cyber attack shuts things down. Everything. Power, water, the internet. Gone. And then the snow starts falling. NYC quickly becomes a disaster area with everyone struggling to survive. 

I listened to the audio version of this book. A very engaging and enjoyable listen. I learned during 2020 that upsetting the usual supply chain in any way can cause people to behave badly pretty quickly. I witnessed people panic buying and going into crazed angry rants when informed there were buying limits. People have been beaten and even killed over disagreements about wearing or not wearing masks in public. I saw people come to blows over toilet paper. And I read many reports about senior citizens being targeted by scams and worse. And -- our utilities, basic supply chains for medicines, food and water and the internet were never interrupted. Imagine how people's behavior would slide if the lights went out, running water shut off, no garbage pickup, no gasoline available, no food in the stores, no fire department, no police patrolling......    Can you imagine?

I was totally engaged in this story until the end. I felt let down by the ending.....too easy, felt contrived. I enjoyed it.....but it was just like tying things all up in a pretty bow at the end. I guess that's better than ending on a totally bleak horrific turn of events....but the ending just felt a bit Hollywood. 

Enjoyable disaster story. Definitely had me thinking over 2020 and contemplating how we behave during disasters. All the issues that have come up during Covid19....how much worse would it be if something worse came along that left people starving and panicked? Things would get very bad in just a few days. 

I listened to the audio version of this book. Narrated by Tom Taylorson, the audio was a bit over 11 hours long. Taylorson reads at a nice pace and has a pleasant voice. He did a good job of voice acting. Very enjoyable listen. 

I'm definitely going to read more by this author. Even with my disappointment in the ending, I really liked this book.