Y2K. Der letzte Tag. Der Roman der Jahrtausendwende.

by Mark Joseph

They're heeeere. Spawn of the ungodly amount of hype surrounding the dread millennium bug, Y2K thrillers have been sneaking onto bookshelves for months now. Deadline Y2K comes a little late to the game, but if you still haven't acquainted yourself with the new genre on the block, this gripping, well-researched read is a fine place to start.

The book's central plot device may strain credulity--a band of six good-guy hackers called the Midnight Club spends the late '90s secretly preparing to save the entire New York City infrastructure from millennial disaster. However, the story line makes a nice vehicle for getting readers up to speed on Y2K issues without slowing down the action, and it gives them a likeable, multicultural cast of characters to root for.

The main attraction is, of course, the main event: the tick-tocking countdown from the early morning of December 31, 1999, to the fateful midnight hour. It's no spoiler to tell you that all hell eventually breaks loose, but Y2K skeptics may find themselves surprised at how convincing Joseph's tightly paced and vividly rendered worst-case scenario feels. As disaster creeps around the globe, knocking out power grids and national economies one time zone at a time, Manhattan watches the approach via an increasingly spotty world communications network, while mounting revelry, rioting, and religious hysteria mingle surreally in the streets. It's enough to give even diehard doubters a goosebump or two. --Julian Dibbell

Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Carlos Arizpe]

Una novela mas, que si no se tratara sobre el Y2K ahora ni siquiera la recordaría. Al igual que me ha pasado con muchas otras novelas.

Sin embargo se trata de uno de las primeras novelas que leí por completo, un poco también animado por el tema que estaba de moda en esa época milenarista.

[Susan Dennis]

Yes, I'm sick of Y2K, too, but I got an advanced reading copy of this and figured, what the heck. I'm sure glad I did. It's a semi-science fiction look at what might happen when the millennium bug hits computers. An entrepreneur makes a fortune in the years prior to 2000 fixing the computer bug in banks' computer. His head geek, meanwhile is planning to save New York City. It's a great adventure, especially if you appreciate computers and what they can do and not do!

[Mikal Lambert]

I love this book! I first read it in 2000, after the Y2K bugs all fizzled out, and upon re-read it still held together very well. I loved the characters and the plot, and I am very glad that this version of the Millennium Bug did not transpire.

[Nancy]

Nancy 2 stars

[Noah]

Part of the reason I kept the edition I had for as long as I did was a reminder in the form of the excerpt of Afterburn in the back.