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Y2K: It's Already Too Late
The only novel about the Year 2000 computer crisis.
375 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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June 19, 2023
I honestly did not expect this to be a mid-grade techno thriller novel when I first picked it up. Based on the front cover proclaiming “it’s already too late” and the back proclaiming “prepare yourself” I was expecting something quite different. To be fair, the description on the back is that of a novel, but I was expecting more like a prediction story of all the horrible things that are going to happen on Y2K. My particular copy is also signed by the author with the note “For Bill and Jeanne, Prepare and Survive…” So, I’m wondering how absolutely disappointed Bill and Jeanne were when nothing at all happened.
I also think the author totally lost control of his own story whilst he was writing it. The whole premise is that Y2K is going to happen, and the world will descend into chaos and anarchy, except the author creates a software firm run by a character named Mark Solvang (who totally feels like an author insert) who can totally solve Y2K if given enough time. In fact, he nearly does (well, his company does), but as the clock strikes midnight, things crash and fail anyway. Is it because Y2K is inevitable? Nope, it’s because of internal sabotage, traitors, and the Chinese – which sort of shoots his entire warning in the foot.
His narrative structure is also weird. It’s like he gets bored with telling the story from Character A’s perspective, so he wants to switch to Character B, but Character B’s story has advanced a few days beyond Character A, so we switch back and forth in time a lot, as much as a week at times. And sometimes when we switch, we get an actual date and time and sometimes we just get the date. And when we get the time (aside from on New Year’s Eve itself), it doesn’t really matter to the story, since I don’t really care if Character A is currently at 2:09 a.m. on January 2nd, because I know that as soon as we go to Character B, it’s going to be January 9th, so the 2:09 a.m. seems completely superfluous.
The world also seems to live in a complete vacuum, as absolutely no one reacts to the rolling Y2K problem. It hits Japan, Japan goes dark, Europe still plans massive parties. It hits Europe, Europe goes dark, the USA still plans massive parties. New York goes dark and people in Los Angeles are still ready for their party. Everyone is seemingly unaware that this is all happening. I know “communications are down” but that would make it more suspicious to me, not “oh well, must have been one hell of a party.”
At any rate, the plot moves forward with the Chinese feinting an attack on Hawaii which the US is barely able to fend off as they slowly repair the Navy’s computerized weapon systems, but in the chaos of Y2K, China seizes Taiwan and the Spratly Islands. Meanwhile, after the riots, looting, and fires are brought under control, the people of the United States begin to discover that they like living primitive lifestyles and even as the power comes back on, they decide to turn the lights back off.
It’s weird to me that the author describes that every light in the house turns on, as well as all the TVs and radios, when the power is restored. I mean, maybe I’m weird, but I only turn the lights on in the room I’m actively using, and even then, I find the dimmest of lights.
The author also reveals his far-right, pastoralist views in this novel. Early on, as the main character is on an interview spree about Y2K, the only interview put to page is one between him and Rush Limbaugh, in which Rush comes across as an entirely reasonable, rational, calm person truly concerned about the coming humanitarian crisis. A secondary character, who is a police officer, goes on a little rant about how were he anything other than a white male he could have any job he wanted and get promoted consummate to his skill level, but of course only women and minorities get promotions and jobs these days. And finally, of course, life without electricity, heat, communications, electronic entertainment, sanitation, etc., is far superior. We should all learn from Y2K that dry camping is the ideal form of living. Odd how humanity ever advanced beyond that…must be some sort of liberal, pro-minority plot…
It's funny to me that this novel ends in a cliffhanger, for it makes me wonder if the author was planning a follow-up sequel, but as he published this in 1998, he was, perhaps, unable to finish it before 2000, and when absolutely nothing happened as the calendar rolled over, perhaps he was too embarrassed to finish it.
I also think the author totally lost control of his own story whilst he was writing it. The whole premise is that Y2K is going to happen, and the world will descend into chaos and anarchy, except the author creates a software firm run by a character named Mark Solvang (who totally feels like an author insert) who can totally solve Y2K if given enough time. In fact, he nearly does (well, his company does), but as the clock strikes midnight, things crash and fail anyway. Is it because Y2K is inevitable? Nope, it’s because of internal sabotage, traitors, and the Chinese – which sort of shoots his entire warning in the foot.
His narrative structure is also weird. It’s like he gets bored with telling the story from Character A’s perspective, so he wants to switch to Character B, but Character B’s story has advanced a few days beyond Character A, so we switch back and forth in time a lot, as much as a week at times. And sometimes when we switch, we get an actual date and time and sometimes we just get the date. And when we get the time (aside from on New Year’s Eve itself), it doesn’t really matter to the story, since I don’t really care if Character A is currently at 2:09 a.m. on January 2nd, because I know that as soon as we go to Character B, it’s going to be January 9th, so the 2:09 a.m. seems completely superfluous.
The world also seems to live in a complete vacuum, as absolutely no one reacts to the rolling Y2K problem. It hits Japan, Japan goes dark, Europe still plans massive parties. It hits Europe, Europe goes dark, the USA still plans massive parties. New York goes dark and people in Los Angeles are still ready for their party. Everyone is seemingly unaware that this is all happening. I know “communications are down” but that would make it more suspicious to me, not “oh well, must have been one hell of a party.”
At any rate, the plot moves forward with the Chinese feinting an attack on Hawaii which the US is barely able to fend off as they slowly repair the Navy’s computerized weapon systems, but in the chaos of Y2K, China seizes Taiwan and the Spratly Islands. Meanwhile, after the riots, looting, and fires are brought under control, the people of the United States begin to discover that they like living primitive lifestyles and even as the power comes back on, they decide to turn the lights back off.
It’s weird to me that the author describes that every light in the house turns on, as well as all the TVs and radios, when the power is restored. I mean, maybe I’m weird, but I only turn the lights on in the room I’m actively using, and even then, I find the dimmest of lights.
The author also reveals his far-right, pastoralist views in this novel. Early on, as the main character is on an interview spree about Y2K, the only interview put to page is one between him and Rush Limbaugh, in which Rush comes across as an entirely reasonable, rational, calm person truly concerned about the coming humanitarian crisis. A secondary character, who is a police officer, goes on a little rant about how were he anything other than a white male he could have any job he wanted and get promoted consummate to his skill level, but of course only women and minorities get promotions and jobs these days. And finally, of course, life without electricity, heat, communications, electronic entertainment, sanitation, etc., is far superior. We should all learn from Y2K that dry camping is the ideal form of living. Odd how humanity ever advanced beyond that…must be some sort of liberal, pro-minority plot…
It's funny to me that this novel ends in a cliffhanger, for it makes me wonder if the author was planning a follow-up sequel, but as he published this in 1998, he was, perhaps, unable to finish it before 2000, and when absolutely nothing happened as the calendar rolled over, perhaps he was too embarrassed to finish it.
February 18, 2010
It seems apparent that this guys was just trying to cash in on the population panic of Y2K. So far he's talked about planes falling out of the sky, riots and looting, mass hysteria, returning to animal survival instincts and the end of the world.
The author previously worked in the IT business (although I don't know to what capacity because he over simplifies everything) and likes to drop in tech terms like switch and router and database and Internet. He also likes to define each and every one of them. Although this is a fictional story the author is quite certain that Y2K was going to have devastating effects. He's got checklists of things to stock up on and references a website y2kbook.com that is supposed to be a survival guide for y2k. That domain no longer exists unfortunately. It probably crashed on Jan 1 2000 (or the domain was only paid for up until 2000 since there wasn't going to be an internet anymore at that point anyway)...
Besides all the other problems I have with this book, it was quite hard to follow. The author chose to tell multiple stories which he'd touch on in each chapter but he also chose not to tell it on chronological order. Each chapter would be broken into sections to differentiate between to stories and most sections would be preceded by a date so you could start reading a chapter that took place on Jan12 about one group of people and then suddenly it'd be Jan18 about another group of people then it'd be Jan08 about yet another group of people. Worst of all each story would jump from Jan8 to Jan14 to Jan10 and so on. So not only are you following 5ish stories at once but they are all in the wrong order. Needless to say the whole book is kind of a blur.
I'm glad I'm done with it, wouldn't recommend.
The author previously worked in the IT business (although I don't know to what capacity because he over simplifies everything) and likes to drop in tech terms like switch and router and database and Internet. He also likes to define each and every one of them. Although this is a fictional story the author is quite certain that Y2K was going to have devastating effects. He's got checklists of things to stock up on and references a website y2kbook.com that is supposed to be a survival guide for y2k. That domain no longer exists unfortunately. It probably crashed on Jan 1 2000 (or the domain was only paid for up until 2000 since there wasn't going to be an internet anymore at that point anyway)...
Besides all the other problems I have with this book, it was quite hard to follow. The author chose to tell multiple stories which he'd touch on in each chapter but he also chose not to tell it on chronological order. Each chapter would be broken into sections to differentiate between to stories and most sections would be preceded by a date so you could start reading a chapter that took place on Jan12 about one group of people and then suddenly it'd be Jan18 about another group of people then it'd be Jan08 about yet another group of people. Worst of all each story would jump from Jan8 to Jan14 to Jan10 and so on. So not only are you following 5ish stories at once but they are all in the wrong order. Needless to say the whole book is kind of a blur.
I'm glad I'm done with it, wouldn't recommend.
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