Day One

Machines turn on their users in this uneven and occasionally sloppy apocalyptic thriller set in a near-future New York City. John Hawke’s career as a reporter has hit the skids, and his hopes for a return to professional respectability hang on getting the scoop on a new breakthrough in quantum computing. That ambition is derailed after the U.S. Department of Justice’s Web servers are taken down, which proves to be the prologue to technological mayhem on a wide scale. Billions in assets are erased on the stock market, sending the world economy into free fall, and explosions across the city lead the mayor to declare a state of emergency. Kenyon (Sparrow Rock) maintains tension well enough as Hawke battles to get to his developmentally challenged child and pregnant wife in New Jersey, but the plot plays out predictably and is staffed by characters who lack dimension. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary Agency. (Oct.)