°C – Celsius (German edition)

I’ll admit, I approached *°C – Celsius* skeptical of another ‘climate disaster’ thriller—until the first act dropped me into a black-ops lab where scientists aren’t just predicting weather, they’re *designing* it. Elsberg’s plot is a relentless pressure cooker: a climate researcher stumbles onto a classified project that can artificially cool regions, only to realize it’s being used as leverage in backroom deals between superpowers. The pacing is brutal in the best way—just as you adjust to a political thriller, it swerves into a survival chase across glaciers, then detours into ethical debates that feel ripped from a UN summit. Dietmar Wunder’s performance is the audiobook’s secret weapon. His delivery is measured but never monotone, with a particular talent for voicing the book’s morally ambiguous characters—like the ice-cold strategist whose calm tones make her threats more terrifying. My only critique? The mid-section sags slightly under the weight of its own exposition (a 20-minute infodump on aerosol physics tested my patience), and the female lead’s arcs occasionally feel secondary to the male protagonists’ dilemmas. But the finale—set in a melting Arctic outpost—is worth the ride, blending action and existential dread so seamlessly I found myself pausing to google geoengineering trials *after* the credits rolled. If you love thrillers that leave you questioning the cost of survival, this is your next listen.