I am planning an RPG using this setting and my first read left me quite confused as to the order of things. So I read again and made a not every time years were mentioned, either directly ('25 and '35 come up a few times) or indirectly ("over the next several years"). The idea was to create a map of roughly what happened when so I can understand the setting.

I didn't make it half way through the book before giving up. Many of the details directly contradict others. And not just by a few years, but the century is out. If I take some measures the setting is around 2055, by others it is around 2255. There are also numerous logistical issues regarding the time frame. Most of the merged mega cities are referred to as such from the earlier time frame referenced, yet it would take significant time for this to occur. There are also issues with the rate of migration to space (even running at 100% capacity the elevator wouldn't be capable of getting people into mars as quickly as indicated, even ignoring travel from the Challenger Planetoid to Mars itself.

Then there are clear contradictions like that the Challenger Planetoid was nudged towards earth 20 years before being captured, but this is long before the first proposal for the elevator.

There is also almost nothing to tie the blackout to being before or after anything else that has happened.

I find this frustrating as in most areas there is a lot of attention to detail and getting the setting to be plausible.