Ratings2
Average rating4.5
In his latest near-future thriller, Michael C. Grumley explores humanity’s thirst for immortality at any cost, from the bestselling author of the Breakthrough series
The accident came quickly. With no warning. In the dead of night, a precipitous plunge into a freezing river trapped everyone inside the bus. It was then that Army veteran John Reiff’s life came to an end. Extinguished in the sudden rush of frigid water. There was no expectation of survival. None. Let alone waking up beneath blinding hospital lights. Struggling to move, or see, or even breathe. But the doctors assure him that everything is normal. That things will improve. What they haven’t told him... is that he is the first person to be successfully revived from a cryonic sleep. As Reiff's mind and body gradually recover, he begins to suspect that the doctors are lying to him. One-by-one, puzzle pieces are slowly falling into place, and he soon realizes things are not at all what they seem. Critical information is being kept from him. Secrets. Supposedly for his own good. But Who is doing this? Why? And the most important question: can he keep himself alive long enough to uncover the truth?
Reviews with the most likes.
Slow Burn Scifi Thriller Does Just Enough To Feel Like A Singular Complete Tale Series Starter. This is one of those books that starts off as an edge of your seat thriller, slows down so much that one may think they are being cryogenically frozen themselves, and then picks back up as though you're being thawed out and called to action - not unlike the opening sequence to Mass Effect 2, which echoed The Million Dollar Man's "We can rebuild him. We have the technology". Which... well, to say what I was about to say would get into spoiler territory. Even the references above may get a *touch* close, but they're also generic enough to my mind to get right up to the line without crossing it, yet give the reader of the review an idea of what they're getting into here. As this tale ended, it honestly looked like it was going to get a star deduction for being a tale cut into half in a blatant cash grab, but Grumley does *just* enough in the last few pages to at least seal this particular tale off into its own complete tale... while still being a very blatant setup for a future tale. It will be interesting to see where Grumley takes this series next, as some passages brought ideas put forth in Marcus Sakey's Afterlife to this reader's mind (and/ or, if one prefers a more well known reference point here... a particular X-Man, though that one is *slightly* more tenuous than the Sakey reference).
Overall an interesting tale for what it is, which is a slow burn series starter. Recommended.
Originally posted at bookanon.com.