Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thank you for providing me with an advance review copy of this book. Enjoyed reading, would recommend....

Omg......... this book was amazing I flew threw the pages with Olympic speed I was hooked from the very first page. I found it full of twists and turns threw out and it kept me on the edge of my seat all the way threw  I would defiantly recommend this book if you like a good book to keep you reading threw the night hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did

Thank you to the publisher for my eARC copy of this book. Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and therefore didn’t finish, I just didn’t connect with this one. Not for me, sorry.

The research that has gone into Cold Storage is clear and the descriptions of the fungi really reflects this. Unfortunately, that was the only bit that really grabbed me. A unique idea that has just missed the mark for me.

Cold Storage is exactly the kind of book I expected to read knowing the author was the screenwriter for Jurassic Park, Mission: Impossible and War of the Worlds. It's the book equivalent of a popcorn movie. Not much in the way of character development but not something you're particularly looking for either.

When I want to read/watch disaster-type media, I'm not expecting to be blown away by the depth of the characters and I wasn't here but that's really no bad thing.

The story is almost exclusively confined to one location which lends itself to the creeping menace of the fungus (and to a cheaper budget on an adaptation, perhaps?) which is doing everything it can to escape confinement and infect anything and everything in it's path. If I had read this last year, I may have downgraded this purely for how ridiculous the story is but having lived through 2020, I'm going to say this gets a pass on that front.

The plot itself is fairly generic and I can't say I was surprised by any of the developments but, like I said, that's no bad thing sometimes. We all love watching movies where we can switch our brains off and enjoy the action and this book, in the nicest possible way, is the literary equivalent of those films.

Basically, it's fun and silly and worth a read.

Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for providing me with a copy for review.

When Pentagon bioterror operative Roberto Diaz was sent to investigate a suspected biochemical attack, he found something far worse: a highly mutative organism capable of extinction-level destruction. He contained it and buried it in cold storage deep beneath a little-used military repository. Now, after decades of festering in a forgotten sub-basement, the specimen has found its way out and is on a lethal feeding frenzy. Only Diaz knows how to stop it.

As an introductory debut novel this book is "Good" but that's about it, for me there wasn't really anything that blew me away or made me want to say and read this book in one sitting or one week, for me this book was actually a drop in and out adventure, I'd read it a little, put it down, read something else and then come back. Now this wasn't because it was boring it was just after the first amazing half of the book, the middle was just boring, to much silly background side story, that wasn't really needed, so much so i had many times where i had to stop reading. And look at the book to making sure i was still actually reading the same story, i came here for a killer virus! And the people trying to stop it! But what i got was simply an amazing beginning, a boring middle - with added basic characters, and a rebound end - it's just a shame that by this point the book had lost me in the middle and it was to late for me to care, and the end was so predictable that and rushed that the conclusion was lost on me and overall it was a bummer.

Like i said overall it's a "Good" stand alone debut novel, so i expect these things! So i really hope that the author learns from these small errors and his next book or sequel to this book, whatever he chooses to do is better 😀

3/5 Stars GoodReads ⭐⭐⭐ (Good)

45/100 deadly diseases 🤮🤢

Goos fun and fast paced with memorable characters and a surprisingly well researched threat to humanity. Really enjoyed it.

Wow, what a book. You can tell the author is a known screenwriter for some big blockbuster hits, this book reads like one of those films. It has the horror element of some Stephen King and Dean Koontz novels. The horror is not overly gruesome and gratuitous, its inline with what the story requires to progress and give that feeling of dread.

The only downside I would have about this book in the first section is the amount of scientific description, I personally thought it was a bit too much, and got a little confusing what was what at a couple of points.

Overall a great book that I could visualise as a movie at some point.

This review is based on a free digital ARC copy provided by NetGalley. My views are provided based on the book content only

This was the most far fetched crazy storyline and yet it kept me up at night until I had finished it , a proper sci fi slash horror with enough humour and gore to keep you hooked throughout .

Well that was a fun read. Pure, unadulterated, horrific fun.Takes me back to when I was a kid engulfed in the 80’s pulp horror ‘The Fungus’ by Harry Adam Knight. I actually went back and read a review of the Fungus and a quote from there is 100% interchangeable with this book, viz. it “isn't trying to masquerade as scientific or serious, it's just trying to provide imaginative, fast paced, creature feature fun. It has succeeded!”

Hilarious, disturbing and captivating - one of my favourite sci-fi books of all time!

I've been meaning to read this book for quite some time, as I noticed it's been receiving high praise and I love that it's written by the screenwriter of Jurassic Park. I am delighted to say this book doesn't disappoint. Fast-paced, superbly written and detailed enough to give you an understanding of the science behind the story, I raced through this book in just a couple of days.

The characters are well-drawn, the scene-setting is immersive, and there were genuinely points where I found myself holding my breath, waiting for the next moment. Really highly recommend, this is easily one of my favourite sci-fi books of all time.

I just could not get into this one. I read it up until about 30% and then I had to give up. I’m Sorry, it just wasn’t for me!

Reading this during a global pandemic was probably not the best idea. I am pretty sure it raised my real life anxiety levels! The story is an edge of your seat thriller, which begins with an alien fungus coming to earth and ends with a race against time to try and stop it spreading through the whole of the human race. If you like Matthew Reilly or Michael Crichton, you would definitely enjoy this. The writing is very filmic, and it is easy to imagine yourself into the action. I enjoyed it very much.

When Pentagon bioterror operative Roberto Diaz was sent to investigate a suspected biochemical attack, he found something far worse: a highly mutative organism capable of extinction-level destruction.

Now, after decades of festering in a forgotten sub-basement, the specimen has found its way out and is on a lethal feeding frenzy. And only Diaz knows how to stop it.

He races across the country to help two unwitting security guards – one an ex-con, the other a single mother. Over one harrowing night, the unlikely trio must figure out how to quarantine this horror again . . . before it’s too late.

Fast paced, relevant to the current climate today and a brilliant read. Don't really need to say any more.

This is a science fiction thriller.
It is a rollicking adventure which just does not stop making you keep turning the pages.
The characters are well developed and make you cringe and laugh in equal amounts.
Thoroughly enjoyable.

This book pulled me in so much and so quickly. It was hard to put down. The only down side of this book to me was that I felt the ending was lacking. It was such a short ending without much description. Where the rest of the book was so full of description and details you felt you were in the story with them. Apart from the poor ending the rest of the book is really good, but maybe the ending has been left this way on purpose as I’m sure there could be another book.

You can also tell that the author David Koepp is a screen writer and director. He has worked on Jurassic Park, Spider-Man, Panic Room among others. This book could so easily be a film that I would go an watch.


This story starts in December 1987 where Roberto Diaz and Trini Romano work for the US Government. For a department called Defence Nuclear Agency, they basically deal and eliminate nuclear and bio threats.

On this particular mission they are sent to Australia. Where a fungus has been found, but the reason this fungus is so different to its original strain found on earth is that it was sent up into space for scientists to experiment on. Except the space craft crashed back down to earth from space. So the fungus had gone through some changes due to this. Luckily even though the wreckage was spread far and wide the canister the fungus was in landed in a remote community in the Australian outback.

When Roberto and Trini landed they were met by a scientist that dealt with fungus and other hazardous biological species. Once they reached the small community it was quiet with no signs of life as though everyone had left but the cars were still about.

They eventually found the people, they had all been infected with the fungus, but the most worrying thing was that the fungus had seemed to take over the people. As though it was still evolving. They found every single person had gone as high as they could which in this small community was the roofs of their houses. Where their bodies had finally exploded as if to spread the fungus on the wind.

After managing to contain the canister filled with the fungus and getting it ready to be safely transport. The scientist that helped them started showing signs of being infected she managed to take Roberto’s gun and she shot herself so as not to spread the fungus.

On returning to the USA they contained the canister and put it in to deep storage. In a secret government fall out bunker, where the fungus would be kept cool and would cause no other problems.

Now to the Present Day
The secret fall out bunker has been sold off as the US Government didn’t need it anymore. However before it was sold they blocked off the lower chambers, so whoever bought it had no idea that there were lower levels.

The bunker was now a place where people stored their possessions knowing that they’d be safe as it has 24/7 security. Two of the security guards on duty the night when the fungus became very active and started spreading faster than it ever had, are Teacake (who has a bit of a dubious past) and Naomi who has only recently started working at the facility so she can support her child.

This particular night Naomi went over to Teacake’s side of the facility as she was board and needed something to make the hours pass by. When Naomi reached Teacake, he asked her if she could hear a beeping sound. She said she could but neither of them could make out where it was coming from. They eventually realised that it was coming from the wall behind them, but there wasn’t meant to be anything behind this wall!

At first they didn’t know what to do but after a short time they both agreed that if they made a small hole in the wall that they could get something to cover it up so they would be in trouble for wrecking the place and loose their jobs.

While Teacake and Naomi are busy making their own investigations in to the noise. Roberto Diaz was being called out of retirement. As there were only a couple of people in the know as to exactly what was being kept in the old fall out bunker.

Before Roberto Diaz manages to get to the facility Teacake and Naomi are having a nightmare of an evening. They eventually find where the beeping is coming from and end up making a huge mess of the wall. Where they discover a map of the Bunker, which also shows lower levels that they didn’t know about.

Due to this new map they were able to workout a way to get down to the disused levels, where they come across a rat king, that was covered in this green mould. The mould was spreading over all over the walls and ceilings of the tunnel they found themselves in.

They eventually got back up to the normal levels of the facility, everything is in chaos, the further they get back to their post. People are going mad and exploding. Will Roberto Diaz make it to the facility in time to stop the fungus from taking over the world?

Teacake spoke first. “The f***ing deer just took the f***ing elevator” Naomi looked around, as if seeing the wall on either side of her for the first time. “What the hell is this place?”

QUOTE FROM COLD STORAGE BY DAVID KOEPP.

Cold Storage is a fast moving ecological thriller. At times, humorous, there is pace and precision in the writing and it is an absorbing read.

Cold Storage is written by the screenwriter of Jurassic Park, which was truly enough for me to pick this bad boy up. Part science fiction, part horror, part dystopian fiction - that's how I'd classify Cold Storage. The story is fast-paced and will keep readers on the edge of their seat. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a thrilling science fiction novel. Readers of The Hatching will enjoy.

Entertaining comic thriller. Well constructed and good characters, this thriller reads like a movie which is unsurprising given the author's cinematic background. A need to keep toxic samples safe, secure and secret leads to two security staff at a self storage facility having to take responsibility for saving the future of humanity. Good fun!