This book was as much fun as dystopian/science fiction novels can be! A man dies in a bus accident (it falls into a frozen river), but 22 years later, it is revealed that he didn't actually die, as he has been kept in a laboratory all this time. This is obviously the first in a series, which is exciting, and it's a really fast paced adventure throughout. My only complaint is that the female lead was thinly written, and I feel like we're past that in this day and age, no matter what genre it is. But I will definitely be picking up the next in this series.

Thrilling, intricate and so much fun! I will definitely be reaching for more from this author. I also really enjoyed the character development here. It added so much depth to the story.

Deep Freeze is the first book in the Revival series from Michael C. Grumley, and I am eagerly anticipating the next release, as I simply need to know where the story goes from here!

This book opens as a convenience store robbery is taking place, quickly followed by a passenger bus avoiding an accident and instead plummeting into the freezing river below; army veteran John Reiff quickly becomes the hero in both events. From there, the readers heart rate returns to normal as we learn about various scientific tests taking place, which John Reiff is again part of. Slowly the truth begins to unravel with shocking twists and a lot of action along the way. (If you liked Razorblade Tears, you might want to give this one a try!)

This is a book that makes you question scientific ethics and mortality in a fascinating near-future world, while backed by a griping plot. Short chapters, sometimes only a page, are crafted perfectly to speed the story along, allowing the twists and reveals to have the utmost impact. This book simply fascinated me!

The audiobook narrator (Scott Brick) did a good job of heightening my intrigue, his voice ramping up as the plots pace quickened. The opening scenes were narrated with rapid-fire succession, and I know the rush that was created will stay with me for some time. I suspect this type of book is in Brick's wheelhouse as his delivery and timing are dramatic but not overdone.

This is the second thriller with sci-fi/fantasy elements I have read this month, and I'm quickly becoming one of the biggest fans of this sub-genre! I'm excited to see where Grumley takes the characters and learn more about the world he has created as the ending of this book had me instantly craving more!

Thank you NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, Forge Book and Macmillan Audio for the complimentary copies to read and review.

In a desolate world, destroyed by power and the quest for greed, how far would you go to obtain immortality? What, and who, would you risk? Michael C. Grumley delivers a scientific mystery that uncovers the answers to some of humanity’s greatest questions with his new novel, Deep Freeze.
Army veteran John Reiff is killed after the bus he is riding on crashes into a frozen river- or at least, that’s what everyone believes. So, when he wakes up twenty-two years later in a medical laboratory, he has some obvious questions. His doctors seem to know very little, only that he is part of a very prolific experiment that will have a tremendous impact on humanity. But John, too, has some secrets he’s keeping and when the dangerous people behind the “Program” seek to cut their losses, John knows he has to use every skill he has to stay alive.
Grumley’s novel plays out like an action-packed Hollywood movie, with shifty alliances, government corruption and life-altering scientific experiments and it is every bit as gripping and addicting as something on the silver screen. John has a Jason Bourne vibe that instantly makes him likable, worthy of empathy while still being incredibly bad-ass, and readers will quickly find themselves rooting for him.
The novel starts with the bus crash and Grumley paints the desperate struggle for life in the icy cold waters in such an immersive way that I instantly got chills. Right away, there is tension and suspense and by the first page it becomes far too late to turn back.
There is scientific language in the novel, of course, but Grumley manages to keep it generalizable, providing the reader with information without inundating them with indigestible language and terminology. The process of gene sequencing, cryogenics and the reconstruction of the human body is outlined without becoming all-encompassing and Grumley provides exactly the right amount of information to make his plot line work without losing a readers’ attention.
The chapters are short and yet they are jam-packed with drama and hard-core action. The terrifying depictions of the post-apocalyptic world they now live in really cuts to the core and does not go beyond the realm of possibility, which adds a layer of unsettling turmoil to the plot.
Deep Freeze was an instant page-turner, and it comes as no surprise that John Reiff will be returning in subsequent novels in this burgeoning series. The ending hints at more to come from Reiff and his friends, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Deep Freeze takes place in a near-future America where secret labs are very real, and those running them have their own agendas. John Reiff ends up in such a lab after he is seemingly killed rescuing people from a bus accident. The bus he is on careens off a bridge into an icy river, and everyone makes it off except John. He is understandably surprised when he wakes up, who knows how many days later, in a hospital barely able to move or talk.

Now, all of this sounds like a very interesting set up for a thriller, right? In fact, some of the marketing I've seen for the book compares it to books by Blake Crouch. I loved Pines by Blake Crouch, and Upgrade was a fun time (even if the last few pages seemed to negate the protagonist's entire argument). So, I went into this book with expectations for a thriller with sci-fi elements about a man on the run searching for answers. That, it turns out, is not quite what I got.

I did not in fact even finish this book. It's been a very long time since I have DNF'ed a book, actually, and it takes quite a bit to make me do so. I did give this book a chance. I read over 100 pages of the book, but when the most exciting thing to happen in the course of the first 100 pages of a thriller is the bus crash in the first 10 pages, then there's a problem.

Following the accident, very little of interest happens other than a little background information being trickled out about the lab and the people running it. I know the author was trying to be mysterious, but the whole cloak and dagger government conspiracy was obvious even with frustratingly few details being revealed. I didn't really care about the characters or what was happening to them because by the 100 page mark I still didn't know anything about them!

Speaking of characters, the main turn off for me with this book was that John Reiff is obviously a rip-off of Jack Reacher. They're both Army vets with no home, no middle name, and a roaming nature. They're both tough and prefer to solve problems with their fists. John Reiff even says something almost exactly the way Jack Reacher said it. When asked why he wanders around, Reiff responds with how he wants to see more of the country he has spent his life defending on his own terms. It was all a bit too on the nose and became very distracting for me, since I'm a huge fan of Jack Reacher.

Don’t get me wrong. This could have been done in a very interesting way because taking a character like Jack Reacher and dropping him into a sci-fi thriller is certainly an intriguing prospect. This book, unfortunately, did not do that. Instead, John Reiff is a washed out copy of Jack Reacher, and he's stuck in a lab for the first third of the book. It just wasn't executed very well for such an interesting concept.

A few other more minor things that bothered me about this book were the treatment of the main female character and the author's obsession with explaining every scientific detail about process and machines used in the lab. It almost read as if he just learned all of this cool science stuff and had to share it with the world. It honestly came off a bit patronizing.

Which brings me to how he treated the main female character. Other characters in the book almost constantly mention how brilliant she is and how talented she is as a scientist. But in the same breath they will mention how naïve she is and how weak it makes her seem. It's like she wasn't allowed to be brilliant without a caveat while the men were allowed to have few, if any, flaws in their character. Consequently, male characters often seemed to talk down to the female character, and it was incredibly off-putting to read once I noticed it.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy or even finish this book. While the concept was what drew me to the book in the first place, its poor execution and other flaws were distracting enough that I didn't want to go back to it after putting it down. Plus, I am fine when authors want to take an archetype and spin it into something new. However, when it becomes obvious that rather than using an archetype, they just ripped off a character from another book, I don't agree with that. Maybe other people will still find the story enjoyable, but it just wasn't for me.

I gave Deep Freeze by Michael C. Grumley one out of five stars. This book unfortunately had too many flaws that were too distracting to keep me interested in reading. I really wanted to like this book, since the ideas behind it were so interesting. The only thing that even tempted me to keep reading was unraveling the mystery in the background, but it wasn't enough for me to pick it back up in the end.

I live in chilly Vermont so I love a book about freezing, this book looked like it might be dystopian but turned out to be more Sci-fi. There's a great twist in the middle that keeps you guessing about what it going on. Hard to tell who the bad guy is and who, if any, are good ones. Maybe I should add mystery as a genre too because I am still trying to figure it out.

Deep Freeze is a near future sci-fi thriller where the main character, John Reiff suffers an accident that leaves him submerged in freezing water seemingly with an impossible chance at survival. He then wakes up in a hospital where secrets are clearly being kept from him. He soon realizes that his life may be in danger if he doesn’t quickly figure out who to trust. The story is told in part from his perspective and in part from the perspective of the researchers and doctors who worked to bring him back to life. Grumley uses this novel to tell an action packed story, but he also takes the opportunity to prompt the reader to ponder why people desire immortality at all and what that even looks like. For instance, is it worthwhile to live forever if it doesn’t come with the vitality of youth?

This was a fairly fast and gripping read for me. The short chapters made the pacing of the story feel more exciting especially with alternating POVs. I felt that the author toed the line pretty well between explaining the more scientific aspects of the work being done while staying accessible to those without any previous knowledge on the subject.

This book is clearly set up for a series, but this story was also wrapped up enough to leave the reader satisfied. In fact, it almost felt like a prequel with how much you can clearly tell it’s aiming to become something much bigger. I would actually love to read a prequel novella following any of the characters through their personal histories or large scale changes to society that had occurred in the 20 years prior to the main story in this book.

Partially because it feels like we’ve only scratched the surface of the characters and the status of civilization but there’s space for that to be fleshed out in subsequent books. Really, most of my critiques were out of a desire for more information and more world building and I’m happy to continue reading the series as it’s released to give Grumley the opportunity to provide that additional information.

Overall, it’s a fun read and one that kept me hooked enough to read “just one more chapter” late at night when I should have been sleeping instead. I’d recommend this to readers of Andy Weir or Blake Crouch, or anyone looking to dip their toe into science fiction but who may be intimidated by the subject matter. I gave this one 4/5 stars.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced readers copy.

Title: A Mixed Bag: A 3-Star Review for "Deep Freeze" by Michael C. Grumley

"Deep Freeze" by Michael C. Grumley is a science fiction thriller that takes readers on an exciting journey into the mysteries of the ocean. While the novel has its moments of intrigue and suspense, it falls short of earning a higher rating due to a few key shortcomings.

Firstly, the pacing of the story is inconsistent. At times, the narrative moves briskly, keeping readers on the edge of their seats. However, there are instances where the plot seems to drag, with unnecessary details and subplots that detract from the overall momentum. This inconsistency in pacing makes it challenging to maintain a constant level of engagement throughout the book.

Additionally, the characters, though diverse and interesting, lack the depth needed to truly connect with readers. The protagonist's development is particularly underwhelming, leaving the audience craving a more profound understanding of their motivations and emotions. As a result, the emotional impact of certain events in the story is dulled, preventing readers from fully investing in the characters' fates.

On a positive note, Grumley's exploration of deep-sea exploration and the potential dangers lurking in the ocean's depths is commendable. The author's evident passion for the subject matter is apparent, and the detailed descriptions of underwater technology and marine life add a layer of authenticity to the narrative.

In conclusion, "Deep Freeze" has its merits, offering an intriguing premise and glimpses of excitement. However, the inconsistent pacing and lack of character depth prevent it from reaching its full potential. While fans of underwater adventures and science fiction may find elements to enjoy, others might find themselves wishing for a more tightly woven and emotionally resonant story.

The book immediately captivated me with its gripping beginning, featuring extremely short chapters and cliffhanger endings that kept me eagerly turning the pages into the late hours of the night. I particularly enjoyed the back-and-forth between perspectives, especially the incorporation of John's memories and thoughts in italics. The fast-paced writing style and sci-fi elements evoked comparisons to works by Blake Crouch. However, as the narrative shifted towards a more military theme, I found myself losing interest.

I would enthusiastically recommend this book to readers who appreciate fast-paced, sci-fi-based thrillers, especially those who are fans of Blake Crouch. The story unfolds with a bus accident, plunging people into a freezing river, including Army veteran John Reiff. Years later, as John wakes up, he discovers a disconnect between what the doctors tell him and his own perceptions of reality. The narrative explores his journey to uncover critical information that has been kept from him.

I extend my gratitude to Tor Publishing, Forge Books, and Netgalley for providing this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Deep Freeze is a near future scifi medical techno-thriller set in a sort of post-apocalyptic setting.

The premise of this book sounded great and I was all in when I saw techno-thriller. Give me all the futuristic tech and science!

In the first chapters, John ends up drowning in a frozen lake (or so it seemed).

John wakes up in a hospital unable to see or to move at first, but the doctors reassure him that he’ll recover. As John slowly gets better, he realizes there are things that are being kept from him and that he’s a prisoner, unable to leave or get answers.

This premise was absolutely intriguing but the buildup was slow. Unfortunately, I found myself putting this book aside more often than not, and it took me longer than normal to finish. I can’t put my finger on why and maybe it was just me.

The overall story was good, and I had high hopes for it. But if I’m being honest, it didn’t knock my socks off. It was ok. This may be the book for you though if you enjoy this genre. There’s lots of action later in the book!

*Thanks to Forge Books and NetGalley for the gifted advance eGalley!*

The story is told in third person and follows an enigmatic former army ranger, who takes a plunge into a freezing river and wakes up in an unknown facility with doctors who are acting a bit squirrely. Rachel and Perry are just following orders, but when protocols start going out the window with no explanations, they start to get suspicious of their superiors and with the help of coworker Henry, they start trying to figure out what’s really going on behind the scenes at their research facility.

I really enjoyed the characters and the cryonics plot in this one. It had a bit of action, a bit of intrigue, a bit of science and medicine. The future world they were living in was rather vague for most of the story and when it was explained in the latter part of the book, it really wasn’t consistent with the technological and other aspects of the story shown.

It’s full of flawed characters with all sorts of shades of gray, villainous intentions, greed, and ends justified the means attitudes. The end still leaves you with some questions to work out and since this is the first in the Revival series, I look forward to learning more about what’s going on. Hoping to find out more about John’s past in future installments and what’s up with the monkey!

Thank you to NetGalley and Forge Books for a copy provided for an honest review.

One of the curses of reviewing is you read a lot and if you read a lot you can work out certain plots or beats to a novel. A certain order of events leads to only a few possible outcomes. You learn the lingo and structures. That’s fine there are lots of ways to play musical notes after all and it is often the execution and how authors play with those themes and ideas where the fun is. Fun though was lacking when i read the new SF thriller Deep Freeze by Michael C Grumley which was perhaps more deja vu than like in a novel.

A mysterious man travels a bus there is an accident that while he rescues his passengers means he plunges to the depths of an icy river. This man known as John Reiff faces the end of everything. he then mysteriously wakes up. Haunted by visions of a fire, unable to move and see. Under the help of his physicians in particular Doctor Rachel Souza John makes a slow recovery but this hospital has secrets and very soon John and Rachel are in huge danger.

I was a bit disappointed that this novel very much does everything you expect it to do. Grumley is a proficient author but every character and scene will remind you of every book, tv show and movie where a mysterious lab does strange things to a patient. From secret meetings with the Boss; someone trying to find out the secret plan and getting caught and so on and so on. Its a very pedestrian plot that moves slowly without delivering anything particularly new. The villains are indeed villains. The good guys do their best and oh by the way John has skills he can use when necessary and indeed does so. You just never really care about the stock casting cast

Deep Freeze is a very short thriller that if you’ve not seen this before will be fine but for me it left very little of a lasting impression and I’m afraid there are better incarnations out there to find. The book has nothing new to say or contribute bar new technobabble. Not a book I can recommend sadly

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.

A major crash with a bus plummeting into dark icy waters, with John Reiff, a retired Army veteran, helping others aboard to escape before becoming trapped himself. Fast forward two decades to a lab set up with an elaborate machine that has managed to resuscitate frozen animals, moving from small mice, rabbits, dogs and finally up to monkeys. The day has finally come to try the technology on a human to see if it will work. With this comes all the ethical dilemmas of who provides the funding, who controls the outcome, and what rights does the revived human have: especially if as in here prior permission from John Reiff has not been obtained.

There’s been much scientific discussion over the past couple decades about Cryogenics and the ability to resuscitate bodies in the future when medicine has progressed far enough to both cure illness and rejuvenate to counter aging. There’s also been many wealthy individuals who have paid high prices to have their bodies after death put into a deep freeze in hopes of such a day arriving in time to bring them back from the dead.

Here, Grumley plunges us into an engrossing thriller that combines fighting for the survival, greed, nefarious investors, cover-ups, murders, and the acute moral dilemmas that arise with new technology and medical advances. There’s also the mystery of apparent clairvoyant skills possessed by John as he recovers post freeze, along with little info on his past. So hoping that this leads to a follow-on book!!

Thanks to Tor Publishing Group, Forge Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

DNFing at 33%. I just don't think this story is for me. There are some interesting plot lines, but it just feels like they fall in typical "experiment gone wrong/conspiracy" territory without any new hooks.

This was fast paced, full of scientific and humanity exploration on what it means to have access to a perfected cryogenic process - where people can be put into a frozen stasis and successful revival.

After the initial introduction chapters setting the scene the story progressed at a fast pace. There was a lot of interesting medical science and the manipulation of genes and biological advancements in a world that’s set in the near future to us. One thing that made it such a fast paced and easy to read was primarily dialogue. It’s a lot of explaining between various people and told in third person (ie no ones point of view)

This was a brilliant novel where I didn’t feel lost at any point with the science but still managed to get gripped into the political intrigue of it all. Highly recommended!

Thanks to @netgalley and Forge Books for an eARC to review.

This book started off thrilling and continued to give that feeling throughout the entire thing. It was fun and interesting. However, there were a few details that stuck out due to inconsistencies or discrepancies. It wasn't bad in any way, but it doesn't one that has every single detail nailed out.

Deep Freeze begins with an accident - a plunge into freezing water with John Reiff's life ending. Twenty two years later he is revived with the newest technology. However, everything is a little suspicious. Why was he revived? Who did the funding? What are they planning to do with him? Deep Freeze is a spine tingling, riveting, one of a kind mystery thriller. The writing is outstanding and kept me glued to the pages. Definitely one to add to your reading list. Thank you NetGalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

The beginning of this book immediately gripped me. The extremely short chapters with cliffhanger endings made me keep flipping the pages way too late into the night. I enjoyed the back-and-forth between perspectives, especially the interspersing of John's memories and thoughts in italics. The fast-paced writing style and sci-fi elements reminded me of works by Blake Crouch.

As the book became more military-esque, I started losing momentum. This is a personal preference and not necessarily a fault of the book at all.

Although it was an entertaining read, I think I would have enjoyed it as a standalone novel more. This is also just a personal preference!

Overall I would highly recommend this book for readers who enjoy fast-paced, sci-fi-based thrillers and for fans of Blake Crouch.

Deep Freeze by Michael C Grumley
Pub date: January 9th
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Library or Buy-worthy? Library
***Caution Spoilers Follow***
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Genre: Medical Thriller, multiple narrators
Similar Vibe: Intercepts by T.J. Payne, The Borne Identity by Robert Ludlum, Jack Reacher books by Lee Child

Deep Freeze by Michael C Grumley starts off with a bang, really sucking you into the storyline immediately. There's a modern day Frankenstein quality to this story that's intriguing. Beyond the killer beginning, the momentum slows a lot with necessary medical drama.The twist is pretty good and is revealed right about when the boredom starts to get overwhelming. Look for the twist around the 40% point (for pacing reference). As the characters learn what is really going on so do we. Some chapters end in cliffhangers which disrupt the reading flow but it's not hard to follow. Beyond all that the characters feel a little generic to me, like a 1980s mystery. It's unusual for me to equate doctors with ignorant people but that's what this plotline requires.

Overall, the premise is intriguing enough to carry the book and the writing is okay. I would've liked the whole book to be written with the same depth as the beginning but it didn't get there. The beginning was the best part for me. Thanks to Tor Forge for my free review copy.

TW for animal testing