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ccollard58's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it. Grand adventure, great characters, hilarious dialog, sci-fi bio-protagonists... what's not to like?
OK, i would have liked a little more science. The initial direction was heading into Andromeda Strain territory, but the biology detail kind of petered out. Maybe Michael Crichton just ruined it for everyone by being so awesome, but the author could have done a lot more with the lifeform IMO. We are all familiar with Ophiocordyceps by now so you have to do better than just a faster growing version.
Still, very fun read. i stayed up late to finish it and i haven't done that very often lately :)
OK, i would have liked a little more science. The initial direction was heading into Andromeda Strain territory, but the biology detail kind of petered out. Maybe Michael Crichton just ruined it for everyone by being so awesome, but the author could have done a lot more with the lifeform IMO. We are all familiar with Ophiocordyceps by now so you have to do better than just a faster growing version.
Still, very fun read. i stayed up late to finish it and i haven't done that very often lately :)
mexcryptid's review against another edition
3.5
Cold Storage succeeds in giving readers a suffocating ticking clock, a perilous race to stop a somewhat-sentient fungus from twisting mankind into world-ending spore factories. Where it falters, at times, is in the presentation of its shifting points of view. Early on, I struggled with tracking whose perspective we were in. While later chapters provide clear-cut breaks by chapter separations, earlier chapters shift between paragraphs, making for a destabilizing first impression. Additionally, while I was excited to read a Crichton-esque, science-driven thriller with a Latino at its center, I was disappointed to realize Robert Diaz was a much smaller part of the book than the dust jacket led me to believe. This isn’t to say the rest of the cast isn’t made up of strong characters, in fact, Teacup and Naomi are great outsider perspectives to help build the books tension. All in all, Cold Storage is a solid entry in the growing category of the cordyceps-will-end-life-as-we-know-it genre.
butterdog4's review against another edition
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
zmull's review against another edition
4.0
David Koepp is a screenwriter so I was expecting a popcorn thriller of a novel. It's that, but he's obviously enjoying having a more expansive format with a novel so there are several digression into character backstories to wouldn't fly in a film. The digressions keep it from being as plotty as most thrillers, but it reads fast and is surprisingly funny. It's a good time.
karleighreads's review against another edition
3.0
I think just because of the timing that I read this, it was giving "The Last of Us" vibes because I'm pretty sure the fungus is the same one from the game/tv show. I really enjoyed how the author gave the fungus a voice, while internally of the infected, it was rather funny sometimes. The scary thing about this is that this is totally possible of happening. With climate change and the rise of the earth's temperature, we will be seeing more and more viruses and fungi moving into humans. This was a quick read and it was good, I would have enjoyed more, but it was short and sweet.
crypticalmoth's review against another edition
My problem with this book isn’t with the plot — I actually enjoyed the concept and wanted to know how it would progress. No, my problem is with the characters. I am a reader that loves detailed and expressive characters. Ones that have something that moves them towards character development. In the ~150 pages I read of this book, not one character stood out to me. They were bland, uninteresting, and I borderline disliked them at times. And maybe they develop more as the plot progresses, but I found myself so bored of them that, halfway through the book, I decided it was more annoying that fulfilling to read. But if you’re a reader that doesn’t care much about dynamic characters, then you’ll probably enjoy this book more than me.
donahuebn's review against another edition
3.0
There was a lot about this book that I liked, but I felt like the overall execution of the concept was lacking. This book wanted to be The Troop so bad and just fell short. I think if the author would have created more depth and made the book longer, this could have been a 5-star read. I just wasn’t buying into to the science behind the fungus.
hansktla's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
posies23's review against another edition
5.0
I can't remember the last time I've enjoyed a thriller this much. It's a fun mix of science, characters, and genre tropes that continually plays against expectations. I don't want to give too much away, but it's the story of an extremely adaptable virus that finds its way into the lives of several disparate characters, and how they have to try to save the world from it taking over the world.
The book is extremely well-written and paced, and I loved the characters.
Highly recommended, but not for the squeamish. (It has a killer virus, after all!)
The book is extremely well-written and paced, and I loved the characters.
Highly recommended, but not for the squeamish. (It has a killer virus, after all!)