Reviver

Reviver by Seth Patrick, Reviver #1

Able to wake the recently dead, and let them bear witness to their own demise. Twelve years after the first reviver came to light, they have become accepted by an uneasy public. The testimony of the dead is permitted in courtrooms across the world. Forensic revival is a routine part of police investigation.

In the United States, that responsibility falls to the Forensic Revival Service. Despite his troubled past, Jonah Miller is one of their best. But while reviving the victim of a brutal murder, he encounters a terrifying presence. Something is watching. Waiting. His superiors tell him it was only in his mind, a product of stress. Jonah is not so certain.

Then Daniel Harker, the first journalist to bring revival to public attention, is murdered, and Jonah finds himself getting dragged into the hunt for answers. Working with Harker's daughter Annabel, he becomes determined to find those responsible and bring them to justice. Soon they uncover long-hidden truths that call into doubt everything Jonah stands for, and reveal a threat that if not stopped in time, will put all of humanity in danger.

Reviver is Seth Patrick’s debut novel and the first in a planned trilogy. He is an Oxford mathematics graduate and Seth Partrick works in the video game industry as a programmer for a.o. the award winning Total War series. Movie rights have already been optioned by Legendary Entertainment, the producers behind The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel.

When I first read about the book Reviver, it showed a great new concept in the genres of horror and thriller. With a name like Reviver one might think it has to do with zombies, but it hasn’t. Reviver is a chilling forensic-police thriller, where the dead haven’t found there last resting place after they have passed just yet. For specific purposes, people can be temporarily revived…

In Reviver you follow the main protagonist Jonah Miller, who is Reviver and one of the best there is. Revivers are able to temporarily bring back deceased people to question hem one last time. In the US the Revivers are part of a new division the US Forensics Revival Service. In the beginning of the book there is an emphasis on how this unit operates, what the importance of it is and also you see the daily life od Jonah, which is quite stressful, hectic and Jonah has to fight his own demons. Bordering on a break-down, Jonah’s life become just more difficult. Soon you learn more about the past of Jonah’s character and that he is special. Having been able to revive his mother only once she was dead for only 4 minutes. Forced to take a leave so Jonah can relax, he is called back to reviving once he is the only one left. And this throws him in a path that he hadn’t thought of possible. All his believes of his tutors and best friend proof to be different.

Not only Revivers make up the FRS, there are also technician that play an important role in solving the cases. Jonah’s best friend Never makes up a large part of the storyline and acts as a great supporting character, both in taking the storyline further as well as creating some witty and humorous comments to Jonah to liven up the story. There are some other great characters in the FRS and friends of Jonah that make a good impression in the storyline. There was one character Tess, whom I initially thought was a bit far-fetched in the storyline a too sudden introduction and not making any sense. However there is this turnaround point at about 3 quarters of the book where this is all corrected and felt like a door slamming in your face. It’s also here when you see that the earlier plotting and hints introduced by Seth Patrick start to make sense, this was very neatly done. When I started reading Reviver I hadn’t thought about the other things that could be done with reviving… suited for more ominous goals.

Now for the Reviving part, WOW, let me rephrase that WOW!!! I have read a fair bit of fiction so far but never would have guessed that this was possible. Seth Patrick introduces a cooler that cool concept with reviving. In was meant to bring criminals to justice, reviving murder victims to let them tell you who murdered them. But it isn’t a science that has been around long only for the last few decades. I think this allowed Seth Patrick to really create this to his own liking and with it shaping the book in a brilliant manner. Because it isn’t a hasty introduction with this is reviving and it allows you to talk to a dead person. No on the contrary, Seth Patrick breaking reviving down to the elementary facts. Seth Patrick takes enough time, not only in the beginning but all throughout the book, to tell a lot of how the fundamental work of reviving. Like the phases of reviving with the reversal and the surge. Also mentioning that people cannot lie when they are revived. But Seth Patrick also involves a lot more around everything like mentioning the group known as the Afterlifers who are against reviving, thereby creating a sense that it isn’t only viewed upon for the better, there is also the private sector for reviving and even insurances for talking to your closes relative one last time. So it’s not only the importance for solving murder cases that is shown but also the deeper economical and sociological aspects. This taken on the whole gave a well thought trough feeling about the reviving, Seth Patrick really created his own science with it and I am very curious as to how it is explored in the later books.

I already mentioned above that at 3 quarter the storyline transforms. Seth Patrick managed in a great way to lead you on the chase to find answer, keeping the action tight and not revealing too much of what might come. I really thought that reviving was a great idea in terms of solving the murder cases, however the more ominous idea’s of what might be possible did make me look at it differently, but that was only the first twist that was introduced. Later on there is a much more bigger and more dangerous element added to the story that refers to one of the first scenes of the book when Jonah revives a person and he hears different voices. I found this relation was plotted out in such a clever way and the things that it brought along gave me the chills. Another thing that was interesting in the story were the big pharmaceutical companies and showing the origins of the Reviving art how it al started with Baseline and what kind of experiments they carried out, some for the better and some for the worse. This gave a much more larger feeling to the storyline of Reviver. It shows that there was very careful plotting and a lot of thinking put into Reviver.

Reviver is a blockbuster. I had high hopes for Reviver and Seth Patrick’s Reviver lived up to this and went beyond. With Reviver being a debut, it is even better. Reviver is one of the best debuts for 2013 and if you haven’t read this book you are sorely missing out on one of the best books. Seth Patrick has thought of all the large details as well as the minor details, breaking down the Reviver art down to the small part really gave a good grip on what it could do and where possible limitations might be. The characters that you meet along the lines all add there own part to the story and especially Jonah, with being part guinea pig and his friend Never made this whole story come to fruition. From idea to concept to execution, Reviver couldn’t have turned out to be better. I’m hoping to watch this on the big screen soon.