In this episode, Chris and Mike deliver a full spoiler review of Cold Zero by Brad Thor and Ward Larsen. They break down the plot, characters, action, and pacing of this high-stakes political thriller—and debate whether Cold Zero could be the best thriller novel of 2026.
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This episode contains full spoilers, including major twists and the ending.
—
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📚 ABOUT NO LIMITS:
• The Mitch Rapp Podcast: Deep dives into Vince Flynn & Kyle Mills' Mitch Rapp series.
• The Scot Harvath Podcast: Exploring Brad Thor's high-octane Scot Harvath universe.
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00:00:17
Hey, guys, I'm Chris. And I'm Mike.
00:00:21
And welcome back to this week's No Limits the Thriller podcast.
00:00:25
How you doing today, Mike? I'm good.
00:00:27
I'm excited to talk this one because in the Patreon group
00:00:31
chat we've had some bold claims that this early in 2026 we might
00:00:36
already have a candidate for Book of the Year.
00:00:39
Oh I I hundred 100% agree. Yeah, I think I agree with that
00:00:47
and Mark's other hot take. We might have the single best
00:00:50
action scene in the whole entire year.
00:00:53
Cold 0 by Brad Thor and Ward Larson is just a massive success
00:00:59
and I was so glad to talk with them a few weeks ago about it
00:01:02
and I'm really glad to talk with you tonight and get to the
00:01:04
scorecard. Big things are coming.
00:01:06
Big things. And one thing I can say about
00:01:08
this book, it is not the plot is not to get a guy to get a guy to
00:01:12
get a guy for sure. It is not.
00:01:14
It definitely is not. To.
00:01:17
Get a sub to get a plane to get a sub to get a nice breaker.
00:01:23
I, you know, I like just to, I feel like a lot of books are
00:01:26
like that, but it it, it depends on, I just want to clarify that
00:01:30
comment that we we made. Let's just let's strike it from
00:01:32
the books. Sure, it's there.
00:01:34
We've read plenty of books that have that formula and succeed.
00:01:39
It's how you fill in the get a guy to get a guy to get a guy
00:01:42
that make it. So that's all I want to say.
00:01:45
Anyways, this moving on. This book a little a little back
00:01:48
story for people who haven't heard it.
00:01:49
We got to interview Brad Thor and live on the pod, a 20
00:01:53
something New York Times bestselling author.
00:01:55
One of our heroes, one of our top authors of all time cursed
00:01:59
us out live on the pod. Check the interview for more
00:02:02
friendly a friend a friendly cussing out because we are in
00:02:05
his head living rent free when he writes because of our
00:02:08
critique that we don't like books where you get a guy to get
00:02:10
a guy. And I thought about it more as
00:02:12
well. And I I do have to say I think
00:02:15
the books that I like less have too many villains that are
00:02:19
inconsequential. So they get a guy to get a guy
00:02:22
is like this network of villains who just pop up like Austin
00:02:26
Powers henchman, you know, who get tossed aside.
00:02:29
But they only did one thing to move the plot forward and didn't
00:02:32
didn't have any other role besides that.
00:02:34
So I'm going to stand by. I think I'm liking books less
00:02:37
that do that. So crazy to think we're
00:02:41
influencing a New York Times bestseller.
00:02:42
No. And I, I think if you, you know,
00:02:44
to bring it back to cold zero, obviously you have to have
00:02:48
progression. Every story needs to have
00:02:49
progression and you're introducing new characters,
00:02:52
you're introducing new plot points, you're introducing new
00:02:55
plot holes, twists, turns. Obviously it's it's in the
00:02:59
execution of that. And I think with this book,
00:03:02
there's there's plenty of those twists and turns and you know,
00:03:07
hell, like you, we even mentioned it briefly, like the
00:03:09
spoiler alert. Obviously we're spoiling this
00:03:13
book. So, but you know, we mentioned
00:03:15
it briefly in our spoiler section with Brad, like the fact
00:03:17
that he chose to blow up the plane right when it lands like
00:03:20
like that's just a boom crazy. And then the other thing that I
00:03:25
think this book does great is it has this like, you know, like
00:03:28
Brad said, it has this crazy Mac Guffin right, that potentially
00:03:33
could be used at every single turn, but they only use it once
00:03:38
and they use it to great success and it it gets put back in its
00:03:42
box and it's never touched again.
00:03:44
And I I like that about the story, very much so.
00:03:48
And I don't think that's forced because the battery life, like I
00:03:51
realistically bought a prototype, is not going to have
00:03:54
cutting edge battery life that can survive the Arctic forever.
00:03:57
Like, if they have to be very careful that to shut this thing
00:03:59
down, turn it on, turn it off. So, yeah, I bought into
00:04:02
everything about how Skyfire was used.
00:04:04
Like, I almost wanted to see it a little bit more.
00:04:07
But the the few times it is used have such a big payoff that it's
00:04:12
absolutely fine for me. And like you said, I maybe as
00:04:15
the discussion unfolds, villains are not the best part of this
00:04:20
book. But what I really do like, and
00:04:23
that prevents it from being get a guy to get a guy.
00:04:26
The the Russian commander of the sub plays a really important
00:04:29
role. And I like being inside his
00:04:31
head, trying to think like, how is he wargaming it out of what
00:04:34
his next move is, Particularly with the icebreaker scene.
00:04:37
So between the LC 130 being blown up upon landing on the
00:04:42
ice, it successfully lands. But then we have this whole
00:04:45
shootout scene. Well, I think the other most
00:04:48
dramatic scene that maybe I liked more was the Chinese
00:04:53
icebreaker sinking the sub because when we get the Russian
00:04:57
and he has to like take the Chinese crew captive.
00:05:00
I just thought that was insane. So even if villains aren't like
00:05:04
top of the top memorable, they're put in situations where
00:05:07
I really enjoy them and their their decisions are very
00:05:10
consequential. So get a guy to get a guy would
00:05:12
be one just leads to the next, picks off the next, gets new
00:05:15
Intel from the next. No, I think being in the Russian
00:05:18
commander's head, making decisions about what to do with
00:05:21
this Chinese crew who just sank is nuclear powered classified
00:05:24
sub. That's a very consequential
00:05:26
decision. Same thing with the Chinese.
00:05:29
I don't know exactly what his level is in the Ministry of
00:05:31
Intelligence, but he's like. One step down from I guess he's
00:05:37
like the equivalent of direct director of operations that we
00:05:39
see at the CIA. Who's liaising.
00:05:41
That's what I was kind of piercing them together to be.
00:05:45
He's at that level, but at the highest echelon he's protected.
00:05:48
So I like the fact that he's vulnerable.
00:05:50
He's got his own psychotic episodes going on and he's
00:05:54
worrying about is he going to be put in front of the firing
00:05:56
squad. So I think the stakes for each
00:05:58
of those you can call the mini villains.
00:06:00
I don't think any one of them is the overarching villain of the
00:06:03
whole thing, Maybe that Chinese guy, but they each play a role.
00:06:07
They each have their own motivations, their own worries,
00:06:09
and their own decision making that puts them front and center
00:06:13
and all that comes together to make an excellent plot.
00:06:16
And nothing I feel like is superfluous or or
00:06:19
inconsequential to what Chen and Casey Sheridan.
00:06:24
Yeah, that that the doctor Chen, Casey Sheridan and Brett Sharpe
00:06:27
is kind of pulled into the whole thing by happenstance.
00:06:30
He rises to the occasion. So I just think every character
00:06:33
is tastefully done, plays a role start to finish, and has
00:06:37
decisions that really carry weight and affect the rest of
00:06:40
the plot. And to me, that's fantastically
00:06:43
done. And to me, almost like the
00:06:46
villain. Sure, you have this, you know,
00:06:52
MSS officer who's who's pulling the shows.
00:06:55
You have this incompetent like, you know, Neppo baby who was
00:07:00
placed on the icebreaker. You have the, you know, the
00:07:03
Russians who were sort of left out of the loop trying to figure
00:07:05
it all out. But to me, the real villain in
00:07:08
all this is the idea of Skyfire and it being in the wrong
00:07:13
person's hands. You know, like 1 can make an
00:07:15
argument whether or not it needs to be in in our hands.
00:07:18
But you know, like just this idea.
00:07:20
And then I think what adds this propulsive element to it is 1
00:07:24
you get to see it in action. So you you fully understand what
00:07:27
it what it's capable. We saw it right in action at the
00:07:31
very beginning that that scene is crazy, especially because I
00:07:33
drive a, a Tesla and my wife is like convinced that like, you
00:07:38
know, someone can hack my car. But you know, we see we get a
00:07:42
brief snippet of it there and then to get the full fledge, you
00:07:45
know, awesome scene of this icebreaker destroying the we
00:07:49
also see like, I guess it's a a variant of it, right, by taking
00:07:53
down the actual commercial airplane.
00:07:55
It's not Skyfire itself, but it's like some like prototype
00:07:59
that his chance protege was making.
00:08:02
And like that is the the villain, like the, the, the
00:08:05
threat of, you know, it's not a nuke on the loose, but it, it is
00:08:08
this like, you know, all powerful AI intelligent thing
00:08:14
that given to the wrong people, you know, can lead to
00:08:18
catastrophe. Which kicks off the race.
00:08:20
I think that's such a cool mechanism to make it this global
00:08:24
Arctic race to, to capture this device.
00:08:28
I, I don't know how to classify this book because it's a race
00:08:32
against a clock. It's a race against the
00:08:34
elements. There's another villain you're
00:08:35
going to add is the Arctic conditions and the polar bear.
00:08:38
Polar bear. It becomes a survival book.
00:08:40
And at the end, like I said, a special OPS rescue mission
00:08:43
breaks out, a fighter jet dropping bombs, a submarine
00:08:47
surfacing, ACIA spy trying to extricate an asset who's turning
00:08:53
it. It just crosses genre in a way
00:08:55
that could be a complete disaster if you don't have a
00:09:00
good, a solid foundation behind it.
00:09:02
And for me, Skyfire was enough of that.
00:09:04
I could see someone feeling that Skyfire needed a little more
00:09:10
explanation. I think a a little more, you
00:09:13
know, tech specs and how does it work inside the AI world.
00:09:17
And I think that could have been welcome.
00:09:19
I I I don't want to get away from the main storyline, but I
00:09:23
think some. Seem decent job explaining, you
00:09:27
know, kind because kind of we got that little bit of an
00:09:29
explanation when casey's like, what did you do?
00:09:34
Well, yeah. What did you build?
00:09:35
What? No, because he and he's like,
00:09:37
did you know when you unleashed it that it was going to do that?
00:09:40
And he said, no, I like it's, it's built to then look at the,
00:09:45
the weaknesses and then exploit those weaknesses to the fullest,
00:09:49
you know, And so in that moment, it, its weakness was all right,
00:09:53
we're going to, we're going to ram the sub to take not one, but
00:09:57
two elements out of the game that it deems a threat.
00:10:02
It's very similar to. Andrews and Wilson, the drones,
00:10:06
that's what I think. Reminded me of this last Mission
00:10:09
Impossible movie. Rogue.
00:10:12
Not Rogue Nation, but Dead Reckoning, 'cause they are,
00:10:17
they're looking for the entity and that kind of stuff.
00:10:20
But kind of getting back to your point of left in the wrong
00:10:24
hands, I think that that's why this story in particular being
00:10:29
Co written by Ward and Brad, like it's kind of like the best
00:10:35
of both of their wheelhouses in a sense.
00:10:37
Then we can't. We could talk to them a little
00:10:38
bit about this, about how, you know, you have that whole
00:10:41
special OPS, you know, mission trying to get somebody out,
00:10:45
which we've seen in a bunch of different Arvath novels or, you
00:10:49
know, race against the elements, you know, obviously that that
00:10:52
kind of stuff. And then you bring in this all
00:10:54
this aviation, this tech, you know what's going on around
00:11:00
that, and you kind of blend together like what they can both
00:11:03
bring to the story. I felt like this story is.
00:11:06
Yeah, sure it was. It was, you know, the idea was
00:11:08
created by Brad, but it was fully fleshed out.
00:11:11
And I think it couldn't have been fleshed out better with
00:11:15
with a different like if Brad had picked another or the
00:11:18
whoever else he had decided, if word had said no.
00:11:22
You know, I think it this turned out the best it could.
00:11:25
I agree, I think either one of them could have written the
00:11:28
story solo, come up with something similar.
00:11:32
I think the fact that they were able to do it together and push
00:11:34
each other, bring those different backgrounds, I think
00:11:38
that's what pushes this book over the edge and makes it top
00:11:41
tier. So and I was also equally
00:11:45
satisfied and happy to hear about their process really
00:11:48
clicking because, you know, I've raised questions and concerns
00:11:52
before of what is this Co authoring move and why are so
00:11:54
many people moving forward with it?
00:11:57
Curious, skeptical, worried that it might not have the best of
00:12:01
intentions. But those two just really,
00:12:04
really showed. I think a path that I'd be happy
00:12:06
with is that yes, one person might have the idea.
00:12:10
Yes, there's maybe a power imbalance of one person's a
00:12:13
bigger bestseller, more well known household name. 1 isn't,
00:12:16
but it's not like, you know, it was sell one person's name and
00:12:21
make the other one do all the grunt work.
00:12:22
They really, and they, they came alive.
00:12:24
We're excited to talk about their process and sending things
00:12:28
back and forth and working through, you know, leaving
00:12:32
comments and track notes on the document.
00:12:34
Like I was really satisfied to hear that that's how the process
00:12:36
went as opposed to, hey, I just handed this thing off.
00:12:39
They wrote it and then I marked it up with red pen and gave it
00:12:42
back. You know, it was, it was really
00:12:43
good to hear that they were, were truly tag teaming.
00:12:46
It seems like just a natural partnership, and I mean, that's
00:12:51
got to be tough from an established author set in their
00:12:53
ways, you know, has their process down pat, Just needs the
00:12:57
time to work solo. It's most of their career in
00:13:01
terms of writing and putting words on a page has been that.
00:13:04
And to break that after however many books he wrote, I'm sure
00:13:07
that's a tough thing. And they really just reassured
00:13:10
me that this is a great model moving forward.
00:13:13
So we're going to see Jack Carr having one come out in a few
00:13:15
months. Other authors I think are
00:13:17
already starting to make plans to do something similar, so I
00:13:22
think these two just showed us the path and it worked out.
00:13:27
You know, if it's a means by which the publisher wants to
00:13:32
have more books by the author, by a means that the author
00:13:35
themselves feels like they could put out more, but they don't
00:13:39
have the bandwidth. Whatever the case may be, if if
00:13:44
this is going to be the model of like how it's done and how it's
00:13:47
executed, then sure, sign me up. If that means we're going to get
00:13:51
one of these, you know, every year, every other year type
00:13:54
thing. Obviously at the end of the
00:13:55
story they left this. You know, I want to talk a
00:13:58
little bit about sharp because you know, while he comes out the
00:14:03
gate pretty hot, I feel like he's sidelined for a decent
00:14:06
amount of the of the story and then comes in strong at the end.
00:14:11
But I feel like they have something here in terms of this
00:14:14
dynamic duo. If, if he truly does, you know,
00:14:17
incorporate into the CIA and you know, obviously there's going to
00:14:20
be a fallout for you could continue on with the Skyfire
00:14:23
stuff and like the the fallout with the Chinese and and
00:14:25
everything. So super intrigued about that.
00:14:28
But if they don't touch it again, then I'm excited to see
00:14:31
something else by the two of them.
00:14:32
So. Same.
00:14:33
Yeah, I was glad they they have plans.
00:14:35
And whether those plans include KC and Sharp, great.
00:14:39
If it includes the fallout, like you said in the Arctic, sure
00:14:42
doesn't matter to me. I I love the characters enough
00:14:45
to go on another adventure with them regardless of where they're
00:14:48
at. So to see him brought into the
00:14:50
fold, I I think that could be a really good way to go.
00:14:54
Whether they do it or not could be great.
00:14:55
Now, what about the Netflix talk?
00:14:58
I don't know how I feel still about not getting Scott Harvath
00:15:01
on screen with all this big announcement.
00:15:03
But at the same time, this book is so cinematic.
00:15:06
To see a couple of these scenes, to see the icebreaker being
00:15:09
taken over by AI, crashing the sub and then bombing the ice, it
00:15:15
would work so well. So I was really glad to hear
00:15:18
that. But come on, I want some Scott
00:15:20
Harvest. I want lines of Lucerne.
00:15:24
Yeah, you know, it's, it's tough, right?
00:15:27
I guess as lifelong fans of of Brad and Scott to for this to be
00:15:34
the first thing to option. You know, I'm a little sad, but
00:15:39
I will say this. They have a point like and it's
00:15:42
like it's understood why the someone would want to option
00:15:47
this so quickly and and to gobble it up.
00:15:50
Because to jump on it. This leads to a perfect
00:15:54
execution on on screen. You know, like we say that some
00:15:59
of the best, best thriller authors are the ones that are
00:16:02
able to get you to visualize every scene in your mind.
00:16:06
Like there was no way you couldn't do that with this knob.
00:16:09
Yep, I felt it. I I felt transported there,
00:16:13
which is the strangest thing to say because it's the it's one of
00:16:16
the most far and hostile isolated environments in the
00:16:20
world that I've whatever have 0 experience with.
00:16:22
But yet I felt so connected to it.
00:16:24
So tell me. We talked about the big scenes.
00:16:26
We talked about the characters. What about a few of these scenes
00:16:30
that I think are like B tier. They're not up there with the
00:16:33
top two we mentioned, but like the crash itself is awesome.
00:16:37
And then similarly, the backlash story, the basically humping
00:16:40
through the ice, you know, the the cracks bringing the ladder.
00:16:46
Doctor Chen basically nearly dying on this journey.
00:16:49
What did you think about those two parts?
00:16:51
Because to me they're like the next step.
00:16:53
The top 2 scenes were so good. Those are like the next tier of
00:16:56
really good scenes. So you're saying the top 2 are
00:16:59
the? Ice breaker.
00:17:01
Interaction, ice breaker and then the very end scene.
00:17:04
Yep, the everything from the plane landing on the ice getting
00:17:07
shot out to the bombers busting the ice.
00:17:11
And so the Cheyenne. Yeah, the Cheyenne surfacing.
00:17:15
No, like I, I think it's, you know, I think, I think who was
00:17:19
it anyways? One of our patrons like
00:17:24
mentioned that, you know, while there wasn't like too much
00:17:28
action, I think the action we got was good.
00:17:30
And I could see that like, you know, there's not a run, run and
00:17:34
gun and shoot scene like every couple chapters just because of
00:17:38
the nature of like what the story is.
00:17:39
I think I I think it was intriguing enough to get that
00:17:43
those moments of right, right after the crash.
00:17:46
You have all right, we need to set up and and and figure out
00:17:49
survival mode and and do all the stuff at the same time.
00:17:53
Casey still hasn't, you know, divulge this information.
00:17:57
Where the hell is Skyfire? Is Chen even alive?
00:17:59
Like that kind of stuff. So there's all this, you know,
00:18:02
suspense, intrigue built into that.
00:18:05
And then, you know, after everything kicks off and she
00:18:08
leaves and is on the run, obviously, you throw in like a
00:18:11
polar bear. You throw in the elements.
00:18:13
Chen is, you know, half alive there.
00:18:16
There's these ice chasms that I'm just like 6 feet.
00:18:20
You can't just jump that. But I guess like, I don't know,
00:18:25
pretty far. I've never been in that
00:18:28
situation, so. No, me neither.
00:18:31
But it was described so well, these ice floes and every little
00:18:34
crack and crevice, it just made sense.
00:18:39
So, yeah, I, I think I would agree with the the action is not
00:18:44
evenly distributed throughout, but again, it need not be.
00:18:48
And then that's why our category is action and suspense.
00:18:51
I think once you throw suspense into that category, I mean, I
00:18:56
was on suspense every time they had to fire off a message with
00:18:59
Skyfire and what the response will be.
00:19:02
Edge of my seat when they took off on the journey and we knew
00:19:06
the polar bear was lurking. Like, I just thought all that
00:19:09
was a whole lot of fun. And and then one crazy one right
00:19:12
after the crash when they're trying to set up camp, what
00:19:15
they're trying to take like inventory of who they have and
00:19:18
what they have aboard. They even blow up the the raft
00:19:23
to block off the fuselage where it's it's cut in half.
00:19:26
I just think so much of that it's not a traditional maybe
00:19:30
people are looking for more shoot em up, you know, Pew Pew
00:19:34
assassin type storyline. I.
00:19:36
Think you didn't have that at the end?
00:19:38
I you get, you get a little taste of it, but I didn't want
00:19:40
that throughout. It's just, it's a crash in the
00:19:42
Arctic. We're not going to randomly have
00:19:45
assassin showing up out of nowhere like somebody who just
00:19:47
all of a sudden is like, I know how to shoot, you know, OK,
00:19:51
whatever. It wasn't a shoot em up book and
00:19:54
it still had my attention throughout.
00:19:55
So for action, suspense is probably not my biggest Ding of
00:20:00
the book, but it's a point or two down.
00:20:04
Like if we're going to get into it, it's an 8 out of 10.
00:20:06
Yeah, I, I, I agree with that. Yeah, I think it's fully an 8
00:20:09
out of 10. But like, even though the point
00:20:12
of right before, excuse me, right before the icebreaker Rams
00:20:18
into the, you know, we have the whole suspense of like the
00:20:21
Russians found them because she shot the polar bear.
00:20:24
Like, what are they going to do? They have to figure out like
00:20:27
they have to come with some sort of ruse.
00:20:29
Delay. Tactics, delay tactics.
00:20:31
Then the Chinese arrive and then you know, what's his name has
00:20:34
the foresight, the foresight to pull that gangway and like, let
00:20:38
it sink so that way they can't get when they're coming back.
00:20:41
There's just every little thing and of course, like they're in
00:20:45
the remote, the most remote place on earth.
00:20:49
And the fact that all right, just I mean, it's already a
00:20:52
coincidence enough that you have an ice, an icebreaker.
00:20:55
Well, I guess that was sent there to find them to you have
00:20:58
this Russian shrub that was happened to be tracking the
00:21:00
Cheyenne and the Cheyenne was sent there too.
00:21:02
So, you know, obviously all these things are converging into
00:21:05
one. There's not going to be any
00:21:07
other like elements other than you know what, like we have at
00:21:10
the end, the Ice Wolves that have that have to take 8 hours
00:21:13
to get to them, you know, because of how far they are.
00:21:15
What? And you have this race of this
00:21:18
finish of like, Oh my God, the F or the F Fifteens or the bombers
00:21:24
going to get there like 10 minutes before like the second
00:21:27
wave of, of planes come in. And you know, you have this
00:21:30
first of all, you have the freaking the four Navy SEAL or
00:21:33
not, it's 2 Navy Seals with two. Yeah, Swedes.
00:21:37
Fins. Yeah, yeah, Fins.
00:21:40
Counterparts. That was cool and they were able
00:21:41
to take down all dice. Wolf, that scene wasn't it?
00:21:45
So sick and it was just such a classic thriller scene and
00:21:48
executed. That was very, very, very Brad.
00:21:52
Oh yeah. Oh, completely, completely.
00:21:56
Some of what you just touched on there goes to plot.
00:21:58
And I would say I'm going to combine it with buy in just a
00:22:03
little. There was never a time in the
00:22:06
book where I wanted to stop and just poke holes in the plot.
00:22:10
And sometimes books make me do that.
00:22:12
The eye roll moment, this person's motivations make no
00:22:15
sense. Why are we doing this thing with
00:22:17
said thing? I, I don't think this book, even
00:22:19
though it breathed, it had times to kind of slow down a little.
00:22:23
It never made me question where it was going.
00:22:26
So for me, plot was kind of tight.
00:22:28
It was it was a nine out of 10. I think that could be generous.
00:22:32
I, I could go aid on this as well, but for some reason I have
00:22:36
to wrap it up with buy it and it is there was nothing in the plot
00:22:39
which I rolled my eyes. I said I don't buy it.
00:22:43
You didn't sell me on it. I think they sold me on
00:22:45
everything start to finish. Yeah, and I think that's why the
00:22:49
hallmark of this book and why it's a front runner for our book
00:22:52
of the year, just because of once you put aside this whole
00:22:56
idea of that Skyfire can even exist like you, you have to
00:23:00
accept that very first. You have to buy into that.
00:23:02
You do? Yeah.
00:23:04
But then once you're into that, then everything is game, right?
00:23:07
And I feel like they did enough, obviously with the initial scene
00:23:11
of the you know, the taxi can take.
00:23:13
The car trace, yeah. You know, and then establishing
00:23:17
or either able to take out the plane and they're able to use it
00:23:20
like that, that all along we're getting more hints and hints of
00:23:22
like how powerful this can be. And then like it kind of like
00:23:25
clicks. I think for for me the this this
00:23:29
is a nine. It's the only thing I would like
00:23:32
maybe budget on if I like was pushed is when we are in the you
00:23:38
know, they have to track a pretty decent clip to get to
00:23:40
this like weather station. And at one point Chen falls into
00:23:44
the ice. Like wouldn't I?
00:23:47
I think earlier they they had mentioned like if as soon as you
00:23:49
fall on ice like then you come out like you're.
00:23:51
I think you're done. You're done.
00:23:54
You know I. Don't know if they would have
00:23:55
made it. Yeah, like that is, but at that.
00:23:57
But again, we're at that point in the book that I'm already I'm
00:24:01
already hooked line and sinker. You have me I'm it's a race
00:24:04
towards the finish. I want to see them get out.
00:24:06
So I'm going to believe anything.
00:24:07
You know what? I mean, if it was, that's.
00:24:09
Early on in the Bush. Exactly, If it was right after
00:24:12
the crash and like one of them is injured so bad and bleeding
00:24:15
out and all of a sudden they're just fine to go on this journey
00:24:18
and they can fall in the freezing water.
00:24:21
Yeah, it wouldn't have worked for me.
00:24:22
But I, I was so captivated by the the tension of the moment
00:24:29
that I was fine with it. I, I realistically, I mean, I
00:24:32
could say the same thing about backlash, though, realistically,
00:24:35
there were so many times harvest ain't going to survive that
00:24:38
shit. But again, he's Arvath this we
00:24:41
are not sold on that. He's some Arctic trained
00:24:43
warrior, Olympic ski team, Navy SEAL guy.
00:24:48
So it could be a little OK because of little things like
00:24:53
that. Maybe I'm only going 4 1/2 on
00:24:55
buy in. I was going to say a perfect
00:24:57
five, but there are some little things you could pick apart.
00:25:01
But you don't need to nitpick this book.
00:25:03
You just need to read and enjoy the hell out of it.
00:25:05
Yeah, yeah, yeah. SO45 on buying.
00:25:09
We're both 4-5 on buying. OK, I have the scorecard in
00:25:13
going for you in in our notes. Gotcha.
00:25:16
Yeah, I kind of just jumped us right into it, yeah.
00:25:20
All right, bad guys. A three is harsh.
00:25:28
If it was solely the Chinese MSS guy who was OK, not great
00:25:36
villain but not big bad, I might go down to a three.
00:25:40
The Russian for me and the Arctic and the polar bear I.
00:25:45
I think all that brings me up to A4.
00:25:48
OK. Could be high, could be high.
00:25:50
Yeah, it could be generous. One thing I do, you know,
00:25:53
obviously this doesn't like add to the bad guy numbers, but one
00:25:58
thing I did like about the bad guy is super quirky.
00:26:02
Like this idea of this guy, you know, careerist, he has some
00:26:07
crazy ass illnesses that, you know, he's keeping secret, you
00:26:11
know, So that's why you could tell that he's just unhinged.
00:26:13
Like, I mean, he's unhinged up that he first of all shot down
00:26:17
the like took down the airplane in the 1st place.
00:26:20
And then at the very end, you know, he'll do anything.
00:26:22
Like he even says he gets caught saying like, I can only go to
00:26:26
America, you know, then gets found out to be a traitor and
00:26:29
gets taken away. So I liked the story.
00:26:32
It was like a different take on, you know, someone who has
00:26:36
everything to lose and does lose it.
00:26:38
You know, all right, I'm going to.
00:26:41
You're giving it a four. I'm giving it a 3.5.
00:26:44
Yeah, I think 35 is, you know, could be Yeah.
00:26:52
The the reason I was generous. I'm still thinking about that.
00:26:56
I don't know his his name, the commander of the Russian sub and
00:26:59
something about the stand off where he has to direct his guys
00:27:04
to take the Chinese prisoner. I'm like you got Russian dudes
00:27:08
taking Chinese dudes as prisoners of war.
00:27:11
You, you sunk this guy's ship. He does like have them like hide
00:27:15
their guns underneath like something and then like he pops
00:27:17
them out. And then they take him out.
00:27:19
Yep. Because they had they happen to
00:27:21
have one guy who spoke who spoke Mandarin like on on their team.
00:27:27
I I just think it's something about that scene brings me up on
00:27:30
the bad guys because another thing is we had these villains
00:27:34
this this collision, we were set for this collision course over
00:27:38
Skyfire. I thought it would be like who
00:27:40
physically gets Skyfire and like takes it from the other person
00:27:43
in a struggle over that. But instead it was this other
00:27:46
way of the Chinese and the Russians butting head that were
00:27:50
really unique so that Skyfire can escape or that they can
00:27:54
escape with Skyfire. Something about that scene of
00:27:57
when that happened and they had to make decisions of who's going
00:28:00
to hold who accountable on the ice in the moment with the ship
00:28:03
going down. I thought the he rose to the
00:28:06
occasion as a villain. So let me keep the four, even
00:28:08
though I know that's a little generous.
00:28:10
But he does lose a sub. He like the ship.
00:28:13
Don't give up the ship. He gave up the ship.
00:28:16
It's a Chinese icebreaker that fucking ran the thing.
00:28:19
So an AI guided Chinese icebreaker?
00:28:23
I don't think it's his fault. All right.
00:28:24
What? Do you, what do you think about
00:28:26
the good guys we have? We have two main characters.
00:28:29
I would say, well I probably like I'm 1A and A1B.
00:28:33
Would you agree with that that Sheridan is the 1A and Sharp is
00:28:37
our 1B? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:28:40
I just think they go together. I'm trying to think, you know,
00:28:42
of another category instead of yeah, I think they complement
00:28:49
each other very well. The other thing is, here's what
00:28:53
it is. They're 1A and 1B at different
00:28:56
times depending on the moment. I think Sharp becomes 1A at a
00:29:01
point where it's about survival. He's the captain, you know, he's
00:29:04
the pilot, he's got to take, he's got to command the ship and
00:29:07
the crew. So I, I like how he's 1A for a
00:29:11
little while and Sheridan knows it's her time to be 1B.
00:29:14
And then when it is the rescue mission and she's been trained,
00:29:18
she's been involved, you know, she, she takes the lead.
00:29:22
I I really like how the two complement each other back and
00:29:25
forth so. And I also like the fact that
00:29:30
they were both kind of grounded in realism and in the sense that
00:29:34
like when we do get to that shootout fight, all right, Casey
00:29:39
is using her. What was that bolt action
00:29:41
Remington that she had to take out some people.
00:29:43
But it wasn't like, you know, we were cutting to sharp and he he
00:29:46
got was given a gun and he was, you know, taken out like 20 of
00:29:49
these ice wolves. Like, you know, he was 1.
00:29:52
He was injured. So it was kind of like out of
00:29:54
the out of the fight a little bit, but they didn't make it
00:29:59
unbelievable in the sense that these people were superheroes,
00:30:01
right. I felt that Sheridan, obviously
00:30:04
we don't know all about her, but she's her bona fides are are
00:30:07
established early. And I think she has a little bit
00:30:10
more there's a little bit more behind her than we at first
00:30:13
initially see. Sure.
00:30:15
And yeah, I like that you said that like they're both 1A1B, but
00:30:19
they they sort of fluctuate between who is going to be one
00:30:23
A1B and I feel like it it sets it up for this nice pairing if
00:30:26
they do decide to continue with them going forward.
00:30:30
Yeah, very different people, very different backgrounds, but
00:30:35
at the same time, they both are speaking the same language, the
00:30:39
the language of leadership, survival instincts, team before
00:30:44
self. So I think so crazy to see that
00:30:48
they're they're so in the in the know with each other.
00:30:51
They were communicating even in these high stress situations and
00:30:55
being understanding of where the other one's at and why the other
00:30:59
one hid something from them. They didn't get petty and
00:31:02
egotistic about it. So for them alone, I want to
00:31:05
give a 5 out of five. But I think here's my here's my
00:31:09
half point. What about the other?
00:31:12
What about the other people on this plane?
00:31:14
What are they doing? Why are they pitching?
00:31:16
They're just sitting there mooching off everyone else.
00:31:19
I mean, in the beginning of the story, we get a little bit of
00:31:23
background of them. I thought it was going to be,
00:31:25
you know, like falling or drowning.
00:31:27
Sure. The TJ Newman books, it's all
00:31:30
about the group and the group, the least among us.
00:31:33
The quiet one in the corner, the one who looked like they didn't
00:31:37
bring anything to the table, had their moment to shine, to rise
00:31:40
to the occasion. They they offered some piece of
00:31:43
the puzzle that that saved everybody's bacon.
00:31:46
I thought, we can just use a little more out of those guys.
00:31:48
I completely forgot who else was on the plane.
00:31:51
Completely forgot about the other survivors.
00:31:53
I have no idea what they're doing.
00:31:55
So some way of incorporating them is my my half a point.
00:31:59
The other thing was kind of crazy is that as the remaining,
00:32:03
you know, first officer, he's like now accountable for all
00:32:07
those lives. He just decides.
00:32:08
I mean, he I guess he does, he does like contemplate it and we
00:32:12
we're inside of his head, but and he says he's going to make
00:32:14
it like a crazy decision to do what he does.
00:32:17
But isn't that kind of crazy? He does just decide to dish him.
00:32:20
I guess he needed to make sure that that case he survived.
00:32:24
Yeah. And it's after he, he knew the
00:32:25
consequences of it. We we see him making that
00:32:27
decision. The Russians are already there.
00:32:30
He knows those are there, so it's not like he's leaving them
00:32:32
alone. Yeah, and he's not leaving them
00:32:34
with a hostile enemy. It's like the Russians are
00:32:36
literally there to rescue them. So yeah, I'm OK with that part.
00:32:42
But. Yeah, It was kind of like,
00:32:44
because he does a little bit of work to establish these, like
00:32:47
this Nick guy, there's graduate students, there's this Chinese
00:32:50
couple. Like we get a little bit and
00:32:52
then we're just, you know, they're kind of like.
00:32:54
Shut up, brought in yeah. 4 1/2 then.
00:32:57
Or is that a four? I feel like a point's too big
00:32:59
for that thing. I think, I think the Sheridan
00:33:03
and Sharp and. Sharp are completely too good.
00:33:05
They're too good. Exactly.
00:33:06
They're five out of five, the two of them.
00:33:09
Set it perfect. Yeah, perfect.
00:33:15
It's a perfect five. It's perfect.
00:33:18
Is it weird to say? At times I felt cold reading
00:33:20
this book. No, I completely did, and it was
00:33:23
right. Right during Snow Crete.
00:33:24
So nice. Yeah.
00:33:28
And he, I feel like this is Brad's element, like just we've
00:33:34
maybe me coming in with that prior knowledge of all he's
00:33:38
done, you know, in his past couple books, I guess not
00:33:41
recently, but like in, in the past, you know, he's, he's been
00:33:44
there. We we've, we've, we've been in
00:33:46
the Arctic, we've been in Norway, we've been in Russia.
00:33:49
Like so I'm just used to him that's hit very much his element
00:33:54
and he does a great job of, of, of conveying that.
00:34:01
And then, you know, I, I feel like just putting us in
00:34:05
different spaces in the submarine, in the airplane, like
00:34:09
they both did a did a great job with that.
00:34:11
So yeah, perfect. I think a lot of that is Ward.
00:34:14
I mean, especially the plane part in the beginning.
00:34:16
But you didn't read Dark Vector, did you?
00:34:19
Because I think I did the interview with Ward about that
00:34:23
one. I forget if you were on it.
00:34:24
Was that the one with submarines?
00:34:27
No, but it's a plane, a high tech piece of equipment that
00:34:32
there's a dissident escaping, but they go down in Russia and
00:34:40
oh, it was crazy. It was there was a whole rescue
00:34:43
mission sliding, going across the ice, going into these little
00:34:47
villages next to the lake, A survival story of true Miller
00:34:51
having to hide out on this down plane and use it for survival,
00:34:56
using every last scrap of the plane to know exactly what he
00:34:59
has and what he doesn't have to survive the elements.
00:35:04
Whereas a lot of the winter stuff reminded me of Brad from
00:35:07
Black Ice Backlash. He's done it before.
00:35:12
There was also so much that reminded me of Dark Vector
00:35:15
Britain, Ward's most recent book.
00:35:18
It's just crazy. And again, it's just, it's just
00:35:20
the perfect storm. The two were meant to be the two
00:35:24
to work together on this particular project.
00:35:26
They each had the history, the background, the knowledge, and
00:35:29
now they have the friendship to really do something special.
00:35:32
So yeah, setting 5 out of five, you couldn't tell where Brad's
00:35:35
writing ended and Ward's picked up and where Ward's writing
00:35:38
ended and Brad's picked up. It just went together so well.
00:35:45
Cover or the free space. What do you think?
00:35:49
Let's do a free space. OK, I'm gonna let you take it.
00:35:53
Mine's got to be the polar bear. OK.
00:35:57
I just thought that it was this fun, quirky element thrown into
00:36:02
it. Obviously, you know, this would
00:36:03
be a very real threat in this area and to, you know, not use
00:36:10
it. We're not going all revenant
00:36:13
like on the story, but you know, it was used very sparingly to
00:36:19
perfect purpose and I don't know, I just really liked it.
00:36:23
Sure. And I like this comeback.
00:36:25
I like, I like how they loop back to it in the end of the
00:36:31
action scenes we talked about. I'd I'm going to narrow it to
00:36:35
the my my free space is the moment and I think it was
00:36:40
Sheridan brought up bombing the ice.
00:36:46
My jaw hit the floor when that decision was made.
00:36:51
I don't know why, but to get them out of that situation with
00:36:56
that creative thinking I just thought was so cool.
00:37:00
So the moment she sent off that message, I lost it.
00:37:06
I was like, that is going to be the sickest thing.
00:37:08
And then to actually have it happen.
00:37:10
It was the sickest thing. So what a culminating action
00:37:14
piece race to the finish line style that we tend to like in
00:37:18
books a lot is when there's this massive, massive race to the
00:37:21
finish. It's got to have a battle, it's
00:37:23
got to have a shoot em up, but it also has to have that kind of
00:37:27
not going to call A twist that really unlock that that creative
00:37:30
unlock to a situation. And that was one par excellence.
00:37:34
So great scene, the cover I it's solid, dude.
00:37:45
It's fantastic. Are you going to go solid 5?
00:37:48
I I think I will. I just that.
00:37:50
I'm pretty sure we talked about the cover a little bit maybe
00:37:54
when we we first like mentioned, obviously, I I love this cover.
00:37:57
It's quintessential Brad. You know, you could slot this
00:38:00
into the the Harvard universe and it it completely there.
00:38:05
I all right, I have one critique.
00:38:08
Oh, OK, one critique. And honestly, it just came up
00:38:12
when I was like, really, I wanted to consciously look at
00:38:14
this cover because I'm like, all right, is this cover A5?
00:38:18
Can you guess whatever. Right.
00:38:19
My critique? Is so it it it just came to me.
00:38:25
I I think I might have it, but this could be off.
00:38:29
I'm starting to think it has to do with the ice.
00:38:31
Why is there so much water? Why is the ice fractured?
00:38:34
Right. I thought it was small.
00:38:36
Fissures were on a massive ice floe.
00:38:38
It's going to look like solid land.
00:38:40
But no, this is like, OK, but the plane's not down yet, so
00:38:43
this isn't exactly where the plane landed.
00:38:46
Even it looks like the plane's crashing and so obviously they
00:38:49
they're in this massive. Yeah.
00:38:53
That's my 1 critique. I didn't.
00:38:55
I didn't think about it that much, but it's fair.
00:38:58
And honestly, it didn't. It didn't come to me until I
00:39:01
like thoroughly look to this cover and if that was just solid
00:39:06
straight like a solid ice. Yeah.
00:39:09
Because that's the whole thing. They, they realize that all
00:39:12
right, we're going to land on ice, but we can't use the
00:39:18
landing gear because immediately all that weight is going to be
00:39:21
on like 5 points and it's going to break.
00:39:22
So, and the only reason it does survive is because the back half
00:39:26
of the plane goes into the ice and the the lighter portion of
00:39:29
the plane stays up on the ice. If you were to down right here,
00:39:33
the whole thing would would would just float.
00:39:34
It would just would go down and that's only part of it to me.
00:39:39
The other part is the escape and everything.
00:39:41
When they're actually escaping. If this was what they had,
00:39:45
they're dead. Yeah, exactly.
00:39:48
You actually see here. Here's the thing.
00:39:50
I was picturing something more like I read Endurance, the
00:39:53
Shackleton book in the in the Antarctic and it was like solid
00:40:00
ice. Those dudes were initially just
00:40:02
chilling. They were like killing seals
00:40:05
eating things. They're like, we'll be fine
00:40:06
here. There's enough food like we're,
00:40:08
we're, we're good. And they lasted weeks, maybe
00:40:11
months on on some ice flow. And I really got the sense of
00:40:14
it. It's almost as if you're on
00:40:16
land. It looks as solid like as far as
00:40:18
the eye can see. I would have wanted that feeling
00:40:22
on the cover. Yeah, because the other problem
00:40:26
right, is that the Cheyenne, the reason Cheyenne had to go like
00:40:31
they were 30 miles away in the one case is because that that
00:40:34
was where the ice was, was thinnest they could come up and
00:40:36
then so that's why they have to blow it up nor in order them to
00:40:40
come right next to them. It can surface on this ice.
00:40:42
This this ice is. Oh yeah, it's a small beans.
00:40:46
Yeah, dude. Oh, that's tough.
00:40:49
Because in the distance, do you all right?
00:40:51
If you look, if you zoom in a little bit, you can see in the
00:40:53
distance more left. Yeah.
00:40:55
More like solid, like a All right.
00:40:57
Yeah, maybe. Maybe I'm just being too harsh.
00:41:00
No, I we're splitting hairs. The other thing is, for me, the
00:41:03
plane did not crash yet. So it looks very close to the
00:41:06
ground, but you could still be hundreds of feet away.
00:41:09
I mean, you're right. Edward would know where this
00:41:12
plane is now with its elevation to where it crashes.
00:41:15
Could be a whole nother landscape.
00:41:16
So yeah. You're right.
00:41:19
But nothing in the book talked about open ocean as much as
00:41:22
this, so that's the flip side too much.
00:41:26
Water. I'm going to Ding it for 4.9,
00:41:29
not 4 points. I'm going to Ding it a half a
00:41:31
point 4.5. To make up for you being a
00:41:35
little prissy bitch over there, I'll give me a 5.
00:41:39
All right, sounds good. All right, let's see.
00:41:47
I think we got to be right in the 45 territory.
00:41:49
This book strikes me as a 45 through and through, which is a
00:41:53
great benchmark to hit on the Thriller Pod scorecard.
00:42:02
Our boy Mark gave it a 46. I thought right about there that
00:42:06
that's where it's going to be. All right, I'm at a 44 and that
00:42:14
should mean you're. 40 and 45. 45 1/2. 45 1/2 OK, yeah, I was
00:42:24
generous in some areas. I took away another.
00:42:26
So it's a 45 kind of book. I really think so.
00:42:30
Will it hold up for book of the year?
00:42:33
It's so early, it's too early, but it it really made a strong
00:42:38
push here in the first couple of months of the year.
00:42:43
Yeah, I think, you know, and maybe maybe that's clouding my
00:42:49
obviously that you can make a it can make up more points on
00:42:52
action, suspense and plot. Like you know, normally our
00:42:55
books of the year are nines and 10s there.
00:42:58
That's. True.
00:43:00
Maybe because it's February, I don't want to go that high, you
00:43:03
know, we'll revisit it at the very end.
00:43:05
But at least coming up the gate in February, this is an awesome
00:43:09
book. Everybody needs to go give
00:43:12
someone else a copy of it. Like let's, let's push this as
00:43:16
much as we can because it's it's really good.
00:43:18
Yeah, you're right. When we can give A10 and A10 to
00:43:22
plot an action, no questions asked, it's like as clear as can
00:43:27
be a 10 on those two, you know, we're aiming high.
00:43:31
And this one I think is just short of that.
00:43:35
Still very high 454040. 5 on the scorecard's phenomenal.
00:43:39
Yeah, we did. We haven't done that too often.
00:43:41
Yeah. Nice.
00:43:45
Well folks, you already got a Limerick on our interview with
00:43:47
Brad and Ward, so scroll up in the feed a couple episodes if
00:43:51
you want to hear that Limerick. And Chris, I don't know what's
00:43:55
next, but this is going to be a hard one to follow up.
00:43:58
It is I think we were we were twin round doing the next in the
00:44:02
Grey Man series. Book 3 might be doing something
00:44:09
special. Don't want to don't want to
00:44:11
divulge you yet, but something special for you guys coming up.
00:44:15
So yeah. But if you need something to
00:44:18
read in the meantime, check out the third book in the The Grey
00:44:23
Man series. Yeah, I'll be glad to get back
00:44:26
to Grey Man. All right.
00:44:29
Well, before we get out of here, need to thank our patrons,
00:44:32
including our Deputy Director, Sherry F and Brad E, our special
00:44:35
agents, Adam, Mike, Ben, Daryl, George, Matt, Don and Chris.
00:44:40
Please subscribe to all three seasons of No Limits.
00:44:42
You can find us@thrillerpod.com or on Twitter and Instagram at
00:44:46
Thrillerpodcast. And as always, just like Casey,
00:44:52
be Casey.