Cryoburn

Cryoburn is a science fiction novel by the American writer Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in October 2010. It is part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and it takes the long-term social effects of cryonics as its subject.

Miles Vorkosigan is sent by Emperor Gregor to Kibou-daini, a name that means new hope, to investigate White Chrysanthemum Cryonics Corporation. WhiteChrys freezes sick and dying people so that they may one day be revived and cured, and its plan to open a subsidiary on Komarr has attracted attention for reasons that go beyond commerce. The narrative is told from three points of view: Miles, his Armsman Roic, and Jin Sato, a boy from Kibou-daini. At a conference an attempt is made to snatch Miles along with the other attendees, and he escapes only because an allergic reaction to the drug used on him leaves him too hyperactive to be subdued. He takes refuge in the Cryocombs, the underground chambers where the frozen are stored, and the book follows what the three of them find there.

Bujold uses the setting to ask what a society looks like when a great many of its people hold contracts on being revived, and the investigation Miles is running sits alongside the larger question of who gets to decide what happens to the dead.