One of my favorite things about science fiction is the questions it lets us confront. In this case - if you were able to upgrade yourself - stronger, faster, smarter - would you want to do it? If you had the ability to upgrade - would you think everyone should be upgraded?

This was very much a fast paced action movie of a book. It was fun but not a favorite for me and I don’t think much will stick with me. Thank you to the publisher for the advance reading copy.

Logan works for a government agency against genetic modification. He also carries around with him the baggage of his brilliant scientist mothers' misdeeds. When Logan is ambushed and injected with an "upgrade" serum, he finds that he can remember everything, is stronger and faster and is an overall optimized version of himself. On the run, he must figure out who wanted him upgraded and why before he is turned into a lab rat.

This book is part The Fugitive and part sci fi thriller. Crouch is clearly a fan of Michael Crition and fans of his books will love this. I have read and enjoyed his last two books also and I did like this one, but it was really slow in parts and kept me having to choose to finish it. I just didn't care that much about the characters and their plight and didn't fully understand the stakes.

However, I thought it had just the right amount of science- it was easy for me to understand (not being a science person) and I found it compelling. I know many of my friends will really enjoy this one and I am glad I read it.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

This book started out strong and then crossed over to a boring science class. I kept thinking "Where is the editor?" There was so much science jargon that I basically skipped half of the book. This might make for a good movie but not a good book.

The time is in the not-too-distant, somewhat dystopian future where gene technology has been developed to the point where nearly anything is possible. Logan Ramsay, an agent with the Gene Protection Agency (GPA), works diligently to prevent illegal gene technology from being used for nefarious purposes. He’s rather average, working his job, a family man who deeply loves his wife and daughter and attempts to keep his head down low due to a tragedy in his past. During a raid on an illegal lab his genome is hacked, infected with a virus that results in an “upgrade” that results in mental and physical enhancements.

At first glance this sounds great, right? Who among us couldn’t use a bit of an upgrade? I know my memory could use one. But be careful of what you wish for. What happens to the essence of what it is to be human?

I won’t give away any more details of the plot, as it’s such fun to discover for yourself. But there are reasons that Logan has been chosen for the upgrade, and the repercussions have far-reaching consequences. Those who think the way to save humanity by upgrading all humans, will be pitted against those who think you can’t save humanity by destroying humanity. Logan is an easy character to root for as you watch him make difficult and personally devastating choices.

There is a heavy dose of science, which readers will either find fascinating or will gloss over. Whichever you choose to do doesn’t matter as this is as much a crime thriller as it is sci-fi, and is enjoyable either way. I can’t say if the science is accurate, but it certainly made for a thrilling, suspenseful tale. The author takes familiar themes rooted in reality and gives them his own fresh twist. But the science and philosophical questions never overwhelm good storytelling.

I loved Dark Matter, and with this book, I’m officially a superfan of the author’s.

I'm a huge huge fan of Blake Crouch. I think he's one of the best sci-fi authors out there right now. I was SO excited to see that he has a new release and immediately requested an ARC of it.

This was a rollercoaster of a read. It wasn't my favorite book of Crouch's, but it was worth my time for sure. Crouch is not modest with Upgrade's plot. This book asks some big questions of its readers:

What if you could change the course of humanity for the better? What if we could stop climate change, stop rampant consumerism, and end the selfish individualism that almost seems inherent to humanity at this time in history?

It also places the weight of the world (literally) on the main character's shoulders. What if you and you alone could be the answer to the world's many problems? Would you risk everything - your family and even your life - to fix humanity and the planet for the better?

Yes, it all sounds a little cliched and cheesy, but I could easily see this book becoming a wild ride of a screenplay and movie. It's bold, adventurous, and involves some interesting musings on genetic engineering and CRISPR technology, and I liked it.

It's not as introspective or reflective as his previous books, but it was a fun read that delivered for a great sci-fi story that I think Crouch's readers will thoroughly enjoy. Thank you to Random House Books, Blake Crouch, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book!

This is my third Blake Crouch book, and he is for sure an auto-buy author for me.

Blake has a way of writing super complicated and dense topics in a way that makes me as the reader feel smarter. I would never read about altering DNA in a textbook, or take a class on it, but I loved all of it in Upgrade. Talk nerdy to me!

While I'm sure this topic in general has been done before in other books or shows or movies, the way it's presented in Upgrade is captivating. Exploring the consequences of humans altering their DNA, not only for themselves and loved ones, but for all humans and the world around them, was fascinating, scary, and plausible all at once. I felt like I was in an entire Black Mirror movie rather than just the typical one episode.

This is one of those books that is better to read without knowing much or anything at all about it. Don't read the synopsis. Don't read spoilers. Just start reading, and buckle up.

I like when I go into a book knowing what I’m gonna get — in this case, a fast, fun, sci fi thriller. Crouch always reliably delivers and though this isn’t my favorite of his books, I enjoyed the journey. Its themes are very relevant to the threats our world faces today, and I appreciated his exploration into what could be next for humanity.

I like many kinds of books but science fiction is one of the genres I’ve never been able to get into. In fact, I quit trying altogether years ago. However, three years ago a patron at the library talked me into reading Recursion by Blake Crouch and it ended up being one of my favorite books of the year. He makes science fiction accessible. There are no far away galaxies just scientific breakthroughs that seem very plausible. They are fast paced and read very much like thrillers-I love them. His most recent book, Upgrade was another home run for me.

I loved this book. It hooked me immediately and soon I was off on a fast paced roller coaster ride full of twists and turns. Crouch tackles scientific technology that is set in the not too distant future that seems plausible and accessible and that is terrifying. It also poses big ethical questions that will leave you pondering them for days. This book is already in development with Steven Spielberg’s production company and I cannot wait. Everyone should be reading Blake Crouch.
Thank you to @netgalley for an advanced arc of this book.

This was really the scifi future dystopia that I needed right now in my life. I've been in a reading rut and this action packed story really filled the reading space that I needed it to. I haven't read any others by Crouch, though his earlier titles have been recommended to me multiple times. This was fun, popcorn, and fast paced. Just what I needed.

This is an entertaining book to read and would be great for readers interested in a more “science-fiction” format of fiction. I enjoyed the book, but am only able to give it a 3-star rating because I didn’t realize it borders on science fiction.
Logan Ramsay is a loving husband and father with a regular job at the GPA- the General Protection Agency. His scientific background makes him perfect for the job, but his deceased mother’s reputation as a scientist makes life difficult, to say the least. While responding to a call, Logan enters a basement but comes out a different person. His family is lied to, he’s basically imprisoned, and he’s a human guinea pig.
As he fights to get his life back and discover what chemicals were used to change his genome, he’s thrust further and further down the rabbit hole. Will he crawl back out, and what kind of human will he be when he does? This plot is fast-paced and exciting to read.
Thanks so much to Random House Publishing- Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.25
Another solid sci-fi thriller from Blake Crouch. I've seen other reviews mention how much science is in this book, and yes there was a lot more than previous books. This didn't bother me- I think it helped that I listened to the audiobook because I just let the science technical terms wash over me and kept going. Maybe a little overdone at times, but I did think it helped me get to "this is an entirely possible chain of events".

My expectations were sky high, as I LOVE Dark Matter and Recursion; however, this one didn't reach those levels for me. It's kind of hard to articulate why - but I still really liked this book. I'm just saying that I would recommend this book to people who have already read those two novels and want more, but I'm not sure that I would recommend this as someone's introduction to Blake Crouch's work.

I still VERY eagerly await his next novel :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for a review copy in exchange for a honest review.

I read Dark Matter by Blake Crouch earlier this year and absolutely devoured it. I loved it! So, I was really looking for to his new book, Upgrade, but this just was not a book for me 😅 I know this is a science thriller, but, for me, there was just too much science. A lot of it went over my head, and I didn’t really see what all of it added to the story other than length. The characters felt flat, and I didn’t really care for them. Even though it has important things to say, the plot felt kind of loose to me… Unlike Dark Matter, I just didn’t find this super thrilling. It’s no fun when the main character is stronger and smarter than everyone around him….
🧬
Mostly, I feel like Upgrade just wasn’t what I expected 😅 For some reason, I thought a genetically mutated creature was involved? That is definitely not the case, in case you were wondering, so maybe it fell a little flat because of my own misunderstanding? Regardless, after loving Dark Matter, I had super high hopes for Upgrade. It just fell a little flat in comparison… or maybe I’m just not smart enough for this one

What a wonderful sci fi story. This is not my typical genre but I was impressed (per usual) by the quality of this book and also how fast of a read it was. This author is phenomenal.

Logan is a genre cop--not the official term, but the gist of what he does. This story is set in the future when mankind discovers how to manipulate genetic material to create more resilient crops, reintroduce extinct species and tragically "better" the human make up.

While no one does this well and the results can wreak havoc on the world, Logan spends his career finding and arresting these gene manipulators.

Until he is exposed to a mutation bomb during a raid and evolves to the next level of human development. The rest of the story is a race against time as he and his sister both do what they think is right to save humanity.
This was a profound look at the humane specifies, what defines our strengths and what makes us worth saving. I really enjoyed this book.. The fast paced novel flew by and I was not overwhelmed by the science of it all. Crouch explains things really well. This was a fun and different read!

This was my first Blake Crouch book and probably won’t be my last. However, at the same time, I felt “Upgrade” was very up and down. For me, it started out slow, then I couldn’t put it down, then it got slow again, and then I flew through to the end and was satisfied with the ending . So I have very mixed feelings about this book!

There were definitely a lot of technical terms, but I felt that things were thoroughly explained and were understandable for my non-science brain!

My final rating is 3.5, but I rounded down just because of the roller coaster I felt the book was.


Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me this ARC!

Blake Crouch keeps getting better with every book he writes. His latest, Upgrade, continues that trend. Logan Ramsay works for the Gene Protection Agency. The agency tracks genetic scientists who may be doing illegal work. Much genetic research was outlawed after the Great Starvation, a worldwide phenomenon that devastated crops, an unintentional side effect of gene manipulation caused by Logan's mother. While on a raid, Logan is exposed to something. Soon he finds himself with improved memory and other mental and physical improvements. Government agents lock him up at a black site and begin running test after test on him. When someone unexpectedly breaks Logan out of the facility, he learns that his mother had plans for improving humanity and the human condition. Plans that only he can move forward or halt.
Blake Crouch is always asking the big questions about the intersection of technology and humanity. He makes it easy to understand the temptations that technological advances represent both on an individual as well as a global scale.

Upgrade presents great moral dilemmas and plays them out in thrilling fashion. Logan is on the run from a government seeking to capture him while he is also trying to stop a plan that could result in an untold number of deaths. He also has to wrestle with whether the changes he is undergoing are destroying his own humanity and ultimately put his own dangerous plan in motion.

No one is better than Crouch at portraying the moral complexity of science and technological possibilities. He does this against the backdrop of a thrilling action story that not only keeps you guessing every step of the way but creates the nagging question of whether or not you want him to succeed.

Great characters, thrilling action, and a brilliant concept make this one of the best books of the year. One that will have you thinking long after you close the book. We need more stories like this. Upgrade is Blake Crouch at his best.

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the gifted book.

Whatever Blake Crouch writes, I wanna read! He sucks you in. I read this in almost one sitting on my first night of vacation and only because I could no longer keep my eyes open. And the next morning I immediately grabbed it up and finished it. 

Logan works for the government's Gene Protection Agency. He seeks to find and arrest those who are gene editing. But his relationship with the science is complicated because of a horrific family legacy.

After a raid of a dark gene lab goes awry, Logan starts to notice changes in himself, and realizes he's been... upgraded?! His genome has been hacked. And once again he has to face that complicated family legacy, as well as his morality. 

This upgrade has set a sequence of events in motion that Logan has no choice but to engage in. And he has to decide if the evolution of humanity is his to engineer or not.

A thrilling ride that is full of science and broad concepts, but is also a character study on the purpose of life and the power one man can hold. I was enthralled from beginning to end.

I'm not a huge Science Fiction lover, but there are a few authors who write science-y stuff in such a thrilling, fun, and approachable way that I want to read everything they write. Those authors include Andy Weir, Ernest Cline, and of course, Blake Crouch.

While there's a ton of science that goes over my head in this book, I almost think that makes it more enjoyable for me. I can just completely buy into the plausibility of the story and enjoy the ride. And what a ride it is. This is essentially a superhero story - but instead of getting his superpowers from a radioactive spider or injected by a super soldier serum, our slightly-better-than-average-Joe is infected by a virus that fundamentally alters his DNA. It gives him super strength, speed, intelligence, and resilience. The plot behind this upgrade leads to our hero running from the government - and his own upgraded, super soldier sister - while trying to save the world. And it's just oodles of fun. I really think Crouch's books read like action movies and I am here for it.

Thank you to Net Galley and Ballantine Books for the complimentary copy in exchange for my honest feedback.

An engaging story that makes you think about what it would be like to be more intelligent, more focused, and need less sleep than everyone else. Logan can anticipate what is going to happen, read books in minutes, and memorize material like never before. As you can imagine, this creates several problems and many enemies. This book is hard to explain but I also don’t want to give any details away. There are some surprising twists and turns and it is a great book to get swept away with. This is science fiction for people who don’t normally like the genre. While this isn’t my favorite of the author’s books, I still really liked it and will continue to read future novels by Blake Crouch.

"My mother had tried to edit a few rice paddies and ended up killing two hundred million people. What havoc could she wreak—intentionally or through unintended consequences—by attempting to change something as fundamental as how Homo sapiens think?"

"We were a bunch of primates who had gotten together and, against all odds, built a wondrous civilization. But paradoxically—tragically—our creation’s complexity had now far outstripped our brains’ ability to manage it."

OK, so if you had the chance to upgrade yourself, would you do it? I know I would. There are so many things about me that could be better. But, as we all know from the constant barrage of upgrades offered by the makers of every bloody piece of software, some have downsides. Such as new, bloated code slowing down your app. A feature you liked has been removed. You now have to endure ads. Are the benefits of greater value than the costs? Sometimes, but usually, we won’t actually know until the new version is installed, which can take anywhere from minutes to “really, this fu#%ing thing is still processing?” Sometimes, you have no choice, the app updates whether you want it to or not.

I suppose agent Logan Ramsay could tell us something about that last case. On a raid, he walks into a planned trap, which goes boom, and Ramsay is infused with version 1.0 of something, which gets busy rewriting his internal code to produce version 2.0 of Logan. There are upsides and downsides. This is no steroidal enhancement, trading zits and rage for increased muscle mass. A nifty bit of tech called a gene driver, (can’t help but see a tiny Uber with double-helix treads) is busy re-writing his actual DNA. (For a new you, no really, a totally, completely new you, call…1 800 FIX-THIS. Of course, we have a la carte if there are only some minor changes you would like. Operators are standing by.)

Logan already had a complicated life. Mom was a geneticist trying to improve crop yields in China when there was a slight bit of collateral damage. Her altered-DNA material went where it was not supposed to. Oopsy. It was known as The Great Starvation. As noted in the quote at top, over two hundred million dead. Junior, who had been working with Mom, dead in the ensuing mess, wound up taking undeserved legal heat in her place, spent time in prison, but was sprung three years in. Now he works as an agent for the federal GPA, or Gene Protection Agency, (too late for Wilder) fiddling with genetic code having become a serious, felonious no-no, and Junior wanting to make amends for his family’s role in the global debacle. He is a geneticist like Mom, now dedicated to seeing that it never happens again.

So, what happens in every single film and book in which our hero is altered by some weird outside force? They are dragged into enforced isolation for relentless study. Or base their subsequent actions (FLEE!!!) on the presumption that this is what the powers that be have planned for them.

Of course among the changes that have been implanted into Logan is a significant increase in IQ. His perceptions have been enhanced as well, giving him a wider bandwidth for incoming sensory information and a much improved ability to process that new flow.

This is both a chase and a pursuit story, as Logan must stay out of the clutches of the government, while searching for a dangerous geneticist, trying to stave off another potential global disaster. His personal upgrades make both running and chasing less of a challenge for him than it might be for an unaugmented person.

Crouch offers a steady, if light, sprinkling of tech changes, letting us know we are in the future, if not necessarily the far distant future. Some seem more distant than others. Hyperloop, for example, is a widespread viable transportation mode. There is a mile-high building in Las Vegas.

"The book is set slightly in the future, because I wanted to accelerate where some of the climate change and more in-the-weeds technology was heading, but it’s a mirror of where we might be five minutes from now. – Time interview"

Some of the alignments seemed out of kilter. The story takes place in the 2060s. But delivery drones and driverless taxis hardly seem much of an advance for forty years. Ditto electric cars with greater range. Mention is made of a Google Roadster. Google producing its own car has been a project in the works since 2009. So, maybe only five minutes into the future for a lot of the tech Crouch employs. The five-minutes vs forty-years lookahead was jarringly inconsistent at times, which pulled me out of the story.

He also reminds us, with a steady stream of examples, that the underlying issue is humans having screwed up the Earth to the point where the continued viability of Homo Sap is called into question. Lower Manhattan and most of Miami are under water. Glacier National Park no longer features glaciers. Many wildlife species are only memories. It is raining in the Rockies instead of snowing. There are now seven hurricane categories.

There are some things about this book that I would change. There is an escape scene in which I found the means of egress a bit far-fetched, given the year in which it takes place. Surely there is better tech available? I kept wondering who got Logan sprung from prison. If it was revealed, I missed it. I wondered, during a flight from hostile forces, at how little pursuit of the runner there was by the pursuing forces. Really? That easy to get away? I don’t think so. A couple of lost family members merited a bit more attention. And there is a decided absence of humor.

Expected questions are raised. Things like what is it that makes us human? There are those who believe that enhancing, upgrading humanity’s intelligence-related genes to stave off the potential extinction of our species is the only solution, regardless of what collateral damage that might entail. If we are smarter, goes the theory, we will see that what we are doing is madness, and find more sustainable ways of living. While that notion is appealing, it seems pretty glaring that an intelligence boost alone will not cut it. I mean, so you make people smarter. What could possibly go wrong? Logan addresses this:

"What if you create a bunch of people who are just drastically better at what they already were. Soldiers. Criminals. Politicians. Capitalists?"

The notion has been done a fair bit. Forbidden Planet is the classic of this sort. That most of the genetic manipulators in this tale ignore this suggests that maybe they were not so smart as they thought they were, enhanced or not.

Might it enhance one’s appreciation of Upgrade if one had read his prior sci-fi thrillers? No idea. Have not read them. Cannot say. My unaugmented research capacities tell me, though, that this is a stand-alone, so at least there is no direct story or character connection to his prior work.

Upgrade is a fast-paced thriller that keeps the action charging ahead. I often found myself continuing to read beyond where I had planned to stop. Logan is a decent guy who struggles with moral decisions in a very believable way. There are reasons to relate to him as an everyman, regardless of who his mother may have been. Crouch offers character depth enough for this genre. The tech never gets extreme, a beautiful thing. The concerns raised are very serious. Hopefully, it will boost, if not your muscle mass and speed in the forty, your interest level in the world of genetic manipulation, which, albeit with the best of intentions, could wind up degrading us all.

"TIME: You did a ton of research on gene editing for Upgrade. Was there anything you learned that stood out?
Blake Crouch: The big thing I came away with is how afraid scientists are of this research and this technology. I didn’t realize how unnerved everyone was about both the optimistic potential of this technology—but also the pitfalls that await us."

Review posted – August 5, 2022

Publication date – July 19, 2022

I received an ARE of Upgrade from Penguin Random House in return for a fair review, and not trying to change too much. Thanks, KQ, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.

For the full review, with links and images, please go to https://cootsreviews.com/2022/08/05/upgrade-by-blake-crouch/

Exactly what I've come to expect from Blake Crouch. Upgrade is an emotional scifi thriller with lots of heart and philosophical commentary on humanity and society. Upgrade felt similar to Recursion but also fresh and original. This is a perfect summer or vacation read because it is best devoured over a few sittings. The plot moves so quickly it's hard to put down.