When I read science books, I like to stick to fiction. Even moreso, I like to stick to books that feature plot elements that feel so unrealistic they border on fantasy. Yet, I want those fantasy books to be so fleshed out they feel real. Even as I know this is unrealistic, I want it to feel possible.

Upgrade feels possible. Blake Crouch does an amazing job of weaving in the science and the fiction here. I was thoroughly engaged not just with the premise, but also with the characters. Even as I enjoyed the facets of Logan's character early on, I more enjoyed pinpointing the changes in Logan over the course of the novel. Those changes play such a key role in understanding the plot and your personal interpretation of the events. Are you with Logan? Or against him?

It was a fast, thrilling read that raised a lot of questions for me. Some of those questions are left largely unanswered (and to be fair, how could they be?), but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Thank you to Ballantine Books for providing me with an arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!

Upgrade was an attempt of mine to branch out to a different genre of reading. Alas. It was a no go. I couldn’t get into the futuristic venue nor all the AI or intelligentsia of the future. It wasn’t my cup of tea.

FASCINATING!

GRIPPING. IMMERSIVE. TIMELY. An intriguing look into the future; a (not-so-distant one).

Bestselling author, Blake Crouch—no stranger to sci-fi, delivers UPGRADE, an intelligent, high-octane action-thriller exploring morally complex decisions. Both without being aware, enhanced with genetically engineered upgrades, a brother and sister square off against each other in a dangerous battle of conflicting schemes to save humanity from itself.

Set in Denver, we meet Logan Ramsay, who lives Washington, D.C. area with his wife, Beth, and daughter, Ava. They are a happy family.

Logan is with the Gene Protection Agency (GPA) a world where genetic modification has wreaked havoc on the ecosystem. He is tasked with finding people illegally manipulating human or other genes.

Logan's mother, Miriam, was a brilliant scientist who invented Scythe, a biological DNA-modifying system. She was responsible for the "Great Starvation" nearly two decades before when she tried to improve the resistance of a rice plant to a particular virus and instead devastated the world's rice supply.

Two hundred million people died, and Logan was working with his mother and was held partly to blame and was sent to prison. In an attempt to do penance for what happened, he became an agent of GPA. His mother took her own life. Before her death, she promised to release "a viral gene drive" that would offer a "significant upgrade" to the human species.

Now, he investigates and takes down people running dark gene labs, seeking to change the human genome.

HE HAS BEEN UPGRADED: During a raid, Logan is exposed to a virus. In the beginning, the side effects seem to be few, but then he notices unusual things. He can quickly read and retain info, beat his daughter in chess, and remember things in vivid detail.

When someone arrives to break him out of the containment facility, Logan will be forced to make a decision: allow the genetic upgrade to spread through the human species, even though a certain percentage of the population will die horrible deaths, or destroy the virus.

MIND-BLOWING!

With mind-blowing scientific research, Crouch not only has all the scientific facts but also makes his characters real, facing moral complexities. Plot-driven and character-driven.

Normally, I am not a science-fiction fan; however, a huge fan of Blake Crouch (and we are from the same small hometown)! Everything he writes is brilliant.

What is so scary about this novel is that some things are happening in our world today; (not just in the future). We are not aware of how close they are. It is interesting to see the ethics surrounding these scientific advances. Some are good things, and some are evil and can cause harmful ramifications and deaths.

Another winner by the talented bestselling author! Whether you are a sci-fi fan, this is a must-read. A complex plot, action-packed, and superb writing. Cannot wait to see what comes next.

Check out the exciting interview with the author—The Durango Herald

Film rights have already been acquired for this popular sci-fi/thriller. Crouch will adapt the screenplay and will also exec produce. Past screen adaptations of his work include Wayward Pines, Good Behavior (loved), Recursion, and he is also adapting and executive producing Summer Frost.

Thank you to #RandomHouse and #NetGalley for an ARC to read, enjoy, and review.

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@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pub Date: July 12, 2022
July 2022 Must-Read Books

Wow, this book was a little mind-blowing, and I'm so glad I read it!

In a post-The Great Starvation world, Logan Ramsey works for the GPA, stopping suspected geneticists from working on altering genetic codes. When he starts being able to multitask better and needs less sleep, he's not sure if it means anything - until the changes don't stop, and Logan realizes his genome has been hacked. What's worse, it doesn't seem to be the end game, but a step in a much larger plan. Logan's new genetic upgrade makes him the only person who can stop what's happening. But what if humanity's best hope is allowing the upgrade to continue?

While some sci-fi can be a little dense and off-putting, I loved how accessible Crouch made the science in this book. I'm certainly no geneticist or virologist, but that's okay, because everything I needed to know was explained really well, in terms that I could understand, or at least follow.

To me, a good book is enjoyable. But a great book also has meaning. And while Upgrade is technically about a genetic upgrade that gives people superhuman intelligence and strength, it's also about the environmental crisis and the threat of human extinction. Crouch does a fantastic job weaving realistic fears about humanity into a sci-fi thriller so it's never preachy. Through the "gene war," Crouch sets up a world where people are doing what they think is best for the survival of humans, but conflicting schools of thought pop up. Upgrade made me think about important questions and ask what I would do in any of these situations, and I absolutely loved that.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Ballantine Books, and Blake Crouch for an ARC of this books in exchanged for an honest review.

Upgrade Review

Upgrade by Blake Crouch
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Upgrade is a sci-fi thriller set in the not so distant future where gene editing becomes common place, and the fight to keep it contained for the good of humanity.

This was my first Blake Crouch book and I was very impressed by it. Crouch does a great job of setting up the central mystery at the beginning and slowly unraveling it as the story progresses. The topics addressed were very intriguing and makes you wonder if this technology could be possible someday in the future. The twists and turns were done well and kept me guessing right to the very end.

I loved the world building as well. Finding out what the world is like during this time period was fascinating and not too hard to imagine actually happening one day.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and it makes me want to check out more of Crouch’s back catalogue and see what other good stories he has.

Thanks to @NetGalley, @Random House and @Ballantine Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing and author Blake Crouch for gifting me with an ARC for his newest thriller, Upgrade. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

While I was excited to receive an invitation to read an early review copy, as I really loved Dark Matter, in all honesty I was probably the wrong reader for the right book. I just didn’t connect on the page with this sci-fi thriller. I know if this was a film I would have been amused and entertained however as a novel I found the story improbable and the language judgmental and critical. I’ve seen so many outstanding reviews for this book that I suggest you look to others as well. Book is available July 12 and ‘mI definitely looking forward to a big screen adaptation.

This book was out of my usual reading genres. I’ve been trying to broaden my reading choices and this book sounded interesting. I did enjoy the book overall. There is a certain amount of plausibility to the genetic ‘upgrade’ presented in this dystopian story. Can you imagine science attempting to manipulate our genetic makeup in an effort to make humans ‘better’ and what would be the potential repercussions of those ‘upgrades’? Add in racing against time to stop the upgrades being unleashed on an unsuspecting world causing the deaths of billions of people when the those upgrades don’t work for everyone. This is what Logan Ramsay faces. This book is well written, the characterization is good and the subject matter is intriguing (though I did feel overwhelmed at times with all the technical terminology and jargon). There’s enough action to hold your interest and keep you wanting to know what’s going to happen next.

Okay, we get it Blake, you researched the hell out of a lot of stuff and threw it into this book. Did it make the book accurate? Only a small percent of people who actually read this will know. Did it make the book better? Nope. For example: "I aimed at her left rectus femoris, the muscle that flexes the hip and extends the lower leg at the knee." Cool cool cool. Couldn't you have simplified that? I get it, the MC had his genes mutated so he is hella smart now. But it didn't make me smarter by reading it. It made the book too descriptive, with too many mundane details that I didn't care about. The details that I did care about, like the DC-related ones, were inaccurate AF and didn't make any bit of sense. Like if you lived in a neighborhood 6 minutes away from a metro station in Arlington (with parking), would you drive 20+ minutes to park at the Arlington Cemetery metro instead? Nope. Did Blake just want to include it in the book to throw in some DC landmarks? Yup.

Blake Crouch’s latest novel navigates the reader through the interesting theory of intellectual upgrade and evolution. What would happen to humanity if we suddenly could process things at unheard of levels? Would we lose our “humanity?” Would we become less empathetic and more stonewalled from emotion connections?

The novel explores that and much more. Logan, our protagonist, is given an upgrade. As expected the U.S. government is a bit weary of this intellectually supreme human. On the other end is the notion that something has to be done otherwise humanity will eclipse past the brink of extinction.

I enjoyed this one. It was at times a bit to jargon-filled but overall one of the better books I’ve read this year.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for this ARC. Blake Crouch is a great writer that has the ability to keep you drawn in. I constantly found myself needing to know what happens next.

I loved the dystopian setting of the book. It was easy to see how something similar could actually become reality in the future. The main character Logan finds himself purposely attacked and infected with an unknown virus. As his body and mind start changing, he needs to figure out why, how, and who. As an "Upgraded" version of himself, we follow along as he tries to save all of humanity.

Although the writing was good and the storyline interesting, I always find myself feeling a bit unsatisfied/unfulfilled by Crouch's stories. I think science fiction is a hard genre for me to review because I think it will be very hard for anything to stand up against Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

…and when Pandora opened the jar, multitudes of evil and mayhem were unleashed onto the world. The one item left trapped inside was hope…

In the near future our messing around with DNA and gene manipulation have caused so much havoc that a whole new governmental Gene Protection Agency has been created. Any work on genes is illegal now and researchers and scientists are being aggressively prosecuted. Logan Ramsey is an agent for the GPA, having once served time in prison for his work. Not coincidentally, his mother’s work in the science was unintentionally but directly responsible for the death of millions. She drove off of a cliff to her death, leaving Logan cursed with the legacy of Ramsey’s Famine.

Logan is attacked by a boobytrap while leading a raid on a suspected gene lab. While he seems to have recovered, little aftereffects develop. Physical and mental powers begin strengthening. Someone has messed with his DNA and he is both enthralled and terrified. Inevitably his government employers have taken a keen notice.

Is this mutation a good or a bad thing? Logan may be in a position to replicate these changes in others. Is the tampering with the mind necessary for our survival? The world in “Upgrade” is in a precarious position. New York City has been flooded and is now a giant homeless encampment. Miami is uninhabitable. Global warming is just one of the many threats to the planet. Is a radical transformation of man’s intelligence the only shot we have at saving ourselves?

“Upgrade” zooms along as a thriller without getting bogged down by a heavy handed techno-speak. The science is explained in a reader friendly manner with relatively few points where you want to gloss over the details. There is a code-breaking sequence where I took a leap of faith and accepted the logic without caring to verify it (okay, that is how you solved this Rubik’s cube, I believe you). These types of passages were minimal, however, and did not slow down the flow.

Blake Crouch has given us a suspenseful sci-fi thriller which poses thought provoking issues. I particularly appreciated his main character’s conclusions at the novel’s end. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Random House Publishing, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for providing the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #Upgrade #NetGalley

For all of the hype Blake Crouch gets… I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he used all his mind-blowing twists in his two most popular Sci-Fi books, Dark Matter and Recursion. But for a first attempt at his works, Upgrade was remarkably unremarkable. This is one of those books that is going to fall into the very specific genre of “written during the 2020 peak uncertainty era of the pandemic.” It’s impossible to read the discussion around a manufactured, catastrophic genetic modification released onto the Earth that decimated the population and not draw the conspiracy theorist parallels.

Pandemic aside, there’s other reasons why this book never sat quite right with me. For one, the entire Sci-Fi element of the story being a genetic modification that provides its “victims” with heightened intelligence, faster reflexes, and the ability to detach from their emotions reads with a weird sense of wish fulfillment. It has the same energy of a man telling you with their full chest that they have a high degree of emotional intelligence while you nod along and privately tell yourself that anyone who would say such a thing lacks any kind of emotional intelligence. Logan is an uninteresting character to follow, and his emotional detachment reads more as convenient sociopathic tendencies that allow him to move the plot along without being bogged down by pesky emotions rather than him being an actual human being.

Don’t get me wrong though, this book is not poorly written. Or poorly paced, or poorly researched. I obviously can’t speak to any of the actual biological science mumbo jumbo being explained, but it reads in a way that’s clear Crouch at least put a modicum of thought and a fair amount of research into it. And I really did love Logan’s backstory that tied him to the onset of the events that initially destroyed the Earth’s population and how that drives him to try and save it. I just wish the author did more with the implications of this guilt, rather than remove all of the character’s emotions in the “upgrade.”

In the end, Upgrade was a disappointing introduction to Crouch’s oeuvre, but not a bad one. I’m convinced I’ll have better luck with his other works and can understand how he has created such a cult following in the Sci-Fi space. His writing and plotting are fast-paced and approachable. It’s just this book in particular that reads as too much of a “2020 pandemic book” that made the entire experience feel a little... dated.

Thank you to the publisher Ballantine Books for providing an e-ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

Logan Ramsey works for GPA, the government's Gene Protection Agency. While on a case, he becomes injected with a gene that changes his whole DNA makeup. Soon, he is more alert, can do multiple task at a time, and remember everything!
He has to decide should the human race be changed to this type of human? Physically, Logan hurts everywhere, but his brain is sharper than ever. It’s a true dilemma! Who was responsible for the genetic altering ice bomb? How is he being altered, and for what purpose? When Logan is kidnapped from an observation laboratory, the purpose of the virus injection becomes apparent, and he must make a difficult decision. What will he do?
Parts of this book were gripping and I easily read them while others became a bit too technically scientific for me and I found myself rereading, trying to process unfamiliar information.
I’ve come to the conclusion that sadly sci-fi is just not really for me. The majority of the science parts were so overly confusing. I"m not dumb by any means but I found myself skipping most of the sections about genes that I didn’t understand at all.
Sadly, I don't feel like this lived up to his other two books. I didn't hate it by any means, but I had a hard time connecting to Logan. Perhaps that was because of the upgrade that he felt emotionless and apart from the
As with his other stories, I will say this one will have you thinking about the what ifs long after the last page.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group Ballantine Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest sci-fi thriller by the one and only, Blake Crouch

Upgrade was my first book by Blake Crouch, and it will not be my last! A twisty sci-fi thriller with a frightening and thought-provoking plot involving the manipulation of human genetics or "upgrades."
Logan Ramsey works for the GPA - Gene Protection Agency. He and his colleagues track down rogue scientists who engage in gene editing. Logan's deceased mother, Miriam, was a brilliant scientist whose work left a dark and devastating legacy. And then, strange things start happening to Logan. His senses are sharpening, his abilities and intelligence are increasing, and his strength is growing. Logan's genome has been hacked, and he's now been upgraded. But by whom and for what purpose? Logan's new strengths make him the perfect person to figure that out. So he faces a race against the clock to stop a dangerous and potentially deadly plot targeting all humanity.
An action-packed story with an intriguing take on climate issues and the human condition, this book chillingly ponders human genetic engineering as well as scientific hubris and ethics. Set in the near future, the ethical questions it raises are insightful and timely. It's an imaginative, well-researched, and exciting read. Ideal summer reading that would make a great screen adaptation! I cannot wait to read more by this author! Thank you to NetGalley Random House Publishing Group Ballentine for the opportunity to review this ARC. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

4.5

This surprised me a little. It started out leaving me with the clear impression that this was an action adventure movie in book form. Digestible and exciting, but not deep or artful. But this ended up having more to it in the end.

I will say, the pacing didn't always work for me. I don't tend to love extended action scenes and did get a little bored a few times. There isn't really anything objectively wrong with the pacing, but it didn't always suit me.

There is also a lot of killing. Sometimes I doubted the righteousness of our main character as he effortlessly expends lives in a couple scenes.

However, what really won me over was the questions that this book raises. What does humanity need to save itself from extinction? Would increasing our collective intelligence help? At what cost?

It was also fun to read a story centered around genetics since I recently completed a genetics course. That's right, I already knew about telomeres. Ha! ;)

I really liked the conclusion of the book. I also really liked how I wasn't sure I always agreed with the hero. The "villain" kind of had a point..

Overall, the tone is light and adventurous, but still manages to ask some philosophical questions and work with some interesting science. I give my stamp of approval.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced reader copy.

Sexual violence? No. Other content warnings? Lots of killing, torture, epidemic, medical stuff, needles, dysfunctional family (to put it lightly), genocide, guns, imprisonment.

✨Book Review✨

I’ve finally read my first Blake Crouch novel! I feel like @blakecrouch1 is one of those #bookstagram hyped authors. So, thank you to Crouch and @netgalley for the eARC.

Pub date: July 12, this coming Tuesday!

Imagine what it would be like to have all your senses heightened. Your mind sharper and your memory suddenly photographic.

Logan Ramsay feels this way after a bust gone awry. Someone has done this to him, but who and why? Logan’s transformation occurs over a period of time. As he assimilates, he uncovers a connected plot to “save humanity.” Will he help or hinder those involved?

I really liked this book! I’m not a big science fiction reader, but this one was highly enjoyable. I can’t wait to read Dark Matter and Recursion to catch up on all the Blake Crouch fuss.

Upgrade has a lot of big words. I found myself having to look up a lot of stuff. I learned a lot about DNA, if nothing else. Imagine a future in which designer DNA has resulted in worldwide famine and death. Further imagine that you were involved in it and your own mother basicaly caused it. That’s where we start. And then, as a parting gift, she performed massive DNA mutations on you to make you some sort of super human in order to save the world.

At times weighed down in scientific details, the story was fascinating and quick moving in between. I will admit to sometimes skimming over these descriptions as I got further along in the book. Still, Blake has a way with science fiction and the horrors that can come from good intentions.

This is an intriguing story. It is a scientific end of days plot. The plot is well constructed with great characters. Logan is a husband and father who works for the government tracking down people who break the genetic laws. The story turns when he becomes the one on the run and fighting for his life. It is an action packed ride as the fate of humanity lies in his hands.

An improvement on previous Crouch works to me! As always, I recommend going into Crouch's work as blind as possible because I feel it gives more to enjoy in the works. That being said, it can feel dense at times with the sci-fi elements while also feeling easy to follow because, well, thrilling.

First book I have read by Crouch and won't be the last. Fast paced from start to finish. A quick read. I started yesterday afternoon and finished around midnight. It was that good.

You may be wondering, if it was that good, why didn't I give it a 5 ⭐. There is a lot of scientific talk about genes that I found a little overwhelming. I understand why it was in the book, but someone who doesn't do science, it just kind of overwhelmed me. I guess it was information overload for my brain. I don't usually read this kind of book, but I am glad I did.

Logan Ramsey works for GPA, the government's Gene Protection Agency. While on a case, he becomes injected with a gene that changes his whole makeup. Soon, he is more alert, can do multiple task at a time, among other stuff. He has to decide should the human race be changed to this type of human. What will he do? Find out July 12, 2022.

Thanks to Netgalley, and Random House Publishing for a Kindle Version of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#netgalley
#randomhousepublishing