Upgrade by Blake Crouch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars rounded up**
After an incident on the job where Logan Ramsey is exposed to possible contaminants, he begins to notice slightly alarming changes happening within himself.
He’s better able to concentrate, requires less sleep, his bones are becoming stronger and more dense. What is going on? It reads almost like he is becoming a superhero.
It’s the near future and the U.S. government has formed a Gene Protection Agency and Logan is one of their field agents. The agency was developed because gene editing has become a serious threat to the planet.
Logan has a lot of experience with gene editing, as his mother was one of the most influential scholars in the field. Unfortunately, not all of her projects ended well, leaving the family name tarnished.
Logan has worked hard to build his reputation back and he is known as a solid agent. That’s why the incident on the job hit him so hard.
He’s taken out of commission, but there’s so much more involved. His genome has been hacked. Was he selected for the upgrade, or was it just coincidence he ended up on that site that day?
We then follow Logan on the various stages of his upgrade, as he investigates who could be behind it and why. Ghosts from his past arise and a true cat-and-mouse game ensues with the fate of humanity at stake.
Blake Crouch is the ultimate SF-Thriller writer. He’s just so damn good. This story was a ton of fun to read. I loved contemplating the science behind it.
Additionally, the gripping plot, intelligent writing and non-stop action made me a very happy girl.
Honesty, I think nothing truly scares me more than certain advances in AI, technology and genetic manipulation. Thinking about how our future could be transformed by these advances, and in my mind it is always in a sinister way, is just fascinating to me.
I do feel this one would be super accessible as far as his titles go. Recursion sort of blew my mind and I can see how some Readers could be intimated by it. Also, Dark Matter got a bit trippy, although I loved it.
I think if you have never read Crouch before, this could be a great place to start to get a sense of his style. I definitely recommend it!
Thank you so much to the publisher, Ballantine Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I truly appreciate the opportunity to dive into a little early.