Upgrade
A Novel
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3.8 • 45 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “If Michael Crichton had written a superhero novel, it would look a lot like Upgrade.”—The New York Times Book Review
“You don’t so much sympathize with the main character as live inside his skin.”—DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series
“Mysterious, fascinating, and deeply moving—exploring the very nature of what it means to be human.”—ALEX MICHAELIDES, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient and The Maiden
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, She Reads
The mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion—currently in development as a motion picture at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners
“You are the next step in human evolution.”
At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.
But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.
The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.
Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.
Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.
And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?
Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Nobody does imaginative and chilling techno-thrillers like Blake Crouch—and this is his best since his breakthrough, Dark Matter. Set in a disturbingly realistic near future, Upgrade draws us into a world where private companies are experimenting with illegal genetic engineering to combat a looming environmental disaster. Things get very strange when Logan Ramsay, a low-level government scientist investigating these rogue scientists, gets showered with altered DNA in what seems like a lab accident. A fast and furious blend of hard science fiction, thrilling action adventure, and a splash of smart comedy, Crouch’s novel is an absolute blast.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this nail-biting near-future science thriller from bestseller Crouch (Recursion), the world is still recovering from the Great Starvation, which killed hundreds of millions of people, the unintended consequence of the hubris of Miriam Ramsay, the discoverer of a "revolutionary, biological DNA modifier system." Seeking to eliminate a leaf blight decimating a rice strain in China, Ramsay inserted a virus into locusts intended to infect the rice to create increased resistance to the disease. Unexpectedly, the modified insects ended up targeting other crops, depleting the world's food supply. That catastrophe led to draconian measures, including harsh restrictions on biological research. Now, Ramsay's son, Logan, who assisted her before the Great Starvation, has found a new purpose working for America's Gene Protection Agency, tracking genetic scientists deemed risks. During a raid on an illegal lab, Logan becomes infected by something that hacks his genome, transforming him in frightening ways that seem to match his mother's vision of an upgraded version of homo sapiens, whose enhanced intelligence supposedly will preserve the species. Crouch fully develops his alarming concept and its implications along with delivering masterful characterizations. This is the best yet from a creative and gifted author.
Customer Reviews
Everyone gets one mulligan
Like most Blake Crouch readers, there was high anticipation for his follow-up to Recursion. After I was finished reading Upgrade, even if I had tempered anticipation, it would still be a terrible read.
This novel seemed very rushed. There was no depth in the plot and the contrived emotional relationships that apparently have backstory somewhere (not in this book) were somehow essential to the reader’s engagement in the story.
The lack of engagement was further exacerbated by the choice of structure and style of writing. Mainly, it was the repetition to try to fool the reader into thinking that this was some sort of superhuman new species rather than being creative and/or vulnerable. It became comical to read how “my heart rate hovered at 119 bpm” SO MANY TIMES. Or even better, “my upgraded L2328 gene, which allows me never to get tired”. Like each reader is supposed to be “wow, how technologically and biologically advanced you are” by trying to fool them with specifics that nobody cares about. I half expected a point of the story to have, “my enhanced K2B4A gene allows to suppress the laxative effects of Colombian Dark Roast”.
Further to these annoyances, Crouch falls into eye-rolling repetition of: Potential-crisis-for-main-character-but-suddently-realizes-a-new-ability-from-the-upgrade-and-escapes-or-wins. There was no suspense in any of the encounters and coupled with the characters, with whom I couldn’t give a damn about given that they got a 1-page intro, I didn’t care who won any fight or prevailed in any crisis.
The only part of the story that was the least bit engaging and had emotional impact was the epilogue. It could have been that I was in a state well beyond my tolerance of an acceptable story or maybe I was just so happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but given that Recursion was a great read and Dark Matter was – albeit written in structure that was pretty juvenile – a good concept with a decent emotional character build, I’ll hand it to Crouch that this part was decently done and a nice send off.
I’m giving this reluctant 2 stars – not because of the book - but because of the efforts that Crouch did with the quick turnaround. Writing a book isn’t easy and the work effort is appreciated. Everyone is entitled to a stinker.