Cover Image: Upgrade Soul

Upgrade Soul

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This is a quick, yet important read. It follows the decision between an aging couple to clone themselves into their younger counterparts. The problem is that the cloning goes wrong. The clones do not get to the age that the couple wanted. Instead, they end up horrifically disfigured, but still with the majority of the memories of the original couple. The two sets of couples find each other and begin to interact, against the advice of the doctor. That is where this experiment takes a tragic moralistic turn.

This graphic novel explores the story of not only the original couple but of the clones as well. What are the moral and ethical implications of doing such an experiment? What does it mean to continue living your life aging while another part of you tries to begin life in the middle of it? Does it even matter to your aging self if you know that you are still dying and only your memories will survive in another being, rather than your consciousness? What happens when the clone develops ideas and a mind of its own? Who does this harm: the original couple, the clones, the medical staff, family members, friends, etc.?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy to read. All opinions are my own.

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"Upgrade Soul" is to graphic novels what "Ex Machina" is to films: a thought provoking story with a slow burn and a hell of a payoff.
Told in a slightly non-linear narrative, it's a story of defining humanity and the various ways the scale can be tipped into monstrosity. It reveals that in a world where technology can outpace morality, the differences between human and monster aren't as clear as they would seem, and the motivations for tipping that scale are more complex than we imagine. Love, as always, is a strong driving force, but it we can travel down some dark paths for its sake.
This story is told at a slow but steady pace, perfectly complemented by a European comics influenced style that makes you want to slow down so you can appreciate the work. Slightly reminiscent of the work of Geof Darrow, its a beautiful, vividly colored style that nicely spans the gap between realism and cartoon art, a necessary compromise considering some of the events and characters portrayed.
This is a book for those who can really appreciate both the "graphic" and "novel" aspects of the medium...it's a visually pleasing work with a great story to tell and ideas that go well beyond the page. It should stand among the best of what the form has to offer.

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**Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to review this title.**

This was one strange and powerful story. Hank and Molly are getting older, and decide to invest in this new procedure. They also get to be the first human beings to try it out. They get young new bodies, the company gets the money and the research.

I found the artwork disturbing and sometimes depressing. The story was dark, and it really made you think. I hated it and I loved it. I wanted to put it down, but I couldn't. And in the end, I don't regret it at all.

I really do have to thank NetGalley for expanding my mind one more time, because I never would have picked this up in my library.

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This was absolutely one of the best graphic novel that i read. I loved it. Story is interesting. Drawings are wonderful. It was perfect mixture of horror and sci-fi.

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This was an interesting take on how humans might attempt to extend —and perhaps perpetuate— life, specially in old age.
It also tackles some philosophical notions on what the soul is and what makes us who we are.

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To be honest, I'm not sure exactly how I feel about Ezra Claytan Daniels' <i>Upgrade Soul</i>; on the one hand it's a brilliant, challenging, and dark cautionary tale about the dangers of immorality in science, and on the other it's a slow and sometimes confusing study of individuality and what makes a person a person, the body, soul, or mind. I think some could categorize this as a science fiction story, while others could see it as horror; it does meet somewhere in the middle of these genres.

For their 45th anniversary, the Fred and Molly Nonnar decide to finance and undergo an experimental procedure that in theory will rejuvenate their cells and make them younger, stronger, smarter, and better in every way so that they can live an even longer and more fulfilled life than the one they have now. However, the scientists behind the procedure are not completely upfront about what the procedure will actually do, and instead of rejuvenating their own bodies, the Nonnars discover that they were to be cloned into a new body, with their memories and life experiences uploaded into these new bodies. However, something goes horribly wrong, and the clones come out of the procedure wildly disfigured, but better than their original bodies in every other way, while the Nonnars are left weaker and more feeble than before. What comes of this is back and forth tension about which pair is more "qualified" to live, the originals who are left lesser than they were before, or the clones, who are now superior, but ultimately incapable of living a "normal" life due to their disfigurations. There are several side plots concerning the actually motivation of the scientist heading up the program, a love story or two, and the families thoughts on what has happened to the Nonnars, but at the end of the day, this book is ultimately their story. I think it is a challenging book and pushes you to think about what makes you an individual, but it just didn't resonate with me as much as I would have liked. The story was sometimes too slow, the art sometimes too sparse, the timeline sometimes too confusing. Still, I'm glad that I read it. This book will have its audience and I think that it's going to start conversations about what it implies.

<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>I received an eARC of this title from <a href="http://www.netgalley.com/" target="_blank">NetGalley</a> in exchange for a free and honest review.</i></span>

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It's the classic Philosophy 101 epistemological thought experiment on identity rendered in graphica: if you were found to be a clone, with access to the full memory bank and phenomenological experience of another, who would you be? You? The original? Must identity be considered the sole province of an individual? The Doppelganger Syndrome explored here as a result of a botched experiment to achieve total transmigration of the soul into a fresh body (in contrast to, say, a singularity story, with upload to a machine). Like a good Philip K. Dick novel, the central theme of what constitutes an authentic identity - and how you know that you are you - is thoughtfully explored, as are contemporary questions of racial identity, representation, and medical ethics. The artwork has the loose, stylized feel of 1970s rotoscoping animation (think Hobbit & LOTR), with a vibrant color palette and shaggy retro fonts. That can occasionally give it a drafty, amateur feel, but the story is well enough constructed to carry the whole.

**I received a free digital ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. **

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A cell rejuvenation experiment has unanticipated consequences and leaves us with quite a moral dilemma. Too be honest, the art work here was not very appealing to me, but I thought the premises of the story was really innovative and smart. Especially the different behavior of the two clones relative to their originals was very interesting along with the thoughts on ethics in research.

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I enjoyed the coloring but not the traits of the drawings. The story is OK but nothing original and nothing I didn't really like, it didn't grab my attention.
Besides, it's super sad, and I don't really want sadness in my life at the moment.
Not my cup of tea.

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Upgrade Soul
written and illustrated by Ezra Claytan Daniels

Upgrade Soul is a well crafted Sci-Fi/ Horror look into the question, What makes Us, US?

Hank and Molly Nonnar are about to celebrate their 45th Anniversary together. Hank is the owner of the Character “Slane”, a sci fi hero in the veins of Flash Gordon, and Molly is a renowned scientist in her field of . When a sudden opportunity to invest in and participate in a revolutionary new experiment to “purify your DNA” crosses their path, they jump at the chance for a second shot at youth. But as the age old saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.. What follows is an incredible well-told tale that looks into what makes us human? Is it our appearance? Our intellect? Where does the soul live? In our mind or in our bodies?

McDuffie Award-winning creator, Ezra Claytan Daniels visuals leads the reader down a path filled with twists and turns of love, heartbreak, murder and, betrayal. When the dust settles, nothing is the same and, the characters are left to rebuild their world.

Fans of Re-Animator and The Man with Two Heads will find a thematic cousin to those stories.

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I was looking forward to reading this but I'm sorry to say the lettering made that impossible for me. The art was very distinctive and quite beautiful, but I could not actually read it. The words were a literal blur. I'm an avid comic book and graphic novel reader, and never before have I been unable to finish a comic because of the lettering.

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When you think of comic books, the epitome of stereotypes either falls into the bright caped world of superheroes or the juvenile hijinks of a “for kids” comic book. In the last decade or so, we have seen this stereotype get broken down by comics about any story you could possibly imagine. With Upgrade Soul by Ezra Claytan Daniels, we get a book that is eerily frightening, intriguing and a little too close to home in today’s science fiction-tinged world.

From Lion Forge, this graphic novel follows the lives of senior married couple Hank and Molly Nonnar. They are a happy couple, a bit worn down from the toll life can take on you, and are ready to try something new. For their 45th anniversary, the couple decides to undergo a very experimental procedure that would give them back their youths and a new lease on life. What they get instead are horrid, yellow-hued defective clones that look more like potatoes than humans, but with their memories, and a smarter intellect. But what about the old Hank and Molly? What constitutes a living, bonafide person when you are created out of a lab?

Daniels tackles a subject near and dear to everyone’s heart: our own mortality. If, IF such a procedure was possible, would you make the jump, no matter the risks? Illustrated and written by Daniels, the book is absolutely chilling, but not in a crazy, ax-murderer kind of way. More of a science gone wrong kind of way. Hank and Molly’s journey through this crazy time, as well as the people they meet along the way, are all extremely memorable. The book looks, reads and feels like it is ready to jump to the big screen: the storytelling is so fluid.

There isn’t a whole lot of action in this book. Instead, it’s packed with heart, heartache, shock, questions that have answers and questions we need to answer ourselves about life. Upgrade Soul makes you take a good, hard look at the world around you, and it makes you wonder if this is fiction or inspired by real-life events. Ezra Claytan Daniels creates one of the best graphic novels of 2018, and I highly recommended picking it when it releases in September.

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Welcome to the anti-Clone Club.

Despite being an interracial couple who married in the ’70s, Molly and Hank Nonnar have built a pretty charmed life together. Dr. Manuela Nonnar is a scientist (geneticist?) at the top of her field, while Hank continues the legacy left him by his father, a franchise based on a popular black superhero named Slane. Though they have no children of their own, the couple acts as surrogate parents to their niece Del, who likes play researcher in Molly’s backyard. (Yay girls in STEM!) Then a fateful meeting between Hank and Dr. Victoria Teel upends their world and calls everything they thought they knew into question.

For their 40th anniversary,* the couple decides to make a substantial investment in a company called Via; in exchange, they’ll be the first to undergo Via’s experimental “genetic purification” procedure. It promises to make them stronger, smarter, faster, healthier, and more long-lived than any human before them. And it does, in a way.

Molly and Hank wake up seven months later in bodies that have seemingly aged ten years. Instead of being changed, they have been cloned. And their clones are half-formed “monsters”: aborted (er, “canceled”) during the 10th week of development, Manuela and Henry (as their counterparts are christened) resemble baked potatoes with cured ham for limbs (in technical terms). But they are “better” than the source material in every other way, blessed with superhuman strength and intellectual prowess that surpasses that of their creators.

Yet there’s only room in the world for one Molly and Hank. Will it be the “source material” that Dr. Kallose intended to destroy upon the successful completion of the project, or the “monsters” that are a sentient success, yet are too aesthetically displeasing to ever present in public?

UPGRADE SOUL might just be one of the most bizarre, horrifying, and thought-provoking books I’ve ever read, graphic novel or otherwise. It raises a myriad of deliciously thorny questions: What makes you you? Is a person more than the sum of their parts? How much are we shaped by our environments? Our bodies? What is normality, and who gets to define it?

Plus it delights in a wicked sense of humor while doing so, particularly in the forms of Molly and Hank 2.0.

The plot’s pretty compelling, and the artwork, appropriately crude and weird – but in an oddly moving way. There were a few holes, though; for example, it was never entirely clear to me what Molly and Hank expected of the procedure (e.g., did they know that their “original” bodies were destined for the incinerator?). Also: an already creepy story gets even freakier with the additional of an incest subplot, which is kind of left dangling, much to this reader’s dismay. (You can’t just drop a bomb like that and walk away, mkay.) And just why did Manuela do what she did?

Still, UPGRADE SOUL is one of the better graphic novels I’ve read in recent memory: a legit page-turner that both entertains and challenges. If you dig sci-fi, you owe to yourself to add it to your TBR list.

* It’s right there on page 47 of my ARC, no matter what the synopsis says.

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Upgrade Soul is a gem of a graphic novel. Upon reading the summary, I expected the main theme to be coping with aging, but I appreciated how race, beauty, and family relationships were explored as well. The characters dialogue was philosophical without being heavy handed, and just enough of the science fiction was "explained" to keep me intrigued but not drowned in jargon. The plot and the fates of the characters were not as predictable as they usually are in this genre, so I enjoyed being surprised by some parts. And the illustrations are excellent. Every frame is filled with detail, and the story is enhanced by some frames being drawn from a character perspective, rather than entirely third person view. I will recommend this book to friends, and I look forward to seeing it on the shelves!

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This was bizarre, but definitely grew on me the further I got in. Cool drawings comprise this graphic novel to compliment the story.

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I stoy I greatly enjoyed to read. It developed its characters well, made you truly care for them and their struggles. It made me question what makes me human and, if those things were melted away, what would be left.

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Upgrade Soul has an interesting premise: an elderly couple decide to undergo an experimental treatment but it goes very wrong leaving them disfigured and questioning whether they made the right decision.

I'm not entirely sure how to rate this book. On the one hand, the story was unique and the idea was interesting. On the other hand, the frequent flashbacks and art style left me confused at times. I didn't want to race through this, but I also didn't want to abandon it. So a middle of the road ranking from me with a 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for providing me with a DRC of this book.

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A really impactful, sensitive and intelligent sci-fi drama. Two elderly people, long married but with regrets about what might have been, sign up for an exclusive, secretive and illegal science experiment, where cell regeneration technologies are supposed to make them fitter/happier than ever. What comes out the other end is not quite as anyone hoped – and certainly not what the 'mad scientist' type (for want of a better phrase) seeking remedial science for his disfigured sister wanted. If anything the book could be marked down for not easing us in to the many flashbacks and so on in the early stages (for such a scientific book, with such scientific characters, it's a little shy on giving us data like a timeline) – but really all negatives are so minor as to hardly be worth mentioning. The subdued palette, the black comedy of a remote scientist living through a TV with fake arms attached to its sides, the subtle way the, er, results are made to look different through their gendered voice-boxes… there is clearly a lot of clever thought on these pages. It's nice that this is perfectly self-contained, too – but at the same time the full trilogy will be something to admire. Purchase is strongly recommended.

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Most of us worry about getting old. Yet this anxiety is more acute when we hit our middle-age.

Old-age worries often come unbidden. Seeing our bodies unable to shrug off pain like it used to bring dark thoughts that zero in on our mortality. Despite what we see on our screens, death is a human reality. There is no drug or cream against growing old.

The relationship between the fears of old age and the actions it fosters is at the root of Upgrade Soul, a graphic novel by Ezra Claytan Daniels. In the book, we see how Hank and Molly pledge their wealth to an experimental experiment that reverses ageing. The consequence of this action and the ethical question it raises are what the book tries to grapple with.

Upgrade Soul does not bother moralising about the right and wrong of scientific ethics. What it does best is reveal the depth of fear humans have about their legacy in the face of death. It also shows that mentally putting yourself in other people's shoes do not always translate into empathy. Lastly, it lays bare the influence of love and trust over many other powerful emotions.

Many thanks to Lion Forge for review copy.

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3.5/5 stars

I liked the topics dealt in this graphic novel. Lots of questions on morality, immortality, cloning, disfigurement, identity and the fight for racism. Now that I put it like that I'm a bit awed as to how Ezra Daniels managed to include all of those themes and still tell a story. It's a tragic story with a bittersweet ending. (view spoiler)

I didn't take to the font chosen or the slightly low-res illustrations.

It's a thought provoking story, some of the tech talk lost me but you can still get the gist of the whole story. Goodreads doesn't support half stars, so I bumped it up instead of down.

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