I don't typically choose to read Sci-Fi/thriller type books, but I've heard great things about Blake's writing so I decided to give it a try and I really like it. Blake is a great story teller and knows how to hook you in almost immediately. I liked how fast paced the story was and I did not want to put it down because of that. Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC.

In this propulsive and entertaining sci fi thriller, it’s the not too distant future and genetic modification of any kind is against the law. Main character Logan works for a federal agency dedicated to investigating and stopping any one practicing genetic modification. But after he is attacked during one such investigation he begins to suspect that something happened to him - and that he has received both a mental and physical upgrade, just like the title suggests. But who did it to him, why, and what does he need to do next to protect himself and the world?

People are always telling me that I would like Blake Crouch’s books, but somehow I had never read any before and this was my first one. Well, I can see why people like them and I will definitely be checking out his previous books! I seriously couldn’t put this one down and read it in one day. If this one is representative of his other books, I can also see why people who are not usually science fiction fans always say they like him - it’s both more thriller than science fiction, and the science aspect of the fiction is more grounded in reality than say a book set in the far future with aliens. It reminded me a little bit of Marcus Sakey’s Brilliance Trilogy, so I’d say that if you liked those books, check this one out, and vice versa.

(I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.)

”The greatest threat to our species lies within us."

What a mind-bender! Loved it. Leave it to Blake Crouch to write another nonstop sci-fi thriller packed with philosophical observations on the human race. Don't let the science fiction label put you off, this one is another unputdownable book, with complicated genetics explained for the layperson. (And did I mention my husband and I read the book AT THE SAME TIME? #NerdAlert)

Dark Matter and Recursion are two of my favorite Blake Crouch books so I was beyond thrilled to grab Upgrade. This book raises many moral and ethical issues, and has a fantastic Epilogue. I love books that challenge my way of looking at the world. I also love books that require a little extra effort, and I found myself looking up the meaning of lots of words and phrases. Genome! Hyperloop! R-naught!

Set in the near future, the world has changed in many ways. Miami and Lower Manhattan are under water. Google Roadster coupes travel the roadways. Desertification has changed the landscape. Blake Crouch takes many things that exist today, and expanded upon them in this frightening new world that Logan Ramsey lives in.

"We lived in a veritable surveillance state, engaged with screens more than with our loved ones, and the algorithms knew us better than we knew ourselves."

Logan works for a shadowy government agency and has finally come to terms with the worldwide havoc wreaked by his mother, the brilliant and revolutionary Miriam Ramsay. She invented a DNA modifier that ended up causing a global hunger crisis that led to the deaths of million of people. The system is now outlawed. But somehow Logan has become changed as well, and must go on the run from the same government agency that he once worked for.

"We had gotten so much right. And too much wrong. The future was here, and it was a fucking mess.

Miriam Ramsay intended to help save the human race and the planet. But her actions led to unspeakable, unintended consequences. Is dabbling in DNA ever justified? This book raises these issues and many more. This is an intelligent, non-stop thriller that has lots of twists and turns. Logan's adversary is a surprise and I won't give away any spoilers. 'Upgrade' is incredibly creative and thought-provoking and I could not stop reading until I finished the last page. The ending was very satisfying and so emotional!

"We contained within us the potential for great evil, but also for great good. And we were capable of so much more than this."

The best kind of sci-fi is the kind you can imagine happening...maybe in your lifetime. Upgrade is that kind of book. It sets a slippery slope on high and takes the reader on a ride. This book is about genetic manipulation, real-world experimentation, legacy, ego, and the human condition.

Before the events in Upgrade, there was The Great Starvation. Hundreds of millions of people starved to death because of genetic modification in insects gone horribly wrong. The son of the scientist who caused it now works for a government agency that makes sure no more gene editing is done. And then he becomes infected with something that causes an upgrade in his DNA, making him smarter, faster, more capable. He is imprisoned in a lab to be studied as his abilities continue to expand.

When he discovers that he isn't alone in this and that someone else is keeping one step ahead of him, it is a cat-and-mouse race to see if he can stop his adversary from infecting more people at the cost of potentially a billion lives.

This is a fast-paced sci-fi thriller with enough of a foot in the real world to make it feel like there's more than just a chance of something like this happening.

My thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another science fiction novel from Blake Crouch that I loved! Just like Dark Matter and Recursion I was intrigued by the premise and wanted to keep reading it until I finished it even though I have other things I needed to be doing! Where Dark Matter played with the multiverse and Recursion played with memory and time-travel, Upgrade plays with the idea of genetic modification. I have to admit, hearing about all the things Logan was able to do had me wishing for those kinds of upgrades myself!

Now I want to go back and re-read Dark Matter and Recursion because I am reminded of how much I love these books! I also want to re-read Summer Frost, his sci-fi novella that was my favorite out of the Forward Collection.

Again, not being a very good NetGalley reader. :/

I read this one back in May and despite the absolute apocalyptic horror it brought me, I enjoyed being back in Blake Crouch's mind. This really felt like a big alarm for our current times, which I appreciate simply because it acknowledges the actual shitshow we're in with both climate change and the pandemic.

<I>Upgrade</I> centers around Logan Ramsay, the son of a famous scientist who happened to be responsible for the deaths of a ton of people. After Logan is involved in an explosion, he begins to evolve into a superhuman as a part of a larger plan to "upgrade" humanity to fix the apocalyptic shitshow.

It's not only a great science fiction thriller, it has a really wonderful commentary on what it means to be human that I hope people hear.

If you enjoyed <I>Dark Matter,</I> I bet you'll like this one too.

Blake Crouch has done it again. After Dark Matter and Recursion, which were 4.5* reads for me, Upgrade had big shoes to fill. But he is so good at the science-based thriller that I should not have worried. This storyline is based on genetics in the future when scientists can and do manipulate DNA. As with his other novels, it leaves the reader wondering "what would I do?" if in the same situation. Crouch always thinks through how the science impacts the protagonist in a personal way. I think that's why so many readers who wouldn't consider themselves sci-fi readers still enjoy his books. He makes the situation seem relatable, even while being "out there".
Thank you to #RandomHouse for early access to this novel through #Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I have never read anything by this author before picking up this book. I got some Michael Crichton vibes off the subject matter of genome altering and the ultimate should we-shouldn't we? Except this plot surrounds a genome police officer, who is tasked with stopping people doing exactly what's happening to him. The sci-fi premise of this will have you questioning humanity and scratching your head for a bit after it's over. Happy to see someone who can pull off the complex science for an excellent sci-fi thriller.

I try to go into each Blake Crouch book with fairly little knowledge about it just to be surprised. Sometimes that doesn't serve me because I get confused and then reading the synopsis on the cover helps me untangle my thoughts. Upgrade was one that I feel was better read without a lot of information, so that was good news for me. Upgrade was much easier for me to follow than a few of the other Blake Crouch novels I have read. It was a fast-paced thriller with good characters that you can root for and against. I appreciate the moral questions that are asked from both the protagonist's viewpoint and the "bad guy's" viewpoint. I think they are good questions that can not have 100% correct answers. Would it be better to modify human DNA if it would save the planet or should nature (including human nature) be allowed to take its course?

I love that Blake Crouch typically brings a lot of real scientific and statistical facts into his novels which give them more of a sense of believability rather than them feeling like pure sci-fi. The one area I wish had been done better was character building. I never understood enough about any characters motivations and backgrounds or what would have driven them to make one choice or another. Things are hinted at, but I would have liked a little more.

Upgrade was a really good entry in the Blake Crouch catalog that will keep those of us who love him coming back for more!

I usually love Blake Crouch books but this one was just okay for me.
The pacing seemed a bit off and really flip flopped between too slow and too fast. The ending felt a little rushed and even the epilogue I think could have been longer to better complete the story.
I really enjoyed the concept and since genetics something I am very familiar with I was really intrigued by science explanations and how that was woven into the story.

I also liked the main character but felt like both him and all of the side characters were a bit underdeveloped which made it hard to invest in the story.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite book by this author but I'll definitely try more in the future.

One of my book friends said in order to read this book you needed to be Upgraded. I loved this! Thanks Jean. It is so true. I definitely don’t have the brainwidth to come close to even remotely understanding the science behind the subject here, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the story so very much. It also frightened me so very much too because it makes one wonder how close science is to this kind of genetic change. While some of it would be so fascinating some of it would be so scary too. Ah, anyway! Enough of the what if thinking. Although that’s one of the very fun things about this book, that it does make you think about a lot of things.

I highly recommend this book for lovers of thrillers, science and technology and things that make you go hmmm. I really enjoyed this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the advanced readers copy of this book.

Blake Crouch is a master of the futuristic techno-thriller, and he does not disappoint with his latest, Upgrade.

Logan Ramsay works the for the Gene Protection Agency. The GPA evolved from an event called “The Great Starvation,” which Logan’s mother, Miriam Ramsay, was responsible for when she unveiled a new DNA tool meant to upgrade and improve food development. Instead, the tool only decimated crops worldwide, and millions starved to death. Logan now helps the GPA root out non-compliant genetics researchers and bring them to heel. Until he becomes the unwitting victim of a genetic upgrade program himself. With his new super skills he is soon on the run from the very agency he worked for, and from allies he once trusted.

Upgrade gives a peek at what the world could look like down the road, and where the human race is going – or not going. It is a fast-paced cat and mouse, with the heightened stakes of said cat and mouse (whose roles are interchangeable) being family. The story is written from a tight 1st person POV, which is effective because it lends to Logan’s sense of isolation: in how he feels about his mother and her legacy, and his own physical and mental changes, and how they separate him from allies, coworkers and ultimately from his own wife and daughter.

There are a lot of scientific terms and concepts, which Logan readily explains to the reader. The genetics are fascinating, but it’s easy for the non-sciencey type to flounder around the terminology. My suggestion: just roll with it. The main character knows what he’s doing/talking about and I’m willing to trust his explanations and their implications.

There is an interesting twist towards the end, and my first reaction was…what? It seemed a counterintuitive goal for Logan. But in a world with few choices and fewer positive outcomes, the decision is, perhaps, understandable, if not redeemable.

Upgrade is a fun, philosophical, thrill-ride of a read, but at its heart it’s about what it means to be human.

I must say, I really enjoyed this thrilling sci-fi novel! It was an interesting take on genetic modification in the near future and seemed very reasonable of what could happen to us, including the heavy weight of the the US government as it tries to regulate it. Logan is an interesting character who I really rooted for (though I understood where his sister was coming from) and I found the upgrades fascinating. I actually understood bits of it too, which was cool.
This book dealt nicely with the ethics of all the genetic changes and had a good ending message too. Though I still kinda wish I had a bi of the upgrade so that exercise was easier and I could get through my TBR list way faster. :)

Blake Crouch does not disappoint. I read and discuss his titles with a friend and I cannot wait for her to read this one. Simply thrilling!

Upgrade by Blake Crouch is a thriller that takes place in the not-too-far-distant future when most of the food is bio-manufactured and gene manipulation is such an issue that the government has its own task force, complete with investigators. Logan Ramsay was one such investigator, his main claim to fame being who his mother was: the woman whose project had lead to 200,000,000 deaths. A crime for which he had served a time in jail. He was just a worker on the project, one of many but he was her son. He was, however, in a unique position to know many of the foremost scientists in that area of science, and to know, first hand, the damage that could be caused. The end of his life as he knew it came in a raid when the teams discovered a box that was due to explode. He got his team out but not himself. He ended up in the hospital where they monitored him but discovered no ill effects and no change to his gene structure. It was after he got home that he began to feel symptoms. It got complicated really quickly.

This was a really interesting book with maybe just a little too much technical information for those of us who are not geneticists. It gave great insight into how people become obsessed, and how they drag others into their obsession. First, his mother, then, his sister. They took his life away from him and that was hard to forgive. He did, however, see the flaw in their reasoning and tried to fix it. I read a lot of books that undermine my faith in my government. This was one. Not nearly as often do I read a book which makes me question progress. This one did. It seems like people can’t always tell when enough is enough. It is truly frightening. I am not huge on dystopian fiction or apocalyptic stories, but this was a much thriller as one of those. He presents a frightening future. I gave it a try. I think others should as well.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Upgrade by Ballantine Books, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #ballantine #blakecrouch #upgrade

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

What if you could have them all?

More of a science based thriller than a hard science fiction. You get a fairly accessible genetics overview and then we rush right into thriller territory. Those with a deeper understanding of genetics or genetic engineering will have to suspend their disbelief for the majority of the novel.

Still, it's fun. Overall it feels like a novel was written about a character from a comic book, which is cool, but a bit more extreme than reality.

As an agent at the Gene Protection Agency, Logan Ramsey is tasked with finding those that wish to illegally alter human DNA and take them into custody. During a raid Logan is trapped in an explosion and in the aftermath it's discovered that he has been altered, he's changing. Things seem sharper, memories easier to access, muscles stronger, Logan knows he's been infected with something. It becomes obvious to him that GPA has no intention of letting him go, so when someone breaks in to rescue him from where he's being held, Logan willingly goes along. Now things have been set in motion that could infect the world's population with this "upgrade" leaving Logan the only person capable to right this wrong set in motion so long ago. It's hard to review "Upgrade" without giving too much away but I can say that Blake Crouch has another hit on his hands. I loved Crouch's two most recent books and "Upgrade" ranks up there with both of them. I'm not usually a fan of this genre but Blake Crouch has won me over. If Sci-fi isn't usually your thing I suggest picking up one of Crouch's books and dive into the wild world he creates. A big thank you to NetGalley & Random House for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

📚Book Review 📚

#upgrade
#blakecrouch
#NetGalley published 7/12/2022
#ballantinebooks
#scififantasy

Edit: As I was writing a review for Amazon, I realized that this book would make a great movie.

Let me start by saying that I'm not so sure how this is my first book of his besides the fact that the publisher offered it to me bc I have reviewed some of their other books, probably favorably. My husband and I have both loved the Wayward Pines series on FOX. As well as Good Behavior on TNT. That one was based on his novellas about Letty Dobesh.

All of that said, I would not rate this a full 5⭐s. I just wasn't "omg I love this book". But there were so many things that I liked about it. Part one definitely drew me in. It probably helped that there was not much science. I am starting to believe that "hard scifi" as my brother called it, might not be for me. And since this book is called Upgrade, each of the upgrades the MC got to his DNA, the more science that entered the wording. And the less I liked the book. However, I did love the concept that the smarter he got, the smarter he appeared due to the "upgraded" vocabulary and science he exhibited in his thoughts and in the descriptions in the book.

I certainly enjoyed this book enough to try another, besides the ones based on the shows I loved. And I'll probably get to those eventually too. I think I'll try Dark Matter next. It seems to be highly rated and often recommended.

#randomhousepublishing
#generalfiction
#bookstagram #booknerdsbookreview #bookrecommendation #bookreview #bookish #lovetoread

In no way would anyone think of me as a sci-fi reader, including myself. Yet, every once in a while, I’ll indulge, and if the author is Blake Crouch, the decision to read is an easy one. His latest futuristic thriller, 𝙐𝙋𝙂𝙍𝘼𝘿𝙀, takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which any tampering with DNA is strictly outlawed. This occurred after Logan Ramsay’s brilliant mother tried to save crops and ended up starving 200 million people across the world instead. Years later, Logan is still trying to atone for her error when he finds himself changing. He seems to have been “upgraded.” Everything about Logan has improved and the powers that be are concerned, as is Logan. He knows there is only one person who could have done this and her reasons can’t be good.⁣
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𝘜𝘱𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘦 is a wild ride thriller with a lot of technical genome science thrown in. While I enjoyed the thriller side of the story, all the long scientific explanations were just sort of background noise for me. (Though it definitely made me think and fear where we might end up in the future when we know 𝐭𝐨𝐨 much.) I think true science fiction fans will love this one, as will Blake Crouch fans, and anyone else? Amblin Partners has acquired the film rights and it will make a GREAT movie! ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
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Thanks to #BallantineBooks for an electronic ARC of #Upgrade.

What another amazing fast-paced sci fi thriller of a book! I love Blake Crouch and he's done it again! I love how he takes a light dose of science and then weaves in character, plot, and the destruction of the human race in a delightful race against time. I've loved everything I've read by Mr Crouch and this is no exception!