This is the first time I have come across Blake Crouch as an author, although I have since learned he has two other well-received books, so my perspective is from that of a new-to-the-author-reader.

The idea of genetic modification is not a new one - however, Crouch takes it to a new level with genetic modification being so prevalent that there is a (albeit more newly established!) GPA - Gene Protection Agency, to work alongside the other federal law enforcement agencies. Logan, a GPA agent, also happens to be son of the world's most notorious geneticist. A work incident causes him to be exposed to something which is modifying his genetic code - but what does it mean??

This is a relatively straightforward narrative - there are not multiple plot lines to confuse or bamboozle you with what is happening. This allows enjoyment of not only the story but the issues being explored, making it a really thoughtful reflection on the 'what-if'.

The story itself is fast paced and intriguing, and will keep you up reading late at night. If you are a fan of science-related fiction/speculative fiction, this is definitely for you.

Blake Crouch is a new author for me. And I am impressed. I love things like Black Mirror and Upload and such tech thrillers. This book has those vibes that keep me reading.

Blake Crouch has done it again! My favorite part of reading his books is that I learn so much about a very specialized part of science. He also makes it very easy to understand. I read this in one sitting, I couldn't put it down. It was overall an excellent read, one that I can’t stop thinking about. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Ballantine Books, for a chance to read this e-ARC prior to publication for my honest review

Blake Crouch is a new-to-me author and it’s been many years since I’ve read a sci-fi thriller. This one did not disappoint. The story deals with genetic engineering and the good and evil that could come from it. Which will win? Loss, heartache, betrayal, action, suspense, danger, and more! I’ll admit that I skimmed over sections of scientific lingo that meant absolutely nothing to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The concept of this book was so good… and so scary too. Definitely a page turner,
I could not put it down. Wow!

Blake Crouch is on a hot streak right now, delivering the one-two punch of Dark Matter and Recursion, each of which rank among the best thrillers of the decade so far. So it’s pretty fair that he might deliver a book not quite on that level, and such is the case with Upgrade, a perfectly fine book that never really becomes as interesting as I wish it did. A high tech variation on Flowers from Algernon, Upgrade revolves around augmented intelligence and its effect on human life, and while that’s not a bad idea for a book, Upgrade never finds a second gear to move into, ultimately delivering the story you could kind of predict after the first few chapters. (Compare this to the way that Dark Matter and Recursion went in wild directions you couldn’t guess.) I didn’t dislike Upgrade, per se; it’s entertaining enough, and it moves fast. But there’s never a moment where it becomes interesting or novel in a satisfying way, turning into more than the pretty okay beach read it seems okay with being.

A wild ride of a page turning thriller set in the future where mankind has changed drastically but not changed at all.

What a wild ride it was to read "Upgrade" by Blake Crouch! With a tentative publish date of July, 2022, this newest offering is sure to delight fans of the author as well as those who like their sci-fi books to have that embedded in the realities of our current world vibe!

Crouch is great at immersing the reader in his not too distant worlds. In this novel, he expands on the worldwide fallout following an attempt by the world's most preeminent geneticist, Miriam Ramsay, to introduce a genetically altered insect meant to create a more stable link in a specific crop within the food chain. When the noble efforts go horrifically awry, the effects are felt in every corner of the planet and ushers in a new era of geopolitical unrest.

With the establishment of the GPA (Gene Protection Agency) here in the United States and its counterpart agencies across the globe, geneticists and molecular biologists must, by necessity, go underground with their craft. Their research into gene editing and their profession in general is now considered a federal crime.

In true Crouchian style, the STEM driven twists and turns keep the reader interested and engaged. This latest effort has an almost "pulled from the pandemic" sense of urgency to it, as the hero of the story (none other than Dr. Ramsay's own son, Logan, himself an agent of the GPA), races to find the answers to unthinkable questions as well as the source of the newest threat to humanity!

Many thanks to Random House/Ballantine Books for offering this advanced digital copy of "Upgrade" to me! I will admit that I had to Google more than a few scientific concepts/terminology as I followed our superhero Logan Ramsay's journey, but better understanding the propulsively written story was well worth the extra effort!

#Upgrade
#BlakeCrouch
#RandomHouse/BallantineBooks
#ScienceFiction
#ScienceReality

I really enjoyed this book, and was excited to get an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

If you liked Dark Matter or Recursion, you will almost certainly also like this one. It leans a bit more into the thriller side of things, though there is enough hard science and speculative near-future dystopia thrown in to _almost_ make you empathize with the book's antagonistic eco-terrorists. I still think Dark Matter is my favorite of the Blake Crouch novels, but there was a lot to like in Upgrade and its easy to recommend, especially if you have enjoyed his other books.

I’m a fan of Blake Crouch and could t wait to read Upgrade. Crouch has another exciting sci-fi thriller here and another quick and exciting read, I wasn’t thrilled about the ending but the rest of the book was so superb that I cannot give this any less than the five stars it deserves. Well done!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was incredibly entertaining as all of Crouch's adventures are. High tech, future set, thrilling, cinematic, and fast paced. Loved the twists and was fascinated and engaged by the science talk that so much of the plot is based around. Crouch is so good at writing action, with characters that pull at your heart. The relationships and characters in this story are well and thoroughly fleshed out. They have struggles, the stakes are high, and their choices are thought through as well. You root for them and don't ever want to be places in their impossible scenarios. I can't wait for more people to read this, it's a hell of an entertaining adventure and lands all of the risks it takes.

A quintessential Blake Crouch sci-fi thriller, Upgrade is yet another polished, gripping tale in the vein of Dark Matter and Recursion, combining provocative scientific subject matter with effective human drama. Picking genetic engineering as the subject du jour, Upgrade fully explores the uncertainly surrounding such intervention: is humanity capable of out-maneuvering Nature's complexity? Or are we simply accelerating the species' biological doom? The morality tug of war between calculated risk / unintended oversight, ambition / reality is well integrated throughout, with the depiction of science striving a balance of researched complexity and comprehension for the masses.

Comparing to the rich commentary, the actual narrative is a little 'basic' and small in scope, especially in comparison to his previous novels. But in exchange the story moves at a lightning speed; this is one where you can easily finish in one sitting if desired. Blake Crouch's writing is as efficient as always, very economic without sacrificing atmosphere and setting. Aside from some tolerable logic leaps, my one small gripe is the extravagance of some of its action set pieces; written like a very detailed storyboard, while this stylistic decision makes sense narratively, the reading experience isn't the most engaging, and can feel a little overwrought. I ended up skimming most of it whenever it showed up.

Overall, Upgrade packs the brain and the thrill, just as one would expect from Blake Crouch; the streamlined efficiency might dampens its ability to be more memorable, but the timely subject matter and the plausible vision of a near-future makes it another solid entry to Blake Crouch's body of work.

Short review time:

An author I love. The follow up to arguably the best sci-fi novel I’ve ever read.

Incredible setup and first act, solid second act, and a disappointing/clunky/rushed third act. But, finished with a fantastic epilogue, one that would have been better stretched out and shown, not told.

The post-epilogue ending is STUPID, but I'm still giving this novel five stars because it was a super fun read. I will jump on anything Blake Crouch writes despite its flaws.

I don't think Upgrade is my favorite (I think it's still the Wayward Pines trilogy?), but it's near the top. I totally enjoyed reading it. Crouch is one of my favorite popular authors.

Just when I thought I could not be more riveted than I was by Dark Matter, along came Upgrade. A solid four stars from me, which means I really liked it. Crouch is quickly becoming one of my go-to authors / favorites. In general, sci-fi is not a genre I seek out so to find a sci-fi book I love this much, they're treasures!

Thanks to Penguin Random House for the ARC.

Upgrade by Blake Crouch is like reading a movie, you're going to see a lot of reviews like that. The book clips along at a very tense pace and you can actually feel that frenetic tension build with each chapter. The world itself is built into a very cyberpunk light society where there's a new agency that tracks Gene manipulation called the GPA (not going to lie, that one took me out for a minute because I was like- my dude works for the grade point average... I would've sent that note back to the author if I was the editor, but hey, I get hung up on dumb things. It does not take away from the story whatsoever) Where our agent is in a happy(?) marriage, content (?) job, and then suffers an on-site job accident that results in him falling into a world he didn't expect.

The real world allegory is seamless. If not a little unnerving. Upgrade is well written, top notch science fiction that is approachable for most readers. 10/10 recommend. Will be picking up a physical copy for the permanent library.

Blake Crouch is a great storyteller. Upgrade is quite a bit different from his previous books. The story is a tale of good versus evil but there is a lot of biogenetics involved, some I understood and some was beyond my ability to understand. If you can skim over his explanations of genetics, the story is exciting and very well written.

Review of Advance Reader’s Copy

Logan Ramsay, an agent with the Gene Protection Agency, is infected with a virus as a result of a basement explosion during a raid to take down a gene lab engineering ransom bioware. Since the gene-editing Scythe is widely available, there’s concern that the virus infecting Logan is one designed to modify his genetic structure.

But Logan recovers after some time in the hospital and there’s no trace of the virus, no sign of modification in his genetic structure.

However, something has changed. Logan can feel it . . . he’s smarter, he sees things with an unimagined clarity. And what he sees is danger. Civilian manipulation of DNA, illegal since the Great Starvation that inadvertently killed millions of people as the scientists had tried to strengthen rice plants with a genetic virus, ended private and university-based genetic research.

Ultimately, Logan’s genetic changes cause him to become a target. But will he be able to outwit those who hunt him? And can he save humanity from the cataclysmic effects of genetic engineering that may or may not save the world?

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In a near-future world still struggling to recover from the effects of a gene manipulation program gone wrong, this take on a possible future for humanity is a high-tech thriller that will find readers turning the pages as fast as possible while the plot twists and turns in unexpected ways.

Well-developed characters, a strong sense of place in a strange, yet familiar, world of tomorrow, and a plot centered around a unique concept all work together to create a compelling tale of right and wrong, of how the best of intentions can easily backfire, and of the ramifications of unethical actions. The complex science works well in the telling of the tale; the unfolding narrative is both electrifying and sinister, filled with betrayals and unexpected revelations.

Readers will find much to ponder in this thoughtful, believable science fiction tale that wonders if humanity can be saved from itself.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Ballantine Books and NetGalley
#Upgrade #NetGalley

Thanks Random House and Netgalley for providing the advance chance to read Blake Crouch’s new novel. I loved it. It was as intriguing as his previous works and I found the genetic manipulation plot a bit easier to follow than some of the science in his other books. Highly recommend this for fans of science fiction or just his earlier works.

This almost feels like a how-to-guide for fixing most of the problems the world is experiencing. If only it were really possible. An interesting twist on the current state of affairs.