eBook, 319 pages
English language
Published July 12, 2022 by Random House Publishing Group.
An ordinary man undergoes a startling transformation-and fears that all of humanity may be next-in the mindblowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion Logan Ramsay can feel his brain...changing. And his body too. He's becoming something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human. As he sets out to discover who did this to him, and why, his transformation threatens everything-his family, his job, even his freedom. Because the truth of what's happened to him is more disturbing than he could possibly imagine. His DNA has been rewritten with a genetic-engineering breakthrough beyond anything the world has seen-one that could change our very definitions of humanity. And the battle to control this unfathomable power has already begun. But what if humankind's only hope for survival lies in embracing this change-whatever the cost? Which side will Logan take? And by the time …
An ordinary man undergoes a startling transformation-and fears that all of humanity may be next-in the mindblowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion Logan Ramsay can feel his brain...changing. And his body too. He's becoming something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human. As he sets out to discover who did this to him, and why, his transformation threatens everything-his family, his job, even his freedom. Because the truth of what's happened to him is more disturbing than he could possibly imagine. His DNA has been rewritten with a genetic-engineering breakthrough beyond anything the world has seen-one that could change our very definitions of humanity. And the battle to control this unfathomable power has already begun. But what if humankind's only hope for survival lies in embracing this change-whatever the cost? Which side will Logan take? And by the time it's over, will he-and the people he loves-even recognize him? Upgrade is a stunningly inventive, ferociously plotted science-fiction thriller that explores the limits of our humanity-and asks what's at risk when technology lets us reengineer not just the world around us, but ourselves.
Not his best work yet. Recursion, which got me hooked on the author and made me read Dark Matter, has a sort of elegance that both Dark Matter and Upgrade lacks. It's a fun, intense and easy read on an interesting topic for sure - just not as refined as Recursion.
Having really enjoyed [b:Dark Matter|27833670|Dark Matter|Blake Crouch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472119680l/27833670.SY75.jpg|43161998] and [b:Recursion|42046112|Recursion|Blake Crouch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543687940l/42046112.SY75.jpg|64277987] I had high expectations of this one. Unfortunately, I can't say that they were met. So many things about this book annoyed me, including what I would call the "flying car" syndrome of putting too much detail in explaining how things would work in the future, as if the character is deliberately telling a story to someone from the present. Listing dozens of random gene names that literally mean nothing to anyone except perhaps people with degrees in molecular biology doesn't really do anything for the story, except make you think that the author copied and pasted from a textbook. Too much science, too little fiction. Annoying.
I'm going to stop here. I'm glad to see that others enjoyed the book. I look forward to enjoying the next [a:Blake Crouch|442240|Blake Crouch|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1479398727p2/442240.jpg] book...
I quite got into this, and as it turned into an arms race of mental and physical excellence, I found myself even more absorbed. The ending did seem to appear a little rapidly, and as with some of these ubermensch stories, the thought processes of the enhanced all seem to asymptotically converge to a degree. In that regard it was refreshing to have a difference of view between two characters. Up there with Suarez’s Change Agent for pushing the boundaries of genetic resequencing and the GPA having the feel of Marcus Sakey’s Federal Brilliance agency, Crouch has shown that once again he can tell a superbly compelling story with bold extrapolation.
