I read Crouch's previous book Recursion and was mightily impressed. I wondered whether this latest one would be as good - in fact it's better

So...Logan is a member of a government agency that's fighting against an illegial biotech undrerground. It's quite difficult because Logan's late mother was the person who releasd a "bio hack" with disastarous consequences - millions died.. On a raid, Logan's infected with biological material that changes him - upgrades him to human 2.0 - and then the real actions begin - a rescue, the truth about his family...and lots more

Top marks for this - its sci fi that's totally readable just as an interesting, well charactered, pacey novel. It kept me on the page and I raced through it. If you like somethimng a bit futuristic, then it hits the mark for that too. Crouch has a knack of effectively blending these elements togther to create a novel that's great for readers of a range of different genres

Final verdict - get this even if you don't like sci fi - great story, pace and action. If this is your first Blake Crouch book, go back to Recursion and then read Dark Matter - this book isn't a flash in the pan!

I love Blake Crouch and I really enjoyed this review copy that I received from #netgalley. I didn’t quite like it as much as Recursion or Dark Matter, but it’s a well-plotted and very human-focussed sci-fi thriller. I wish I could have read it in one sitting, because it really is that good, but time was not on my side.

I’d definitely recommend this book! Enjoy!

I know that science fiction isn't my usual genre, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy it when I'm in the right mood for it... I had an excellent time with the two previous stand-alones Blake Crouch wrote; they are exactly the type of high speed and action inspired sci-fi stories that are a perfect fit for me. I added Upgrade as soon as I first heard about it and even before I read the blurb; I love his writing and I knew I simply HAD to read it even before I knew what it was going to be about exactly. After reading the premise, I was even more excited to read Upgrade, and I have to say that it definitely lived up to expectations for me.

Upgrade is a dystopian story set in an alternative near future where humanity as it is won't be able to exist for much longer if things don't change. It's an all too plausible situation if you think about it with the current state of the world... Upgrade focuses on DNA science and engineering, and while some of this certainly went over my head as a whole I liked what it brought to the story. This is mainly thanks to the fast pace and constant movement; even if you don't understand 100% of the science incorporated into the story, it is very easy to just move on and enjoy the ride anyway. It's definitely what I did!

This story will take you all over the US as you follow Logan Ramsay on his journey. Son of an infamous scientist who caused the death of millions, he now works on the other side trying to stop similar events from happening. His whole world is turned upside down though when a raid goes wrong and leaves him infected with a virus that will literally change who he is... His genome is hacked, and the upgrade will give him abilities that will set him apart from the rest of humanity. Logan is determined to find out why he was a target and what this new upgrade means, and there are many many dangerous moments, action-packed scenes and plot twists along the way while he tries to unravel the truth. I don't want to give away too much of the plot to avoid spoilers, but what I can say is that you better brace yourself for a wild and violent ride!

Upgrade is one of those stories that shows me that I can truly love the sci-fi genre when the timing is right. A lot of this has to do with the fact that despite the heavy dose of science that I might not always fully digest, there is also plenty of action and suspense to keep you entertained along the way. This story was extremely engaging and in fact a true pageturner despite the scientific parts; not my absolute Blake Crouch favorite (it's hard to beat Dark Matter), but without doubt an excellent read!

Hi and welcome to my review of Upgrade!

I had been waiting with bated breath for the new Blake Crouch novel, I was 100% ready to have my mind blown, and while Upgrade was not my all-time favourite story by this author, I did have a great time with it.

Upgrade takes us to a dystopian future. If you’re already anxious about the future of the world, beware that Upgrade does not paint a pretty picture of our future if we continue down our current path. In this way it is definitely thought-provoking, also in that it raises the question whether it’s human intelligence or compassion that might save the planet, which I felt was a really interesting issue to ponder.

Upgrade is told from the perspective of Logan Ramsay. The son of the most (in)famous scientist the world has ever known, Logan works for the Gene Protection Agency after a stint in prison for assisting in the execution of a great theory that didn’t work out so well in practice. Genome manipulation has become quite common and the agency and certain acts are in place to protect people from outlaw scientists messing with things that should not be messed with.

Upgrade kicks off with a raid during which Logan gets hurt. His wounds heal but before long he starts to feel different: he can concentrate better, read faster, multitask better, and he needs less sleep to function better. Quite frankly, I was just a tad jealous. He reminded me of Peter Parker after getting bit by a radioactive spider, except Logan was injected by a DNA-altering substance. Yeah, that’s not scary at all 😳

With great power comes great responsibility and it will be up to Logan to prevent humanity from being killed to save humanity. (The mind boggles, doesn’t it.)

I don’t have a scientific bone in my body, and Upgrade does have quite a lot of science, which inevitably went mostly over my head. This is often the case when I read this author, so that didn’t take me by surprise and it didn’t affect my reading pleasure at all. This topic did grab me just a little less than other topics previously broached by this author in earlier books, which is what made this a not quite five-star read for me.

Despite the science, the pace in Upgrade is relentless. This would make an excellent film, a real blockbuster with kidnappings, and mad scientists in hi-tech labs, and high-speed chases, and blinding explosions. And a lone wolf with a guilty conscience and a good heart to root for.

Upgrade is a fantastic sci-fi thriller that I would happily recommend to fans of the genre.

Upgrade is out in digital formats, audio and hardcover on 7 July.

Massive thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

• ‘Charlie is a man with an IQ of 68 who works a menial job as a janitor and delivery person at Donnegan's Plastic Box Company. He is selected to undergo an experimental surgical technique to increase his intelligence. The technique had already been tested on a number of animals; the great success was with Algernon, a laboratory mouse. The surgery on Charlie is also a success, and his IQ triples.’
Sounds familiar? No sooner I started reading Upgrade I remembered this story – Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, written in 1958. From a short story it became a novel and it was later numerously adapted to plays, musicals and television films and even rock opera’s. You can still buy the book.
• ‘As Charlie's intelligence, education, and understanding of the world increase, his relationships with people deteriorate. His co-workers at the bakery, who used to amuse themselves at his expense, now fear and resent his increased intelligence and persuade his boss to fire him. Alice enters a relationship with Charlie but breaks up with him after she realizes she can no longer relate to him and claims his intelligence has changed his personality.’
Of course, there’s a big difference to ‘an operation’ or ‘gene therapy’ but as gene therapy didn’t exist in 1958, it makes sense. What touched me the most in Upgrade was Logan losing, first deliberately, later unwillingly, the emotional band he has with his wife and daughter. Circumstances force him to handle this in his quest to save humankind from pending extinction.
I remember Flowers for Algernon quite well so it’s great to read Upgrade, a story that combines all my favorite elements: thriller, SF, a dystopian world and medical/scientific inventions and techniques. Besides that, Logan is a very likable man. He suffered a lot but he is not one to blame the whole world for his troubles. He loves his wife and daughter but he’s relentless in finding rogue geneticists, who work in creating the most awful ‘life forms’ just because too rich spoilt people would like to have a ‘real’ dragon or so in their homes. (Think: Pinky and the Brain but not so funny.) After the accident that started to transform him, Logan must not only find who did this to him, but also why. After discovering this, the real problems start.
A great book, full of interesting information about genetics and science, but not so much it’s not readable for a broad public. Logan may be upgraded, but he’s not a real superhero and it’s interesting to read how he overcomes his problems.
Thanks to PanMacmillan and Netgalley for this review copy.

What a book!!!!
I was so gripped by this story, I felt at times it was a little complicated but I have a background in biology etc so was fine for me.
Very interesting story about science but also about morals and the future of the human race.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend to all science fans as well as fans of Blake Crouch's other work!

Imaginative, perfectly paced, and extremely clever. Upgrade walks the fine line between page-turning thriller and smart sci-fi. Remarkable concept and impeccable execution from start to the end. Every single page gives a full-throttle effect. The story moved marvellously. I finished the book overnight. The book supercharged me. That’s says something.

Logan Ramsey works for the GPA; an organisation that fights against gene mutation which has become an increasingly dangerous issue. When Logan and his partner Nadine follow up on a lead he is infected with at first seems to be a harmless virus but slowly changes begin to take place and he begins to become the very thing that he was fighting against.

There's very little to say other than I loved this book; Blake Crouch doesn't disappoint and this novel was no exception. The plot and the characters are completely gripping and I read the book in almost one sitting.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

One night in the unspecified future—a future where humans have already done everything in their power to destroy the earth they live in, and in turn, the future of their own species—Logan Ramsay of the American Gene Protection Agency gets exposed to a gene modifying agent while raiding an illegal lab in Denver. Though the initial tests reveal nothing alarming, Logan soon feels himself becoming sharper in mind and stronger in body, and wishes to know more about what is happening to him. Before he could make any headway, GPA catches wind of his condition and locks him up, ostensibly to study the full scope of his 'upgrade'. Cut off from his loving family and imprisoned, probably for life, Logan submits to GPA’s tests while waiting for his opportunity to escape. However, a masked individual, evidently as upgraded as he is, rescues Logan from his prison, making him a hunted man.

On the run, Logan learns why he has been chosen for the 'upgrade' and about a brilliant scientist’s plan to save humanity from extinction by upgrading the entire world population that he and his rescuer are expected to implement,. The scientist’s previous effort at helping the world had resulted in a global famine—the Great Starvation—that consumed two hundred million lives and set back humanity by several decades, and the present plan seems far more destructive. But Logan's rescuer is convinced by the scientist’s argument and is ready to do whatever it takes tp unleash the gene modifier on the world, unconcerned about the catastrophic effects that such a move is bound to have. Logan, if he is to stop his rescuer from executing the well-intended but ill-thought-out plan, must put into use all his upgraded faculties and overcome the massive obstacles that his opponent, and his own government, throw at him.

Upgrade by Blake Crouch, an established master of Sci-Fi thrillers, is as exciting as his previous offerings, with all the elements a fan of the genre would look for. The main characters are well-crafted and demand the reader’s attention and sympathy. From start to finish, the plot keeps moving at a fast clip with enough twists that keep the reader hooked. Crouch seasons his story with a heavy dose of technicalities about genes and DNA and stuff that—though quite overwhelming—feels entirely authentic. I could not find much fault with Upgrade other than a bit of overdone sentimentality, some open-ended scenarios and a generally predictable premise. Thought provoking in its theme and thrilling in its plot, Upgrade lives up to Crouch’s reputation and is sure to be loved by his fans and many others.

I’m grateful to Pan MacMillan for the e-ARC of Upgrade in exchange for my honest review through NetGalley!

I was excited to read this new book from the author of Dark Matter and Recursion. Sadly it did not live up to my expectations and was more like a ‘downgrade’ in terms of how enjoyable I found it and how gripped I was. The first few chapters were intriguing, but by the halfway point the story had slowed and I wasn’t very interested in where it was going.

The narrator is Logan, who works for the Gene Protection Agency. In a world where anyone’s genes can be edited by synthetic viruses, the technology is outlawed and it’s Logan’s job to raid the rogue labs. However, after he stumbles into a trap and his whole being becomes superhuman, he has to question the ethics of gene editing and whether it can save everyone.

I found the writing style to be a weird mixture of action scenes – often violent – and scientific lectures about how genes work. It didn’t appeal to me. There was a lot of preaching about how we’re trashing the planet. Important messages of course but I prefer a little subtlety when these are in fiction. I was expecting more of a mind-bending experience like the other two of Crouch’s thrillers I’ve read. The protagonist wasn’t interesting or likeable and so there was nothing compelling me to keep on reading.

In summary, good concept but everything else was a let-down for me.

[Review will be on my blog, 21st June]

This is THE book of 2022! I’ve loved Blake Crouch since I first read Dark Matter. This novel does not disappoint.

I expected to like this book far more than I did.

It started out as a riveting thriller, playing like a big-budget movie in my head (and I do see this getting adopted as one) but somewhere along the line, Crouch's writing got pretentious with him putting in pages and pages worth of gene names and the science explanations getting extremely annoying at places.

But I do recognise that there are themes here that go beyond science which is what makes reading the book worth it. Ultimately it's a man's fight for humanity.

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the e-copy. Much appreciated as always :)

Yet another fantastic book from Blake Crouch. I raced through it in just one day, I couldn't put it down. 

In a world where scientists can edit human genes, Logan unexpectedly finds himself undergoing changes to how he thinks and feels. As he realises this is just the beginning of a major catastrophe, he sets out to save humanity.

I was fascinated by the ideas involved. The world was completely immersive and I was drawn in from the first page. I loved how it was also packed with emotions and feelings, making you question exactly what it means to be human. 

A really great story and extremely well written.

Have you ever wondered what humans would be like if they could reach their full potential? To delve new depths into the mind, interpret miniscule movements and react at the speed of light? To get an upgrade? Logan Ramsay has a troubled history with genetics. His mother was a pioneer in the field, but her quest for perfect lead to her downfall. And the world's. Logan works to track down those who think they can mess with evolution, but it's a dangerous job. One that often ends in death, or in Logan's case, life changing alterations.

As with all recent Blake Crouch books I found this incredibly entertaining, fast paced and thrilling to read. The backdrop here is a world on the brink of total destruction. Floods and famine have swept the landscapes, and the human race is desperate. Genetic advances have been a blessing and a curse, leaving humans to mess with nature and themselves in weird and wonderful ways. It's a really interesting concept, and as someone who loves biology this was right up my street. Yes, the science is heavy at times but I never felt it went too far over my head to warrant it affecting the story. It manages to walk that thin line between enough science to make this realistic without becoming bogged down. Probably helped by the many high action fight scenes.

If anything I did want the pace to slow down at certain points of the story to allow the reader to compress what had happened. The story zips around so quickly, moving from location to location along with Logan that we don't really get a chance to draw breath and have some quieter moments that could have really helped the reader to connect more with the characters.

I did find myself struggling at times to connect with Logan during thr later stages on the book. Without going into spoilers, at the start of the book we have a family man who loves his wife and daughter deeply, has a close friendship with his work partner and still struggles with the traumas of his past. As the story progresses, this emotional bond is lessened and Logan becomes a lot more detached and robotic. There's a reason for this, and I understand the direction the character goes in and why, but it did mean that he becomes a lot harder to relate to. He becomes a lot more kick ass though, and I did really like the sibling dynamics in this and how the choices the characters make have been defined by how they view the world.

Another great story from Blake Crouch, that yet again manages to blend science and thriller in an exciting story that clearly takes influence from the ongoing pandemic and environmental crisis. If you liked Recursion or Dark Matter I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I enjoyed Dark Matter and Recursion, but this is now my favorite book by Blake Crouch. It's action-packed and suspenseful. It grapples with some tough questions about what it means to be human and how to save the human race from climate change and other manmade disasters. There are interesting family dynamics at play throughout, which are mostly heartbreaking. It's a lesson in genetics. While I don't read a whole lot of science fiction, I really enjoyed reading Crouch's take on the world as it will be in fifty years or so, and I'll keep coming back to his books as long as he's writing them.

Set in a future world (but not too far ahead of us), this book’s setting follows on from a global famine caused by gene editing, which is now banned. Logan is subjected to an invasive attack of an upgraded set of genes which superficially make him better, stronger, a more efficient human being. The consequences are gripping. I love a Blake Crouch book. They are science heavy but sound horribly plausible. If you like a bit of sci-fi that doesn’t involve aliens and distant planets, this is for you. The possible consequences of our scientific enquiry come to roost at our own feet. Speculative fiction at its best.

Blake Crouch once again crafts a thought provoking sci-fi book full of morale dilemmas and fast pace.
This will feel familiar to Crouch's fans but is different enough to stand next to his previous brilliant work. It tackles DNA modification and also touches on climate change, food shortages and other world problems.
The pace is really fast and there is a lot of thrilling action (although I must say this felt more action heavy than I would have liked). Plus there is a scene with serious Matrix vibes which is a big plus for me.
Also the final pages were fantastic and quite moving.
To be completely honest I don't think that Upgrade quite reaches the high standards set by his previous books I've read by him (Recursion, Dark matter and the Pines trilogy were all excellent books) and that's mainly due to two following reasons.
It feels too science heavy after a while and although Crouch does his best to explain everything, I couldn't keep up with all of it.
Lastly the characters seem to make some very important decisions on the spot, without analyzing all the pros and cons as much as you'd think they needed to. Maybe some more pages with them trying to decide what they should do would help.
In the end this was very enjoyable and another hit for mr. Crouch.
Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for this ARC.

I’ve had mixed experience with this author, I absolutely loved Recursion and Dark Matter but found that I couldn’t get on with his Wayward Pines series. But that’s the way it is with science fiction for me, either the story and the idea underpinning it resonates or it doesn’t – I’m very picky. In this book, his latest, Crouch delves into the mysterious and complex world of genetic engineering. Set in the mid twenty-first century, the first thing to note is that some things have moved on a bundle: public transport now moves at eye watering speeds, buildings can be built to extraordinary heights and thanks to global warming the lower part of Manhattan has flooded and is now a massive homeless encampment.

I won’t go into the detail of the plot, I really don’t want to spoil things for future readers. What I will say is that it’s fast paced, has plenty of action scenes and chock-full of science. Also, the characters are sympathetically drawn and the whole thing has an easy reading quality to it, with a good natural flow. So what’s not to like? Well, lots of readers will probably think the answer to that is simply ‘nothing’. But for me there were just a couple of things that threw me off. Firstly, the author drops in an awful lot of chemical, biological and medical terminology and though this did make me feel that Crouch really had a grasp of this element I just felt that there was a little too much of it here. Secondly, there’s a leap at one point in the story that just failed to take me with it.

Crouch is a very clever man and I do think this tale will attract a lot of fans, its bang on the money in terms of current scientific debates and will certainly get people talking about some of the moral issues he highlights. I enjoyed it but I didn’t love it. However, I expect it to do very well indeed.

Firstly, I'm grateful to Pan Macmillan books and also to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book prior to publication. Secondly, I'm grateful as frankly it's an immensely enjoyable book to read. The plot is very good and enthralling and the book should go from strength to strength. However, I found this first third to be amazing and was very, very slightly disappointed by the final two thirds, but only on the basis that the first section is just amazing and it then slips into somewhat well trodden plot expansions.
I loved the understated emotional aspect within this book and the factual science element was required but not overwhelming and the subject matter is very pleasing throughout.
Last but not least, the characterisation is superb, with the central characters being very engaging and mostly not too much of a cliché, slotting into place nicely in this strong science fiction.

Having read all of Blake’s recent books, I was really excited to see this pop up on Netgalley. Every single one of his books are riveting thrillers with a huge dose of sci-fi thrown into the mix.

From false memories, to re-living past and future lives, and everything in between, his books are thoroughly original and addictive and bring out anyone’s latent science nerd as you wonder just what the hell is going on.
Upgrade revolves around the idea of genetic engineering. Set in the near future, a brother and sister are unwittingly injected with a substance that totally changes their genetic makeup and they become basically super-human. In a world where genetic engineering is outlawed and government agencies are constantly on the outlook for ‘dark labs’ they become top of the most-wanted list as they try to find out the reason they were targeted only to find themselves in a battle against each other.

If you want a book that takes your mind on a roller coaster of a ride while thoroughly sympathizing with the characters and leaves you at the end with thoughts of “could this actually happen?” then this is for you!