I read Upgrade by Blake Crouch sometime last year. This is the second book by the author that I’ve read, with the first being another stand-alone novel, Dark Matter (paid links). You can find my review of that book here.
Here is the blurb:
At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.
But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.
The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.
Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.
Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.
And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?
Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.
This book looked at the consequences of rapid advancement in genetic modification and created a fast-paced story with plenty of action. At the same time, Logan had to examine his own humanity and come to terms with his family’s dark past. It took me some time to get invested in the story, but once I pushed through the first few chapters, I couldn’t put it down.
The plot almost moved too fast at times, leaving me less time to think about the implications of the technology depicted in this story. But it was still a rush to read and I’m going to look out for more books by this author. This one was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in 2022.
Have you read any science fiction that looked at the consequences of genetic engineering? Let me know in the comments (above).
Find more of my reviews here.
Salvage – a flash fiction science fiction story with a winter holiday theme