I've only read a small handful of titles by Blake Crouch, but he's quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I read "Recursion"   a year and a half ago and it's been one of my favorite science fiction novels ever since. Upgrade is his latest book and I might like it even more. Where Recursion was one of those "oh man, I'll never be able to write a book like this" kind of experiences for me, Upgrade was a different kind of read; more along the lines of "this is the kind of book I want to write" kind of experience.

The basic premise of the book is that, in a world where gene editing has become commonplace, law enforcement officer Logan Ramsay finds himself subjected to extensive gene editing that basically makes him a superhero. His intelligence, immune system, physical traits, etc. are all heightened to an almost superhuman level, essentially undergoing thousands of years of optimal evolution in the span of weeks. Because of his "upgrade" he's also the one person who's capable of stopping an adversary who has been given the same upgrade he's received and is determined to forcibly evolve the rest of the human race as well, despite some serious drawbacks to the "upgrade" process (including a large percentage of recipients who don't take to the upgrade and go insane).

I really don't want to spoil the details of this book because it's one that I think is worth reading and it would be a disservice to the experience to know how it ends. Suffice to say, I love the way Crouch writes a very Michael Crichton-like techno-thriller but also manages to infuse it with a fair amount of philosophy and morality. Like all the best science fiction, it's a book that tells a story with a message that fits the narrative it's written for, and also has something to say about the world we inhabit as readers, and what's possible if we think of our world just a little differently.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes grounded science fiction and appreciates an author who knows how to navigate the delicate balance between scientific details and still telling a good story. One of the things I like best about Crouch's work is that whatever topic he chooses to write about, he does such extensive research and writes well enough to make it feel like you're reading a book by an expert on the subject. This book gets into the weeds of genome editing and DNA, but still manages to keep the story moving along and making all the details relevant.

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Created Apr 06, 2024 at 12:50pm • Submit your own review...