Upgrade

A Novel

By: Blake Crouch

Narrated by: Henry Levya

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “If Michael Crichton had written a superhero novel, it would look a lot like Upgrade.”—The New York Times Book Review

“You don’t so much sympathize with the main character as live inside his skin.”—DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series

“Mysterious, fascinating, and deeply moving—exploring the very nature of what it means to be human.”—ALEX MICHAELIDES, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient and The Maiden

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, She Reads

The mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion—currently in development as a motion picture at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners

“You are the next step in human evolution.”

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.

©2022 Blake Crouch (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“If Michael Crichton had written a superhero novel, it would look a lot like Upgrade. . . . Sleek and propulsive, a page-turner with unexpectedly beautiful passages that give you pause amid the thrills.”—Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review

“A lot of fun . . . Crouch knows how to do a chase, when to blow stuff up and when to bring the house lights down. . . . But what makes Upgrade special is that his path is unique. He takes turns that are unexpected [and] explores some stunning vistas along the way.”—NPR

“From the first page, it’s clear you’re in the hands of a master storyteller; Upgrade is by turns mysterious, fascinating, and deeply moving—exploring the very nature of what it means to be human. Spellbinding.”—Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient and The Maidens

Not one of his best

First, the narration. It wasn't great. It wasn't awful. It was just meh. Someone like Edoardo Ballerini would have been a better choice in my opinion. Someone who could have showed a bit more range and a bit more emotion, especially given the main topic at hand.

Second, this wasn't Crouch's best work. There were small moments where he'd fool me into thinking that the action and pace were going to pick up, just after he finishes this one last inner monolog, but no. It never came. At no point did I think about this story other than my normal reading times. Same can be said about my desire to push on to see what happens next. The best part of it is actually the epilogue, and I don't see that tongue in cheek because it's ending. It's actually the only part that made me feel anything other than "wow, this is pretty boring, I hope it's almost over".

TLDR: Below average narrator and a below average story makes for a bit of a snooze fest. Everything else by Crouch previously I'd put ahead of this. It was a swing and miss for me.

Just not my favorite Blake Crouch book.

I tried my hardest to get into this book and just couldn’t. I did get through though. I wasn’t a fan of the narrator. It’s not a terrible book but I didn’t think it lived up to his other books.

Great potential but falls short in the third act

First, I didn't think that the narrator was that bad. I certainly have heard worse!

(Warning spoilers) I thought this book started strong, piquing my interest because of my work in the field of genomics. Everything leading up to them finding their mother's case and instructions was amazing, but then I am not sure what happened. The plot and the pacing disintegrated. It just didn't make sense that Logan and his sister couldn't reconcile a plan and work together, especially considering what Logan's final solution was. Here is what my holdup is... if Logan was concerned with 1) the impact of the upgrade globally and (later) 2) the mortality rate of the viral vector, then why on earth didn't he work with his sister in the first place to develop a safe vector as well as a include the gene targets for empathy/compassion that he included in his upgrade. Any moral argument he originally made about release such an upgrade was nullified as soon as he did the same thing. Again, there is no reason why he couldn't have done the testing needed to ensure a safe upgrade. Oh, and if Logan's mom had read about daisy-chain gene drives, then she could have avoided the entire Ramsy plague - Just saying.

Last, the pacing was all whacky in the 3rd act. The "battle of new york" was 100x more detailed then any other part and I wonder is that was to fill pages. Overall, I loved the concept and the start, but I would have like to see an alternate ending with a different conflict.

good not great

I liked this story and the characters, but it didn't wow me. After a while Logan's intelligence and ability to read people just came off as annoying. The book is fast paced and keeps your attention throughout, and the storyline wasn't easily predictable. I think overall it is a good read, but something is lacking in it that would make it a knockout. 3.5 stars.

Good action, but tedious and far fetched.

The main style problem is granular description of genes, guns etc. The story takes place 50-100 years in the future, so those cutting edge things the author researched will be obsolete or mundane.
Logically there are a few key flaws, which mar otherwise solid science fiction (not many authors can actually write truly scientific stories).
Main one - time dilation perception. Author amalgamated perceived time slowing in memory with higher neural function and assumed that spreading your attention will cause time to slow down for you in real life. This notion is silly, much like computer, adding more parallel tasks does not improve liner task efficiency.
Another, more philosophical- calculating that humanity is doomed in 100 years is a folly. He is describing world similar to ours now. Just read history of plaques, world wars and such. People were truly evil and their numbers dwindled low many, many times. Would be more believable if there was an asteroid coming or nuclear doomsday clock activated by some superpower- some factor other than humans being flawed.

Same as all his novels

He always has an interesting premise that at a certain point gets abandoned for an action-adventure hero story with totally cliches tropes (in this one, his relationship with his sister, wife, daughter). It often reads like he’s writing a predictable movie rather than a novel. It’s sufficiently interesting that I keep coming back for the next one but I’m always disappointed about midway through and often don’t even care to finish it.

Not his best work

Big Blake Crouch fan since his early books but the last few haven't held up to his earlier works in my opinion. Always good ideas but seems a little lazy to me. I wouldn't recommend this one

Good not great.

This is my 6th Crouch novel. It’s definitely in 6th place of the ones I have listened to. Good, It was listenable but wish I could have the money back.

Great from beginning to end!

I enjoyed this book from the very beginning. Great visual writing and constant action in the storyline.

Excellent

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The narrators performance was outstanding. I could have listened to this book from beginning to end without a break. Definitely will be looking into this author.