Upgrade
Blake Crouch
★★★★★ 4/5
Science Fiction
Note: I requested an advanced copy (ARC) of the book and Mr. Crouch and his publisher obliged, to my delight! This is a review based on the ARC with the usual caveat that the final published book (out for purchase on July 12th, 2022 in the US) might differ from my copy.
Great Summer Read—not the mind bender that Recursion is
Blake Crouch is quite the master of the engaging Sci fi thriller. His latest Upgrade, like his previous Recursion and Dark Matter, is a fast paced page turner and a great summer read—but without the Whoa! (or Wow!) effect those earlier books generated with their convoluted plot and ending. This of course means that I don’t have to write an explainer for Upgrade—which, to be honest, I was hoping to, given the popularity of my explainers for Recursion and Dark Matter on my blog. Besides the pace, Upgrade shares a few themes with his previous books: the plot structure with a protagonist unwittingly caught in the machinations of a villain in the possession of an invention that could impact all humanity for the worse; and an enduring bittersweet love amidst potentially apocalyptic events, to name two.
“Understand” Upgraded?
Dark Matter dealt with travel between alternative universes, Recursion with memory travel. The protagonist of Upgrade travels a lot too, but in the real time and space that we are used to. The central science idea of the book is genetic editing and upgrading of Homo Sapiens. It’s set in a dystopian future (so many books today seem to be!) where climate change and a Great Starvation ironically caused by the unintended side effects of gene editing to help crops, have made life hard for a large number of people. Real meat has become a luxury that few can afford. That has put off humanity against all genetic modifications which are banned and enforced by a special agency, the GPA: the Gene Protection Agency. Our hero, Logan Ramsay is a member of this organization.
Incidentally, it is also a future where Google apparently has a popular car—The Google Roadster Coupe.
Within the first 50 pages of the book, we learn that Logan is infected with a virus that gradually transforms his genetic makeup giving him superhuman powers of cognition, attention and physical abilities. He soon realizes he is up against another human being, similarly upgraded. I couldn’t help being reminded of Ted Chiang’s masterful short story Understand (which I highly recommend): two humans with greatly enhanced mental abilities competing for primacy!
Relatable characters, Entertaining read:
Sci Fi writers have their fortés. Some are great with the Science in their stories: Andy Weir writes excellent hard science fiction rarely straying from known science; or Neal Stephenson who pens planet encompassing epics; or Ted Chiang writes among the most thought provoking shorts. Others are brilliant with their words like Dexter Palmer in Version Control. Blake Crouch is more the latter—he excels at taking the germ of a scientific idea (or fantasy if you will) and carving out engaging thrillers with excellent writing and relatable characters. Scientific edification is usually not the reason you’d pick up one of his books. Upgrade does, however, implicitly raise the question of the propriety of genetic modification of humans—not so much the ethics as the practical consequences for humanity.
You can’t kill humanity to save humanity. Human beings are not a means to an end.
Having mental and physical abilities enhanced—without adverse effects (say like using steroids)—is surely something everyone has fantasized about at some time. Being able to compartmentalize your brain and do several things at once with unwavering attention is the dream of every parent—especially in the days of working from home with kids around!
It is a supremely cruel thing to have your mind conjure a desire which it is functionally unable to realize
Besides giving flight to this innate aspiration to have our abilities upgraded, Mr. Crouch creates a likable character in Logan Ramsay. He struggles with the sins of his mother, a love for his family, the weight of his new powers, and a sibling, the love for whom he has to balance with the future of humanity.
At one point in the book, he references Kazuo Ishiguro and his book Never Let Me Go. I think it would have been more apt to mention his latest Klara and the Sun, which has a theme in common with the book—an “Uplifted” group of people. Incidentally Mr. Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day is in my top 10 all time fav books list.
Overall
Pick this up for an entertaining, fast paced, summer read. Just don’t expect to be blown away by any plot twists like in his previous works.
* The book is out on July 12th, 2022 *
What do you call a heart that is simultaneously full and breaking? Maybe there’s no word for it, but for some reason, it makes me think of rain falling through sunlight.