Upgrade – Blake Crouch
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: After a brief illness Logan Ramsay’s body begins to change – he’s smarter, faster and able to read other people’s emotions like never before. He’s also on the radar of the government and other entities wanting to use his “upgraded” body for nefarious — and world-altering — purposes.
Expectation: A science fiction bro-fest with predictable and outlandish plots.
Reality: More political and emotional than anticipated, it reminded me of a 1980s action film — over-the-top and ridiculous but a ton of fun.
Recommended For: Fans of Crouch, science fiction and plot-driven stories with a brain.
Why I Read It: Crouch is one of my all-time favorite authors.
My Take:
For the past decade Blake Crouch has been an always read author, because he’s great at melding multiple genres together into novels that were equal parts “this makes absolutely no sense” and “OMG, this is amazing!”
Always toying with science fiction, horror and mystery, I’ve been disappointed that his last quartet of novels and stories, “Dark Matter,” “Recursion,” “Summer Frost” and now “Upgrade,” have landed almost solely in the science fiction category.
I’ll always miss the swing from the fences approach his earlier works — mainly “Abandon,” “The Wayward Pines” series and “Run” — provided the reader. Not everything worked, but you could see the nuggets of genius in his storytelling. They were reminiscent of Stephen King of the 1970s.
While his more recent efforts are technically better — from a plotting, character development and general writing standpoint— they feel too smart and too polished. He’s now writing for the masses, and all you need to do is turn on a streaming channel to see that high concept is what sells today.
Which brings me to “Upgrade,” a propulsive and cinematic novel that is entertaining in the same vein as a summer blockbuster — it’s loud, overstuffed and not very memorable, but it’s still a fun way to forget about the world’s problems.
However, Crouch makes that a little difficult here.
Anchoring the plot in the not-too-distant future of a climate devastated world of famine, disease and genetic terrorism. He raises ethical questions about DNA testing, gene-based medicine and culture wars. It’s the closest I’ve seen the author be political with his work and it gives “Upgrade” a sense of realism that his last two novels lacked.
Logan Ramsay, a former ex-con and agent for the Genetic Protection Agency, is injected with a genome-altering virus during a botched raid on an underground lab. He slowly starts to become more intelligent and superhuman, able to digest volumes of books, recall conversations from decades prior and understand the limitations of his body like never before. He’s one of two people given this “upgrade” by a well-meaning supervillain as a test to see if humans can become more logical and less ideological to solve the world’s ills.
Of course, there are far more twists and turns in the plot that I won’t spoil here. After the first few chapters, it’s pretty much nonstop action that is over-the-top but anchored by a strong character that helps sell the ridiculousness. It was reminiscent of classic action films, like “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and “Die Hard.”
Crouch is a smart dude, and he lost me with some discussions about genetic codes, writing messages in DNA sequences and general advanced science, but you don’t have to fully grasp every aspect of the plot to realize that you’re having a good time.
While more focused than “Recursion,” the author still tends to overtell and oversell, when the strength in his storytelling has always been how our main character interacts with the core idea rather than the additional bells and whistles thrown in.
The narration by Henry Levya is fine. It’s full of the gruff machismo a character like Logan requires, but he’s also great at bringing emotion to the softer moments that involve his family. The audiobook is certainly not a bad way to experience “Upgrade.”
Minor criticisms aside, Crouch remains firmly in my always read category and fans of his previous work, specifically “Dark Matter,” will like this one a lot. My hope is that for his next trick, he goes back to his high-brow horror roots.
Rating (story): 4/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Formats: Audiobook (personal library)
Dates read: August 9 – August 11, 2022
Multi-tasking: Good to go. When the story gets really science-y it’s difficult to follow, but other than that it doesn’t’ require too much concentration.
