Upgrade

A Novel

by Blake Crouch

352 pages

English language

Published 2022

ISBN:: 978-0-593-15753-4
Goodreads:: 59838811

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(76 reviews)

“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 …

“You are the next step in human evolution.”

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.

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.

3 editions

Nicolas Fressengeas reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

A lire comme on regarde un bon Marvel

3 stars

C'est dans le titre ! Upgrade est un très bon Marvel. Tout y est : - Le gentil et la méchante, que tout rapproche, mais que tout oppose, tous deux dotés de super-pouvoirs. - Le monde est sauvé par le gentil face aux intentions de la méchante. - Une technologie nouvelle, source des super-pouvoirs, mais dont l'usage est détourné par la méchante (inconsciente qu'elle est !). - Le happy-end. - Et même la séquence post-générique, pour faire réfléchir.

Même sentiment ambivalent, donc, que devant un bon Marvel. La portée philosophie de l'œuvre n'est clairement pas le but. Ce n'est pas de la science-fiction non plus, tant la science est maltraitée. Ce n'est pas vraiment du fantastique. En résumé : c'est une histoire de supers-héros, comme on les aime ! Car oui, Upgrade fait passer un excellent moment, et se laisse difficilement mettre de côté.

Et si l'on veut trouver une …

Et si l'on veut trouver une morale à cette histoire (sans révélations malencontreuses), il suffit d'écouter Spiderman : un grand pouvoir implique de grandes responsabilités.

Alessandro Muraro reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Bello ma...

4 stars

Carino, non bello quanto Recursion e Dark Matter peró

Simon reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

An easy read

3 stars

Not his best work yet. Recursion, which got me hooked on the author and made me read Dark Matter, has a sort of elegance that both Dark Matter and Upgrade lacks. It's a fun, intense and easy read on an interesting topic for sure - just not as refined as Recursion.

Sean Gursky reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Review of 'Upgrade' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

We don't have an intelligence problem. We have a compassion problem.

I wanted a straight forward easy read that was entertaining and Upgrade delivered. The writing was easy to follow and I could manage with only reading a chapter in a day or settle in for longer reading sessions without problems.

The pacing of the story was quick and I didn't find the pseudoscience to be overly heavy either. There was a nice bit of emotion and in the end the story delivered an interesting observation about the lack of compassion in society.

Elevynn reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

You can't kill humanity to save humanity

4 stars

Human beings are not a means to an end.

Brett Hodnett reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

OK

3 stars

Upgrade is not his previous two books I recently read, Recursion, or Dark Matter. Upgrade seemed to me uninspired. It felt to me like he needed to write another book, so came up with this story, rather than the other way around, where he had a story he wanted to tell, and so wrote a book. It was OK to read though.

Martin reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

upgrade

2 stars

On one hand, I ripped through this book in literally less than 24 hours. (Guessing it was 5 or so hours of reading.) On the other, this is a deeply flawed book in so many ways.

If I were rating this on sheer readability, and my own compulsion to finish the novel, it'd be 5 stars. If I were rating it on concept and impressiveness of its ideas, it might get 0.5.

Just, please remind me to never, EVER, write a story where the premise is the character is smarter than everyone else. I just think, it's likely that it's an impossible task. Because, as an author, you have to think of every possibility that your readers might think of, and (somehow!?) believe that your ideas, the ones you write your supergenius having, are going to be believably smarter than all of them. There's just so much arrogance there. So …

On one hand, I ripped through this book in literally less than 24 hours. (Guessing it was 5 or so hours of reading.) On the other, this is a deeply flawed book in so many ways.

If I were rating this on sheer readability, and my own compulsion to finish the novel, it'd be 5 stars. If I were rating it on concept and impressiveness of its ideas, it might get 0.5.

So yeah, there were several points where I felt like the main character, who supposedly now has an IQ over 200, just didn't take any time at all to consider any alternatives to their actions. Even giving the author the benefit of the doubt, assuming the character did the equivalent to planning for months in the blink of an eye, I still think there were several painfully dumb decisions depicted.

And one of the dumbest is in the very end of the novel, revealed in the epilogue. A thing that it's revealed the character does that is possibly one of the my least favorite conclusions to a novel that I've ever read. It's just painful to me how bad I think it is.

Melissa reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Review of 'Upgrade' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Oof. I enjoyed Recursion and Dark Matter, so I was surprised that I found the prose immediately alienating. After the (very early) precipitating event of the novel, I saw where it was going and found it especially frustrating for the protagonist to “realize” what was happening in a way that felt needlessly drawn out. I don’t think this is a book I’ll try to pick up again.

schmavery reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Review of 'Upgrade' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A short fun read with a similar trying-to-put-the-genie-back-in-the-bottle plot to the author's other recent releases. I found the final resolution more satisfying than I expected.

karlhungus reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Review of 'Upgrade' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Like with other Blake Crouch books, I find some of the character decisions a bit off (decisions don't feel like they fit to me), and fixed so the plot can progress. I find his characters relationships with each other to be wanting.

The ideas are really fun though, and like his other books they are really easy and enjoyable to get through.

I recommend this though, it's like a half Flowers for Algernon

ish-i-ness reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Review of 'Upgrade' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Rounding down to 2 stars. The middle of the book especially showed some promise but I think it gets a title too caught up in its own comic-book-ish plot. There’s too much action with too little meaning, and the “climax” was the least interesting part of the entire book. I like the message of the ending, but honestly I was disappointed by the e tire last third of the book. I don’t feel like this book explored the ideas it presents as interestingly or as thoroughly as Crouch’s previous books did the ideas they centered around. It’s just… a bit of a flop.

ManyRoads reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Review of 'Upgrade' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A most 'human' and 'compassionate' novel. An excellent read peopled by believable characters in the dystopia we are building for our children...

bbbhltz reviewed Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Very good, but not his best work

3 stars

What began as a story similar to others that I have read quickly transformed into an interesting read. As usual, Crouch's timing and pacing is great, as is the character development. I would have liked it to have been a little longer.

Overall, I prefer some of Crouch's other works.