When the SWAT team gives the all-clear and Logan Ramsay steps into the basement, he has no idea that everything’s about to change. Then there’s the hiss of aerosol. The explosion. The shrapnel punctures his hazmat gear. Logan wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed, attended by doctors in their own hazmat suits, his wife and daughter looking on from behind the glass. The doctors say he’s been infected by a virus–one designed not to make him sick, but to modify his very genetic structure.
Upgrade is Blake Crouch’s latest novel. It revolves around Logan Ramsay an agent from the Gene Protection Agency (GPA). The story takes place in an undetermined future. A future where the GPA has outlawed all gene editing and gene modification, so it tracks the development and use of all genetic research to prevent it from being used against humanity.
In this world, private and university-based research has been banned, so scientists who insist on following this line of research are forced to work illegally.
The book starts with Logan in the process of raiding an illegal lab when an explosion exposes him to a gene-modifying virus.
When Logan wakes up from the accident, he realizes that something is different in his body. His memory, cognition, and overall intelligence seem to have drastically improved. Under suspicion of having self-injected the gene-modifying virus and facing imprisonment, Logan sets out to look for answers.
I have read several of Blake Crouch’s books, but I have to admit that this one just didn’t do it for me. It is a very fast-paced thriller and the premise is interesting, however, the techno-jargon felt a little overdone and could potentially turn off some readers.
Upgrade is scheduled to be published on July 12th, 2022. I want to thank Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Format: Kindle- Advanced Reader’s Copy
ASIN: B09R21165T
Source: Netgalley
Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent – and nearly five million souls in the United States alone – the disease causes “Lock In”: Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.
It’s 2072, and lunar helium-3 mining is powering the fusion reactors that are bringing Earth back from environmental disaster. But competing for the richest prize in the history of the world has destroyed the oldest rule in space: Safety for All. When a bomb kills one of Dechert’s diggers on Mare Serenitatis, the haunted veteran goes on the hunt to expose the culprit before more blood is spilled. But as Dechert races to solve the first murder in the history of the Moon, he gets caught in the crosshairs of two global powers spoiling for a fight. Reluctant to be the match that lights this powder-keg, Dechert knows his life and those of his crew are meaningless to the politicians. Even worse, he knows the killer is still out there, hunting. In his desperate attempts to save his crew and prevent the catastrophe he sees coming, the former Marine uncovers a dangerous conspiracy that, with one spark, can ignite a full lunar war, wipe out his team . . . and perhaps plunge the Earth back into darkness.
A Wondrous Bookshelf 