Upgrade - Blake Crouch

Sci-Fi/Thriller

Rating: 8/10

Logan works for the Genetic Protection Act, ensuring that renegade scientists don’t take things too far, that their hubris doesn’t result in them playing God.  Certainly not in the way his brilliant mother did.

His whole life he only ever wanted to be a geneticist, to understand and wield the code that represents all living things.  He wanted out of his mother’s orbit to leave his own mark. He wanted to make life better.  But when an experiment of his mothers goes horribly wrong, he is forced on this other path. One where he must admit that extraordinary dreams can’t be realized with an ordinary mind.

But then he starts to feel…different.  Sharper concentration, better multitasking, faster reading and retention. As if someone, or something, is sweeping the cobwebs from every corner of his brain. And soon he can’t deny that something momentous is happening within him.  Turns out Mommy has delivered a genome upgrade for him.  One that will make his ordinary mind extraordinary enough to change the world.

But overwriting natures programming is risky business with the cost of potential collateral damage steep.

Soon Logan finds himself stuck in a gene war, battling those that think the upgrade should be released to the masses and damn the consequences.

As always, this author brilliantly executes near future world building with stunning creativity. Mind. Blown.

P.S. Loved the fact that the author had the gene “criminals” hiding their work within the pages of books.  Not going to tell you how, but it’s pretty cool!

Book Pairing(s): Recursion by Black Crouch, Scarecrow Has A Gun by Michael Paul Kozlowsky, 13 Hour Chaos by Richard Doetsch