Ballantine Books

‘Upgrade’ by Blake Crouch

I was excited to get Blake Crouch’s new novel Upgrade, because I’d enjoyed both Dark Matter and Recursion. This is another science fiction adventure, based on a thoughtful, futuristic what-if.

I wasn’t into Upgrade in the beginning, mostly because Average Guy Who Gets Superstrength has been done and done and done. Logan has a Peter Parker transformation, where he’s just a little quicker, a little stronger, and everything is just a little easier for him. If this feels like extremely well-covered ground, don’t worry, that’s just the opening, and the novel develops this character in new directions and asks interesting new questions next.

First, we quickly discover that Logan’s not a random guy.  There’s an important reason our Logan is the one who received this upgrade, and it starts to lead to a wider world of Logan’s family secrets and the world’s scientific past. I bought the worldbuilding from the start, because it’s a near-future that’s not so far from our own world.

Logan’s not the only one who’s gotten the genetic boost, either, but he and his sister have opposite ideas about what to do with their new abilities.  There’s a layered exploration of what these genetic boosts could do for humanity, to improve or destroy lives. A lot of the enjoyment in this novel is watching Logan figure out what he can do and how he’s going to use that. I can’t add much detail to that isn’t a spoiler, though.

I enjoyed watching fast-paced scifi adventure unfold, around the futuristic philosophy question, just like in Crouch’s other novels.

Upgrade, by Blake Crouch, will be published by Ballantine Books on July 12, 2022. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC. All opinions are my own, as always.

View Comments

  • Hi Fiction Addiction! I hope you are well. I absolutely love this review and wanted to see if you were interested in reviewing a similar novel, The Book of Demons by Kevin Moore. If you'd like a copy, please reach out at nashtnpublicist@booksforward.com.

Recent Posts

The Full Moon Coffee Shop

When I opened The Full Moon Coffee Shop, I was expecting a dreamy magical-realism story…

Tyler and Tess in the Magic Maze (Magic Maze Trilogy, Book One)

In Tyler & Tess in the Magic Maze,  by Samuel Warren Joseph and Phil Proctor,…

​Thirst: A Novel of Lost Innocence and Redemption

​Thirst: A Novel of Lost Innocence and Redemption, by H.W. Terrance, is a heartfelt addiction…

We Could Be Beautiful

Re-reading and reposting: I first got caught up in the lifestyle p0rn aspect of We…

Shanghailanders

The story of Shanghailanders, by Juli Min,  starts in 2040, and goes backwards in time,…

To the Stars

To the Stars is a 1950 scifi novel by L. Ron Hubbard about deep space…