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UPGRADE by BLAKE CROUCH

July 25, 2022

 

About the Book:

 

“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 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.

My Review:

(I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.)

”The greatest threat to our species lies within us.”

What a mind-bender! Loved it. Leave it to Blake Crouch to write another nonstop sci-fi thriller packed with philosophical observations on the human race. Don’t let the science fiction label put you off, this one is another unputdownable book, with complicated genetics explained for the layperson. (And did I mention my husband and I read the book AT THE SAME TIME? #NerdAlert)

Dark Matter and Recursion are two of my favorite Blake Crouch books so I was beyond thrilled to grab Upgrade. This book raises many moral and ethical issues, and has a fantastic Epilogue. I love books that challenge my way of looking at the world. I also love books that require a little extra effort, and I found myself looking up the meaning of lots of words and phrases. Genome! Hyperloop! R-naught!

Set in the near future, the world has changed in many ways. Miami and Lower Manhattan are under water. Google Roadster coupes travel the roadways. Desertification has changed the landscape. Blake Crouch takes many things that exist today, and expanded upon them in this frightening new world that Logan Ramsey lives in.

“We lived in a veritable surveillance state, engaged with screens more than with our loved ones, and the algorithms knew us better than we knew ourselves.”

Logan works for a shadowy government agency and has finally come to terms with the worldwide havoc wreaked by his mother, the brilliant and revolutionary Miriam Ramsay. She invented a DNA modifier that ended up causing a global hunger crisis that led to the deaths of million of people. The system is now outlawed. But somehow Logan has become changed as well, and must go on the run from the same government agency that he once worked for.

“We had gotten so much right. And too much wrong. The future was here, and it was a fucking mess.

Miriam Ramsay intended to help save the human race and the planet. But her actions led to unspeakable, unintended consequences. Is dabbling in DNA ever justified? This book raises these issues and many more. This is an intelligent, non-stop thriller that has lots of twists and turns. Logan’s adversary is a surprise and I won’t give away any spoilers. ‘Upgrade’ is incredibly creative and thought-provoking and I could not stop reading until I finished the last page. The ending was very satisfying and so emotional!

“We contained within us the potential for great evil, but also for great good. And we were capable of so much more than this.”

 

Categories : 4 Stars, Reviews, Science Fiction, Thriller Tagged : Blake Crouch, Upgrade

RECURSION by BLAKE CROUCH

June 9, 2019

 

SYNOPSIS:

 

Memory makes reality. That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

Neuroscientist Helena Smith already understands the power of memory. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

 

MY REVIEW:

 


“Do you want to change the word with me?”

Mind-bending, smart and very thought-provoking! What would you do if you invented a object that could literally bend time and memory and change the course of history? What would you do with this technology? Those are just some of the questions posed by Blake Crouch in this incredibly action-packed and suspenseful thriller. There is so much discussion of time and space and memory that I feel like I just had a physics lesson. In the very best way!

Barry is a New York City cop mourning the loss of his daughter. His grief has driven him apart from his beloved wife Julia and they both are shells of their former selves. Barry’s grief as a father simply overwhelm him. Then one day he is called to scene of a potentially suicidal woman. That sets off a rapid chain of events that are so mind-bending and creative that I simply cannot imagine where the author gets his ideas from! From New York City to Arizona to Antartica, Barry and a team of scientists rocket down a path that might ultimately lead to the end of civilization as we know it. Can Barry and the brilliant researcher Helena solve the puzzle of the devastating mass “false memory syndrome” that is plaguing the world?

“If we can’t rely on memory, our species will unravel. And it’s already beginning.”

This thrilling story took many twists and turns and I applaud the author for sustaining this very thought-provoking tale to its fantastic conclusion. There is even a beautiful romance at the heart of this story because really, what is life without love?

“Is this real? Is this happening? It can’t be, and yet it feels exactly like living.”

If you have ever experienced deja vu or have been been interested in the concept of non-linear time, you will love this book. It is addictive and suspenseful and I could not put it down. ‘Recursion’ is one of those books that would make a fantastic movie. Calling Keanu Reeves!

“Because memory . . . is everything.”

(Reviewed from an advanced copy provided by the publisher in return for an honest review. Releases on June 11, 2019)

Categories : 5 Stars, Mystery, Reviews, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller Tagged : Blake Crouch, Recursion

Review: DARK MATTER by BLAKE CROUCH

September 3, 2016

27833670-2

DARK MATTER by BLAKE CROUCH
Published July 26th 2016 by Crown

 

Synopsis:

“Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable–something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

images-22

amazon

 

My Review:

Mind-bending and completely unique, take a chance and read this book!! This fast-paced, twisty science-fiction thriller was just what I needed to get out of a reading slump! Even if you don’t usually read this genre, DON’T MISS DARK MATTER! It is a brilliant romantic suspense story that had me guessing until the very end.

There IS a romance at the heart of this story of scientist/professor Jason Dessen, because to me, the struggle to get back to his beloved wife is what drives most of the action in this book. I went back and re-read the first chapter of this book after I finished to get a better picture of the sudden and violent kidnapping that occurs at the very beginning of this book.

“My life is great. It’s just not exceptional. And there was a time when it could have been.”
“You killed your ambition, didn’t you?”
“It died of natural causes. Of neglect.”

Jason is literally snatched from his current life and ends up in a place that might be a dream. He can’t tell the difference between real-life and fantasy, until it slowly starts to dawn on him what is really happening to him. The author made me feel sad, nostalgic and thrilled all at once. Plus there is an ethical dilemma at the heart of this story.

“I feel insanity stalking me again, threatening to curl me up fetal and shatter me into a million pieces.”

Dark Matter is best read without knowing any spoilers. AND I was thrilled to learn that it is going to be made into a movie!! YES!! Paging Viggo Mortensen or Michael Fassbender! This story literally had me on the edge of seat the entire time I was reading. Just when I thought I had things figured out, I was surprised and thrilled by the next turn of events. Part philosophy about what might have been, part romance, and all suspense, Dark Matter is a book I won’t soon forget.

“It’s the beautiful thing about youth.

There’s a weightlessness that permeates everything because no damning choices have been made, no paths committed to, and the road forking out ahead is pure, unlimited potential.”

(With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy.)

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Categories : 5 Stars, Action Romance, Reviews, Sci-Fi Romance, Suspense, Thriller Tagged : Blake Crouch, Dark Matter

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