Review of "Upgrade: A Novel" by Blake Crouch

Logan Ramsay is an agent for the Gene Protection Agency, an organization that hunts down scientists engaged in illegal genetic manipulation.



In a way Logan is just paying his dues. It was his mother, the brilliant geneticist Miriam Ramsay, who perfected a ground-breaking DNA modifier system called Scythe.



Using Scythe, Miriam attempted to enhance the blight resistance of indica rice plants, which are a staple food for over half the world's population.


Farmers harvesting rice

To make a long story short, things went wrong, there was a worldwide famine, and 200 million people died.



Miriam committed suicide and Logan - who was a college graduate working in his mother's lab - went to prison for three years. Legislation was passed to restrict gene tampering, and Logan now works to capture people who flout the law.

After Logan helps raid a suspected gene-tampering lab, an explosion lands him in the hospital.



Logan learns that the blast injected modified genes into his body.....genes bioengineered to enhance human abilities. Over the next several weeks Logan finds that he's getting smarter, his bones are getting denser, his muscles are becoming stronger, his reflexes are improving, he has a photographic memory of his entire life, he can recall the contents of every book and article he's ever read, etc. In brief, Logan has been 'upgraded.'



Logan determines that the lab explosion and upgrade weren't random events, but a plan engineered by his mother before she committed suicide. Irregardless, Logan is arrested and quarantined at a black site by the GPA, who accuse him of fiddling with his own genome.



Logan is sprung from the black site, and learns that his mother's long-term plan was to 'upgrade' all of humanity. Miriam believed that making people more intelligent would result in better stewardship of the Earth, with attention to environmental concerns like global warming, ocean pollution, and so on. Thus, Miriam planned for a cabal, led by Logan's 'upgraded' sister Kara, that would spread the 'enhancement' virus to every person on the globe.



Logan is strongly opposed to changing the genome of the entire human race, and takes steps to stop the cabal.



Thus much of the story is an action thriller, with Logan and his sister maneuvering to destroy each other.





There's plenty of shooting, fighting, death, and destruction, enhanced by the superior abilities of the combatants. It's fascinating to watch Logan's thinking processes, and the manner in which he tracks down and battles his enemies.



The story would make a good movie, and has been optioned for a Hollywood film.

Rating: 3.5 stars