Upgrade (novel)
| Author | Blake Crouch |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 2022 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 341 |
| ISBN | 978-0-593-15753-4 (hardcover) |
Upgrade (Crouch novel) is a 2022 novel by Blake Crouch. It is his tenth stand-alone novel, published three years after his novel, Summer Frost (2019).[1]
Background
The protagonist is the fictional Logan Ramsay, an agent of the Gene Protection Agency or GPA. Action takes place largely in the United States in the aftermath of ‘The Great Starvation’, a period of worldwide famine and death by starvation, when gene editing has become a federal crime. The Gene Protection Act outlawed gene manipulation and research and allowed draconian surveillance of citizens. Biologists, who had worked in the field were now unemployed or in prison. Those that were free were tracked down and harshly interrogated by the GPA.
The book
The Great Starvation
The Great Starvation was caused by genius biologist Miriam Ramsay who released genetically modified locusts in an attempt ti improve rice crops in a province of China. As unforeseen consequence of this act was that the genetically modified virus the locusts carried spread worldwide and interfered with seed germination. At least twenty million people died and gene manipulation become a crime over the entire globe. Dr. Miriam Ramsay committed suicide and scientists involved with the project, including Dr Ramsay’s son, Logan were imprisoned.
Logan Ramsay
After his release from prison, Logan found employment as an agent of the GPA. He had a talent for tracking down fugitive geneticists, some of whom were his personal friends or those of his mother. One such operation in Denver ended badly as Logan walked into a booby trap. The explosion penetrated Logan’s hazmat suit and knocked him unconscious. When he regained consciousness in an isolation ward of Denver Health Medical Center, he was monitored daily by Dr. Singh. Initially Dr Singh was concerned about the pain Logan was experiencing. The doctor also admitted that Logan may have been exposed to a biological agent, due to the explosion in Denver. The first sign that Logan was undergoing physiological changes was bone density tests that showed Logan’s bones more than twice as dense as that of a typical male. After a week, when Logan’s fever had broken, Dr. Singh allowed Logan’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Ava to visit him, while wearing full hazmat gear. Father and daughter spent the time playing chess and Logan was surprised to find that he easily beat his daughter at chess, even though she was a vastly superior chess player. After a dozen losses on subsequent days, Ava inquired, “Dad, what’s going on?”
Upgrade
It gradually becomes clear to both Dr. Singh and his patient that Logan’s genetic code had been upgraded. Logan develops virtually perfect memory, both for recent events and those in the distant past. He remembers verbatim every book he had ever read, including his college texts. Prior to the upgrade, Logan had forgotten most of the French he had learnt in college, but now he finds that he is fluent. Logan’s patter recognition and manipulation of numbers and sequences of numbers literally puts Logan off-scale on IQ tests administered by Dr. Singh. Before the accident Logan’s IQ had been measured at 118, slightly above average and below that of the average graduate student. Now Dr Singh admits that Logan’s IQ is unmeasurably high and certainly above 200.
It becomes clear that Dr. Singh, who is working for the GPA, does not intend to release Logan. He admits that Logan’s family had been informed that he had died. It is clear that the GPA and likely the Department of Defense plan to study Logan as a lab rat in their attempt to understand what he has become. By this time, Logan’s intelligence had improved to the point that he thinks and talks much faster than a normal human being. His manual dexterity is such that he can do a hand stand on one hand and jump up on a desk from the crouch position. By this time Logan is convinced that the GPA will never release him and he is resolute that he will try to escape at the first opportunity.
The escape
When an opportunity to escape his confinement arises, Logan learns from his sister that his mother had faked her suicide. Her mother, who has a genius IQ of 180, surrounded herself with brilliant geneticists, biologists and computer scientists and clandestinely develops an upgrade to Homo Sapiens, by editing the genome of human beings. Miriam’s first two subjects are her own son and daughter, Logan and Kara. Logan and Kara set out to find their mother Miriam, using a message embedded in their genetic code. When they reach the coordinates of their mother’s location near Santa Fe, New Mexico, they find that Miriam had committed suicide, this time for real, due to her advancing Alzheimer’s disease. She leaves a videotaped message suggesting that her children’s upgrade is part of a grander, darker plan.
Analysis
As Logan commits to fight the forces that have been set in motion to alter the human race, he can’t help wondering if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution? According to the New York Times, “Upgrade” is sleek and propulsive, a page-turner with unexpectedly beautiful passages that give you pause amid the thrills. [2]
References
- ^ "Summer Frost".
- ^ Crouch, Blake (2022-08-01). "How to Fix a Broken World". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 November 2022.