Blake Crouch: Upgrade (2022, Pan Macmillan)
English language
Published April 30, 2022 by Pan Macmillan.
Not his best work yet. Recursion, which got me hooked on the author and made me read Dark Matter, has a sort of elegance that both Dark Matter and Upgrade lacks. It's a fun, intense and easy read on an interesting topic for sure - just not as refined as Recursion.
Human beings are not a means to an end.
What began as a story similar to others that I have read quickly transformed into an interesting read. As usual, Crouch's timing and pacing is great, as is the character development. I would have liked it to have been a little longer.
Overall, I prefer some of Crouch's other works.
Having really enjoyed [b:Dark Matter|27833670|Dark Matter|Blake Crouch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1472119680l/27833670.SY75.jpg|43161998] and [b:Recursion|42046112|Recursion|Blake Crouch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543687940l/42046112.SY75.jpg|64277987] I had high expectations of this one. Unfortunately, I can't say that they were met. So many things about this book annoyed me, including what I would call the "flying car" syndrome of putting too much detail in explaining how things would work in the future, as if the character is deliberately telling a story to someone from the present. Listing dozens of random gene names that literally mean nothing to anyone except perhaps people with degrees in molecular biology doesn't really do anything for the story, except make you think that the author copied and pasted from a textbook. Too much science, too little fiction. Annoying.
I'm going to stop here. I'm glad to see that others enjoyed the book. I look forward to enjoying the next [a:Blake Crouch|442240|Blake Crouch|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1479398727p2/442240.jpg] book...
