Upgrade

Carino, non bello quanto Recursion e Dark Matter peró

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.

We don't have an intelligence problem. We have a compassion problem.

I wanted a straight forward easy read that was entertaining and Upgrade delivered. The writing was easy to follow and I could manage with only reading a chapter in a day or settle in for longer reading sessions without problems.

The pacing of the story was quick and I didn't find the pseudoscience to be overly heavy either. There was a nice bit of emotion and in the end the story delivered an interesting observation about the lack of compassion in society.

Human beings are not a means to an end.

Upgrade is not his previous two books I recently read, Recursion, or Dark Matter. Upgrade seemed to me uninspired. It felt to me like he needed to write another book, so came up with this story, rather than the other way around, where he had a story he wanted to tell, and so wrote a book. It was OK to read though.

Oof. I enjoyed Recursion and Dark Matter, so I was surprised that I found the prose immediately alienating. After the (very early) precipitating event of the novel, I saw where it was going and found it especially frustrating for the protagonist to “realize” what was happening in a way that felt needlessly drawn out. I don’t think this is a book I’ll try to pick up again.

A short fun read with a similar trying-to-put-the-genie-back-in-the-bottle plot to the author's other recent releases. I found the final resolution more satisfying than I expected.

Like with other Blake Crouch books, I find some of the character decisions a bit off (decisions don't feel like they fit to me), and fixed so the plot can progress. I find his characters relationships with each other to be wanting.

The ideas are really fun though, and like his other books they are really easy and enjoyable to get through.

I recommend this though, it's like a half Flowers for Algernon

Rounding down to 2 stars. The middle of the book especially showed some promise but I think it gets a title too caught up in its own comic-book-ish plot. There’s too much action with too little meaning, and the “climax” was the least interesting part of the entire book. I like the message of the ending, but honestly I was disappointed by the e tire last third of the book. I don’t feel like this book explored the ideas it presents as interestingly or as thoroughly as Crouch’s previous books did the ideas they centered around. It’s just… a bit of a flop.

A most 'human' and 'compassionate' novel. An excellent read peopled by believable characters in the dystopia we are building for our children...

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.

underwhelming, which is disappointing coming from blake crouch... though i did like the whole upgrade concept and overall message of the book

underwhelming, which is disappointing coming from blake crouch... though i did like the whole upgrade concept and overall message of the book

Read this on the plane to Amsterdam. I'm an ez fan of Blake Crouch, this should maybe be 3 stars, but there's no 3.5 stars option, and I like to round up.

Had a thrilling feel similar to Bourne Identity. Fun sci fi.