Fascinating premise — that a human species-wide Upgrade through gene editing might be the only hope we have to prevent our extinction. Logan Ramsay — an agent for the Gene Protection Agency whose purpose is to stop all gene modification work after a disastrous effort led to the Great Starvation — finds himself slowly changing with vast improvements to his memory, physical strength and stamina, and compute power. His genome has been hacked and this may be a part of a bigger plan to be applied to all of humanity. But is this a good thing or a bad? And if bad, how can he stop it?
Very easy to read with the kind of clean prose that propels you forward with little awareness of actually reading the words. Plenty of action, but never (OK, not too much) of the endless fight scenes that bore me. A very good exploration of the philosophical questions about what is important for humanity, what cost would be worth it, and what kind of improvements really would “upgrade” the species for the better. I loved the experience of getting to inhabit (through the character) a brain that is so fast, so able to multitask, and has such perfect recall. It is a testament to the writer that I was not alway convinced that our protagonist had it right — I was drawn to the dark side! And the ending — which I obviously won’t give away — made me think. I’m not absolutely convinced by the conclusion but I’m still mulling it over.
I like this kind of science fiction which reminds me of the oldies — exploring where technology can take us, not irreparable doom and gloom, thinking the big thoughts. I’m embarrassed that I haven’t read any other Crouch novels and grateful to the friend who loaned it to me (where it sat in my TBR pile for six months before I gave it a shot).
Books to look forward to ... 