Upgrade by Blake Crouch

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Hello!

Nathan and I are planning to BR Upgrade. Feel free to join, if interested. :)

The more, the merrier. :D

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

@RF: I sortof jinxed myself. My week might end up being busier than I had expected (my manager volunteered me for additional work, as if the work assigned to me prior was any less). Sigh! :(

But, I'll try to catch up to you soon.

Btw, what chapter are you currently in? And how's it going?

[Nathan]

@Speedy: just read 2 pages exact. Not fully ventured as my mind is still reeling from shock & disgust from my prior two reads.

[Nathan]

Anyway let's discuss -
1. how many chapters or pages per day?

2. Add spoiler tag for any chapter/plot discussion.

Feel free to add other things in case I've missed any.

P.S- please go slow. I may not be as fast as you xD

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Nathan wrote:

P.S- please go slow. I may not be as fast as you xD"

That's a joke right? lol

Since you already have started, please enlighten on no. of chapters.

How about we put comments (with spoiler tags ofcourse) for every 3 or 5 chapters. Also everytime we come across something shocking or whenever we feel like we have cracked the case.
I feel this might be better instead of fixed no.of chapters everyday, because:
a) some days we might busier
b) I don't think either of us can stop once we're intrigued and are onto some mystery (I remember you mentioning that you bunked half a day to finish Recursion?!). So, there you go. :D

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Or do you want fixed no. of chapters per day?

[Nathan]

Caught in my own trap of words. You've a steel memory speedy.🤣🤣

I agree. Fixed no. of chapters is tough for us.

Breakdown as per Contents page:

Part One - 6 chapters.
Part Two - upto 12
Part Three - till 15. End

Finish upto part one, add our spoiler discussions if that's fine.

Post that we can go ahead gauge our speeds + time
for part 2 part 3 discussions.

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Well..that was some commitment you showed while reading Recursion. How could one forget! Lol.

Yes..that works!

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Part 1 completed.
(view spoiler)[ Logan's mom hiding the coordinates in the genomic safe Harbour. That's an outrageously crazy and genius idea.

Till the point Kara and Logan disagree, the scenario was similar to Dark Matter, in the sense that
The Protagonist is kidnapped after he gets injured.
The wife and teen don't know about it.
While trying to escape, he joins hands with a woman (there it was coworker in the parallel universe) and here it's Kara, his sister.
They separate (there because the woman finally wanted to settle in one of parallel universes) and here Kara tries to kill Logan and hence he's on the run.

What are your thoughts so far?
Storyline is decent?
And what about Miriam? Sortof reminds me of the three body problem novel (hide spoiler)]

[Nathan]

Me too!
Part 1
(view spoiler)[ Starting off, I bless my memory since I had forgotten the blurb. So I went in blind and somewhere back of my thoughts - I knew it was going to be something related to Gene Splicing/Editing stuff.
Wasn't much of a surprise when the details came.
Henrik Soren sent Logan Ramsay to a place which was booby trapped.
Fast forward - he becomes super smart/super genius types etc.
Isn't this[plot] eerily similar to Flowers for Algernon??
Or the movie Limitless?? Heck, now Logan is like Super Solider :D

Drawback of reading too many books/watching too many movies. Associations like this are made involuntarily.

The author put in a lot of medical stuff/terms which I just skimmed over. They're a bit over my head to get into the details but what I summarized bottled down to the same thing xD

The pattern - Dark Matter - time travel/parallel world/multiple copies of you/love/ask the offspring to choose/reset
Recursion - time travel/only one copy of you/twist the reality/love/reset button

Of course, I expected Miriam Ramsay to be alive. Also his sister to be the one hunting him. Why else
point out the fact that she's into Military?

Yeah, It felt similar to Mother Knows Best. People who supposed to be dead aren't actually dead.
Story-line - frankly I was disappointed because of my own undoing. It's okayish for me so far. (hide spoiler)]

Given our speeds, shall we have a spoiler/discussion @Chapter 11? Because I know for sure after Part 2, neither one of us will hold back to Part 3 & finishing it = )

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Yeah...from now lets just comment whenever we feel like in between Part 2. Part 2 seems like where the bulk of the action is. Let's see.

Till now, it's ok. But what I did like are the conversations about climate changes, starvation etc. and how we're going to cause our own doom. Which is true, ofcourse. But the way Miriam had and Kara is going about it is outrageous.

Flowers for Algernon is in my tbr since ages. I'll pick it up sometime. Not sure when though.

[Nathan]

The starvation part felt eerily similar what was shown in the Jurassic Park/latest one. Modified locusts. So I didn't feel surprised. Wonder how I'll stop making this associations/connections involuntarily 🤣🤣🤣

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Ohok....I actually meant starvation in the general sense as the global issues present.

Oh is it? I haven't watched it. Not a movie buff. Is it good? :)

[Nathan]

No. Don't watch it. Time is better spent elsewhere.

Ah ok got it. Never actually thought about starvation in general/ global sense.
The only other starvation I know is CPU starvation 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

okay! :D

You mean resource starvation? You work in software/OS etc ?

[Nathan]

Yeahhhh... Software/OS/embedded devices = )

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Chapter 10. Completed.
(view spoiler)[ Wow. So Kara has upgraded herself again.
All the things they talk about are very serious in nature. Life, death, extinction of planet, being responsible for death of billions etc. It's pretty much a high stakes plot.

But somehow I feel like something's off with this. Because I'm yet to feel the thrill. It's fast moving no doubt, but still the anticipation is not that high.

I'm hoping the last few chapters will make this better.

(hide spoiler)]

How're you enjoying it?

[Nathan]

Aye aye speedy suits you now.
Not yet inched forward at all after part one🤣 I'll update by today night or tomorrow.

[Nathan]

Heavy workload, couldn't read much.

Chapter 8 done.

(view spoiler)[ 1 year passes & somehow a genetically modified Logan Ramsay hides from the world whilst simultaneously hunting/evading? his sister. I felt disheartened knowing that he misses his family but can't get close at all. Emotional part is needed but then he is able to compartmentalize it & turn it off like a robot. 🧐🧐

The poker, reading the micro expressions of opponents... Hmmm

Mad cow disease. Where have I heard this before???
Don't recall. Bless my memory 🤣🤣🤣 (hide spoiler)]

[Nathan]

Chapter 10 done.
(view spoiler)[ Yes I agree that the thrill factor is not there as compared to the prior books.
High stakes plot but I don't feel that page turning factor.

Yeah, Kara upgraded herself to dodge bullets. Wow. Possibly there will be a long term drawback maybe????

But I find it funny that with all these upgrades & stuff, with their bone density increasing & whatnot, why isn't their skin strong like super thick/strong??? Maybe I'm inadvertently comparing this upgrade to the super soldier 🤣🤣🤣

Let's see if the last few chapters make a difference. (hide spoiler)]

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

I have managed to complete it. For me, it did get slightly better in the last few chaps.
Will discuss more once you're done too. Don't want to give anything away. :D
Last chap: (view spoiler)[
Do you agree with what Logan does at the end? Humans might have compassion problem but I feel like he didn't have any right to release the compassion upgrade onto unaware people.
If Kara's upgrade was dangerous then won'ta solely emotional upgrade be extremely dangerou, too. It could seriously impact ones ability to judge and various other psychological behaviour patterns.
Maybe he released because he didn't see any issue now. But what if something happens years later or generations down the line.

So, I don't agree with that bit and it's indirectly him playing God. Might be better than Kara's upgrade and with good intentions but still he's spreaded it to parts of the world with the people not having a single clue.
(hide spoiler)]

[Nathan]

I haven't progressed after Chapter 10. Heavy workload. Will probably wrap by tomorrow or Sunday.

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Take your time. We can discuss when you're done. :)

[Nathan]

Yup. I finished it too.

(view spoiler)[There were some things I liked. Like the supposed created dragon & his name as Smaug. Cool reference to JRRT.

Yes, Logan played god in an indirect way doing the compassion upgrade.
It's very similar to choosing the lesser of two evils. One is upgrade everyone at the cost of higher mortality rate vs the other is slowly change this part only hoping for a better future.

One thing is that although we may lack/compassion it should come from within & not be enforced. Knowing or unknowing.

I felt this novel was a bit off kilter for me.
Some parts good, some parts not so exciting and some parts over my head. (hide spoiler)]

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

I concur. Such behavioral changes should come from within.

Same. We pretty much have similar opinions regarding this.

What's your rating then?

[Nathan]

3.5/5
You?

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Same. :D

[Nathan]

xD

[Shuva]

I am going to read this as I love Blake Crouch but I'm a little worried to see that you guys have given it a 3.5 rating.
Will start it in '23 and see how I like it :-))

[Nathan]

Shuva wrote: "I am going to read this as I love Blake Crouch but I'm a little worried to see that you guys have given it a 3.5 rating.
Will start it in '23 and see how I like it :-))"

Happy Reading ~

[Bookworm (have loads of catching up to do)]

Shuva wrote: "I am going to read this as I love Blake Crouch but I'm a little worried to see that you guys have given it a 3.5 rating.
Will start it in '23 and see how I like it :-))"

Hope you like it better than we did. Happy Reading!