Synopsis

When the SWAT team gives the all-clear and Logan Ramsay steps into the basement, he has no idea that everything’s about to change.

Then there’s the hiss of aerosol. The explosion. The shrapnel that punctures his hazmat gear. Logan wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed, attended by doctors in their own hazmat suits, his wife and daughter looking on from behind the glass.

The doctors say he’s been infected by a virus–one designed not to make him sick, but to modify his very genetic structure. In a world where the next-generation gene-editing tool known as Scythe is widely available – and has already reaped disastrous consequences – the possibilities are too many and terrifying to count.

Except that after the fever, the pain, the fear…the virus is gone. And according to his government bosses, Logan’s got a clean bill of health.

But the truth is that with each day that passes, Logan’s getting smarter. Seeing things more clearly. He’s realizing that he’s been upgraded in ways that go beyond even Scythe’s capabilities – and that he’s been given these abilities for a reason.

Because a holy grail of genetic engineering – one that could change our very definitions of humanity – has just been unearthed. And now it’s up to him to stop it from falling into the wrong hands.

Logan’s becoming something more. Something better. Even with the whole world hunting for him, he might be able to outthink his opponents and win the war that’s coming.

But what if it’s at the cost of being himself?

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Review

I have yet to read a bad book by this author and find the topics engaging and the research amazing. Who knew there was so much to DNA…ok, so I really do know that there is a lot to DNA but it is explained in a way that even I can understand on a basic level.

Logan Ramsey has had a hard life because of what his mother did in the past, but he is doing his best to make up for those sins. Until one day he is following a lead and ends up injected with a virus that changes his body and makes him stronger, smarter, and resistant to many diseases. While this sounds like a miracle, the costs are too high mentally and personally. I sympathized with Logan because he didn’t ask for this to happen, yet the government has its finger in everything which makes his life harder trying to escape their oversight.

This novel is a tale of how much the government is or can be in our business, how far the government will reach to control the narrative, and it is also a tale of the compassion that humans have lost thanks to the media and government. I could see all of this happening and humans losing more freedoms and rights just to exist. But it is also a tale of hope for the eradication of disease and perhaps humans realizing that things need to change before the world implodes on itself based on our current choices and paths.

This is an action-packed book that doesn’t leave you with the desire to put the book down. Something is always happening with Logan, the GPA, and other characters.

I do have to admit the first time I saw GPA I immediately thought of grade point average. I’m still not sure Gene Protection Agency will be the first thing I think of when I hear GPA. But I like this fictional government agency because I honestly can see that becoming something sometime in the future in our world.

Overall, we give this 4 paws up.

About the Author

Blake is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of a dozen novels, most recently, Dark Matter, Recursion, and Upgrade, for which he is also writing the movie for Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners. His international-bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy was adapted into a television series for FOX, executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, that was Summer 2015’s #1 show. With Chad Hodge, Crouch also created Good Behavior, the TNT show starring Michelle Dockery based on his Letty Dobesh novellas. His novel, Recursion, is currently being developed as a Netflix series by Shonda Rhimes and Matt Reeves, and Skydance is developing a film adaptation of his novella, Summer Frost, based on Crouch’s script. His novels have been translated into forty languages and his short fiction has appeared in numerous publications including Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, and Cemetery Dance. At the moment, Crouch is writing a new book and creating a nine-episode adaptation of his novel Dark Matter, for Apple TV+. Blake lives in Colorado.

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