Ask A Bookseller: 'Upgrade' blends sci-fi and thriller genres

An ordinary man, accidentally doused with a mysterious new substance, finds himself gaining new powers. That may sound like a superhero from Marvel or DC Comics, but it’s actually a character from Blake Crouch's Sci-Fi thriller “Upgrade.” Colby Faulkner of Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi highly recommends checking it out.Set shortly in the future, society is being ravaged by genetic crimes. Our protagonist Logan Ramsey is part of a government agency working to police these crimes when he comes in contact with this genome-editing tech. Slowly, he realizes that his newfound abilities are part of a larger plan to inflict changes on all humans — at a terrifying cost. Faulkner says his store has "Upgrade" shelved in the Science Fiction section, but with its fast-paced plot, it could easily belong with the Thrillers.“I like it because it's futuristic, but not overly futuristic,” he said. “It's not set 1,000 years from now, it's set like in an unspecified time, that seems like it could be five years from now.”