Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Upgrade is an adult science fiction novel. In a future where DNA modification is illegal, Logan Ramsay is tasked with finding those who change the DNA of animals, plants, people, or diseases. Logan is good at his job but when he is attacked, his life is flipped upside down, and held in a black site. His family thinks he is dead and they move on with life. 

“You are the next step in human evolution.”

Blake Crouch writes awesome science fiction in a way that I can kind of understand. Everything is explained simply. 

Also, his stories are quite good, however, this one dragged and seemed slowed down by page after page of filler. 

In this tale, Logan is a cop who hunts illegal DNA modification people and scientists who sell their skills on the black market. 

He is excellent at his job. Until he gets blasted. His unit and company run a hundred-plus tests and keep him isolated for months to see if the spray that got him has changed his DNA. He seems clean, and so is released. 

One of Logan's best free time activities is playing chess with his daughter. She's almost a teen and can beat him easily. A few weeks after being released, he starts to beat her. 

He thinks little of it until a call comes from a stranger. "Run. They're coming for you." 

Damn, I'd love to have that upgrade happen to me. There seems to be little downside. 

Parts of this book are fun to read and other parts require a huge suspension of belief. 

I liked the slight description of the new world, after the famine and wars with a slice of Global Warming tossed in for fun.

 

Billy Summers by Stephen King

The blurb reads: You won’t put this story down, and you won’t forget Billy. 

Who? LOL. There are many people who love this book. It got several awards. Well done. I didn't like it. Apart from Trump Derangement Syndrome is in full effect BUT there is a character that thinks Trump's job performance was good. It's like King tried to even out his political leanings as fans are dropping off. 

That's not why I consider deeply whether I should hand over hard-earned cash for a book as his stuff since The Dream Catcher has been going downhill. His writing is still excellent. Reading his books is a lesson in writing. But the content is boring as fuck. As is this book. Yes, the last few chapters were excellent and the opening held my interest. The rest didn't. This could easily have been a much smaller book. The tangents we read through...didn't seem to have much point apart to fill the pages. The character was fleshed out. I could picture Billy, I've lived a few years in 'Hicksville', and small towns. I live in one now, even though I live in Japan. 

The book did have its moments. It is a King novel. In my opinion, not enough. 

Elfor One (Book 3 of The Code Series) by R. R. Haywood

R.R. Haywood hits this one out of the park. It's mostly action and the rise up of the oppressed. We learn some more things about The Six (a secret organization once called the Illuminati), they are the only ones still around. They have controlled everything for the last 120 years--everything (finance, raw materials, construction, clothing, food, water), but since learning about the code, and the path to a new planet, they are hellbent on stopping anyone from learning about the new planet. They fear a loss of revenue. 

Captain Helga and the Elfors form a large army. 

People start dying. 

The quiet man is an accomplished killer. 

Elfors are blamed again by the mainstream media. Even in the future, no one trusts them as information is twisted in the way the six want it to be. 

Wow! What a fucking kicker of a book.

I loved the cruiser scene where Abdul decides to use a shuttle and try to block or slow down the arrival of the Feds. (I shall say no more, so you can enjoy it.)

Oh, and the attempted wank scene. ROTFLMAO. 

The bad: Part two of this book. What the fuck was the point of that massive section. It should have been cut out, and Chang's rescue could have been done another way. 

Also, Sam (our hacker hero) is in his early late 20s to early 30s. His Elfor nickname is Pretty Boy. In books 1 - 3, he is treated as a young kid. Not sure why. I've known people who speak like this (in real life), but it dwindled off as I got older (past 15).   

The good: Everything else. 

Get this book, skip part two and plow into the conclusion. Actually, as there are a few good jokes based on part two, you should probably read it to save confusion. 

I couldn't give this book 5 stars for the filler section of part two.

The Elfor Drop (book 2 of The Code series) by R. R. Haywood

Another great book. This is book 2 in a three-book series. All our usual characters and a couple of new characters. 

In this installment, Jas and Sam work for Abdul alongside Penny. Sam focuses on creating adverts that speak to the crowds (cartoon Beaky steals the show) and Jas follows Penny as she visits customers on the Beijing ship. Abdul is also a trader. His customers complain of a lack of stock and getting old medicine and even stuff they don't sell. 

Penny doesn't seem all that interested but Jas decides to find out why. 

Detective Zhang is fighting his sex addiction. He is following Jas as she has the code and he goes to the Beijing ship, a ship he should not return to. There is a great back story there that needs to be explored more (like Kreese in Cobra Kai). 

There's a lot happening in this book. I'm not exactly sure why Janie hates Jas as much as she does, must have missed something. I know that in book one she wasn't happy that Abdul overtook the closing-down party and made the event about him, Jas, and Sam. Sven didn't seem to mind. 

This book suffers like all second books in a series. It seems like a lead-in to book three. Sure it was enjoyable, the story and characters were fun (at times very childish Sun and Po interaction with Jassy and Zhang), and the last 15% was unputdownable. 

I thought this series was about The Code that Jas stole. No one seems interested in that anymore. It is only mentioned once. 

Another thing, our heroes Sam and Jas are barely in the book. Popping up now and then, so we don't forget about them.  

I have the third book in the series and will start that soon. 

The Worldship Humility (The Code series book 1) by R. R. Haywood

 As a fan of his Extracted series and A Town Called Discovery, I didn't pause to pick this up. 

Earth was destroyed by a massive event-ending asteroid. Even nukes from all countries couldn't move it off course. So, they built massive starships that can hold millions of people. They were all named after their country or capital city. The Starship Beijing for example. All but the fucking British, whom gave their ship a different name (sorry, forgot the name at time of review). 

Yassy is a master thief.

Sam is a nerd with hacking skills.

Yassy is from the lower floors of his spacecraft, a floor populated by people not booked onto the flight. Over a hundred and fifty years have passed. The Elfors (lover level people) are looked down upon and mostly they stay down below where they have built a city unto themselves. They even have rain, though it stinks and stings as it's not actually water. 

Yassy hates the Elfor and needs a masterplan to get out forever. One day on the upper level, a guy grabs her arm believing her to be someone else. She is the splitting image of his girlfriend, whom he spots and Yassy sees the perfect plan start to come together. The other person who looks like her works for the financial services department. 

A plan starts to form.

While this is happening, the captains of 4 country starships meet up to review an explorer ship. It's never found a planet, so they are shocked when they get positive results. They need to turn the fleet and slow down. They have a code for this. That code gets stolen and hidden. 

This is a great book. They are characters that seem a bit off (misfits??), and the classic cop gone bad but with a heart, a politician with big dreams, a Russian gangster, and private security. They all make this story sparkle, so much so that I have already got the next two books in the series to dive into. 

If you are looking for an easy to digest sci-fi, more thriller than sci-fi, then this is the book for you. 

Shibumi by Trevanian

So, this is a spy novel. Not the kind of book that I'm interested in, especially ones as dated as this one. It was originally published in 1984. The characters are so unbelievable. It kind of reminds me of bad 80's action flicks. 

Now, this book have have been the idea for Barry Eisler series (which I enjoyed more than this book). It moves at a slow pace and our (anti)hero is like superman. He can do anything. Except be loyal to anyone. The only person he is loyal to would be his Japanese stepfather. 

Shibuni means refinement (depending on the Kanji). That's the perfect title for his book. If only the book was good. The idea is great. Hal born of a Russian mother and Chinese father, raised in Japan with a Japanese stepfather, he learnt many things from his father, and he mastered everything. He is a big art lover and the most capable assassin. 

The way it was laid out and told was not for me.  

Sorry by Zoran Drvenkar

Berlin. Four friends. One extreme idea.

One of the most gripping thrillers ever written.

Kris, Tamara,Wolf and Frauke set up an agency called Sorry. An agency to right wrongs. Unfair dismissals, the wrongly accused: everyone has a price, and Sorry will find out what it is. It’s as simple as that.

What they hadn’t counted on was their next client being a cold-hearted killer. But who is the killer and why has he killed? Someone is mocking them and hell is only just beginning.

Sounds great, right? Maybe it is a brilliant thriller. I loved the way Zoran used First Person -- Second Person -- Third Person POV. That was awesome. It draws you right in. 

The book opens (according to friends) the way many German books open, with detailed characters long before the inciting incident. I read through 42 pages and the narrator said, now we start. Then the next chapter had pages and pages of back story. 

But I kept going until I couldn't continue any longer and dropped the book back to the library through the after hours return slot. 

Cannot rate. Sorry. There were some things I liked. Zoran is a good writer, but I never finished the book.