Lock In (Lock In #1)

Really, really good worldbuilding. I definitely recommend reading the novella that comes with this book that details the onset of Hayden, because it was so interesting to see the world adapt.

This book mixes illness, technology, disability, and politics so well. As with previous Scalzi books, I have read, the “realness” of the worldbuilding was definitely the greatest achievement of this book. I mean, wow, I picture myself living the lives of all of these characters, and living in their changed world. Which isn’t a pleasant thought.
Scalzi explores all the implications of his worlds, all the nuances, and no one gets left out. He explores how issues affect those high up in society, those downtrodden, those incarcerated, those just born to those who are old. I love Scalzi’s sci-fis, yo.

I listened to the version of the audiobook narrated by a female narrator. For the sequel, I will probably switch to the male one, so see what that’s like. It’s cool that you can do this XD. You don’t often read epic stories being completely gender neutral.

The plot was fun, always in a mood for a good cop murder mystery. The worldbuilding ties well into the mystery, because how can you find a murderer who hid in the bodies of others?

More sci-fi than thriller!

This book was interesting with an interesting premise with our increasing online world

Not one of his best.

AUDIOBOOK READING:
Familiar with Wil Wheaton’s online antics in recent years, he was a good choice in the end for this snarky dialogue story. Unlike Scott Brick who dramatizes for The Passage or Dune and does different voices for many characters to highlight the dramatization; Wil barely ventured into different voices, but his reading voice was easy to listen to and follow. He did act well.

STORY:
For me this was the movie Surrogate with Bruce Willis, but in book form. . .at least for a lot of similarities.

The story itself was much more a following of clues than I had expected. Actually, I did not read anything ahead of time about this story so I had no expectations. The only thing I read was this book showed up on several people’s favorites of 2014 sci-fi.

CHARACTERS:
Main protagonist is likeable and has some good lines.
Other characters are just as snarky in many ways, especially his hardened partner who suddenly — as in flipping a switch sudden — is able to do some bantering back and forth with protagonist as they interview a suspect. Lost it for me here. Made for fun dialog but threw characters out of character.

Our protagonist’s superpower is he’s from a wealthy family. The fact he is technically disabled plays very little in the story, except in one crucial scene. Otherwise, he didn’t feel like he was at a huge disadvantage to the bad guy.

Speaking of antagonist, I don’t feel the antagonist was equally paired with the protagonist. It was like FBI against private citizen. . .not really a challenge. The challenge only comes in the antagonist staying a step ahead of the protagonist until our protagonist figures some things out then it is pretty much over. Not real sense of threat and lacking some suspense.

ACTION:
The action scenes were good and exciting, though sparse. I do like how the ‘threeps’ are not super-hydrolic strong robots, but human strength. Makes for some interesting fights.

CONTENT: For those that care, there is a good amount of profanity in this story. At one point towards the end one character can’t seem to say any other word but the f-bomb.

OVERALL: Enjoyable listen to. A lot of hashing out clues that go on at length, making a simple mystery appear more complex. Fairly satisfying ending.

Audiobook also had a bonus novella at the end that covers the history of haden syndrome, which had a full cast of readers/actors playing different parts. That was kinda of cool.

This is my first Scalzi story. I’d try more from him.

I’m very disappointed with this listen. Wil Wheaton’s performance in Ready Player One is one of my favorites through audiobook narrations. Sure Lock In is written by a different author, but I was hoping to be enamored with the main character and voice Wil could give him. The main character has an interesting background on paper as the son of a famous basketball player turned Senator. This character, Chris Shane, also became the poster child of an epidemic scale disease called Haydon Syndrome, a condition that locks in someone into their body without any control while being fully aware of everything going on. Technological advances has created threeps, surrogates that Haydons connect mentally to like rented bodies while their real bodies are treated by nurses to feed and prevent bed sores. Chris Shane enters the story on his first day on the job with the FBI. All of that is fascinating world building.

The problem is that I never really cared about Chris. Yes he wants to do the right thing by solving the mysterious suicide-suspected murder of a poor individual caught up in a complicated scheme by someone rich and powerful. His partner has a tough background as well, having tried to be a volunteer surrogate for Haydons and had an awful experience, and who now struggles with alcohol and other coping issues.

The mystery tied itself together in ways that kept me surprised, but I really didn’t care. Cool worldbuilding and well-thought-out mystery, but not enjoyable because the characters did little to make me care about them.

I’ve thought some more about this review and it should be said that I sympathized with the victim’s family. But this makes me wonder if the main source of emotion and interest should come from the victim as revealed at the end of the story. I enjoyed that emotional moment, but my engagement from the beginning to then was mostly emotionally stagnant.

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