John Scalzi returns with Head On, the standalone follow-up to the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Lock In. Chilling near-future SF with the thrills of a gritty cop procedural, Head On brings Scalzi’s trademark snappy dialogue and technological speculation to the future world of sports. Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and … players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it.
Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.
Is it an accident or murder? FBI Agents and Haden-related crime investigators, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, are called in to uncover the truth–and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa, where fortunes are made or lost, and where players and owners do whatever it takes to win, on and off the field.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
“As much as Scalzi has the scientific creativity of a Michael Crichton, he also has the procedural chops of a Stephen J. Canell to craft a whodunit with buddy-cop charm and suspects aplenty–most of them in someone else’s body.” —USA Today
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I’m crazy about this series. I love the near future world Scalzi has created because it feels so authentic. And his use of Haden’s as a means of exploring themes of repression and the way members of the disability community are treated is thought-provoking. Plus, Chris and Vann are both winning characters who play off one another in such fun and funny ways. I really appreciate books like this, that can tackle hefty subjects yet also include a healthy dose of fun and even downright silliness. I also felt like Scalzi was laying the groundwork for some things that may be big in future installments, and I’m more than on board with that. Count me as someone eagerly awaiting the next book in this series.
In the near-future world set up by Lock In, some of Earth’s population are paralyzed and are only able to interact with the world through robot bodies or by stepping inside another human known as an “Integrator.” In this world, a sport known as Hilketa becomes popular, which features these paralyzed people (known as Hadens) on the field in their robots (“threeps”) basically using weapons to beat each other up with and score points by removing each others’ heads and running it through goal posts. When one of the players dies during the game, the FBI are brought in, which gives us a chance to see Haden FBI Agent Chris Shane in action again.
This book had a lot of what made Lock In so amazing, with the same easy-to-read and smoothly flowing writing and dialog, the same intriguing world where the prejudice toward Hadens emulates both racial prejudices and bias against disabled people, and the same complex conspiracies behind the initial death. I didn’t like it quite as much as I did the first book, but only subtracted half a star for this sequel.
In the first book, there was a major legislation on the horizon that would seriously financially hinder most Hadens, basically cutting off most government funding for them. The looming question of whether or not it will pass plays a role in the book. This book, set about a year later, shows some of the downfall after it did pass, and many Hadens–and by extension many companies that were involved with Hadens in some way–are worried about their financial future. It was interesting to see how the dust had started to settle after that decision.
We saw a lot more of the housemates that Chris first met in Lock In, and I really liked the way they added to the story. There were some fun scenes and conversations involving a cat that brought smiles to my face. And speaking of smiles, while I was reading this book, my husband made multiple “apply directly to the forehead” references, which made it all the more noticeable (and amusing) to me when I caught a reference in the book (I won’t presume to say for sure that it was intentional by Scalzi…but the way it was worded does not seem like it could be coincidence).
The mystery as a whole, and some of the rabbit trails the agents followed to solve it, wasn’t as enthralling to me as in the first book, which is the main reason for my slightly lower rating. However, overall, it was still a lot of fun to read. I would be quite happy if Scalzi decided to write a third book in this world. I would recommend this book for fans of near-future sci-fi and for mystery lovers, and while I will say that it’s probably very possible to read this book without having yet read the previous book, Lock In was really good and explained the whole Haden syndrome more anyway, so I’d still suggest starting there.
I joked this morning that I may be John Scalzi’s number one fan. I think that minus one or two short stories, I’ve read/listened to everything he’s ever written, plus I read his blog too whenever he updates it. It will then come as no surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed this book too. I love Wil Wheaton as narrator of John’s books and his dry delivery of much of the dialogue was perfection. Chris’s mom in this book left me guffawing while I was out in the park listening and walking. I’m sure I scared some geese with my laughter. I loved the mystery of this one and being back in the Lock In world. I’m already excited for more in this world!
Stricken with Haden’s Syndrome, part of the world’s population are unable to use their bodies. The NonHaden find themselves having to rebuild the world to make it accessible to those with Haden’s and their needs. On the surface, this is a well done buddy-cop story investigating a rare death of a Haden’s Syndrome “athlete.”
Like a master magician, he crafts a witty story. It keeps you entertained and focused on the story. Those looking past the magician’s sleight of hand, find a story carrying the weight of political commentary and thought-provoking social satire in a way that shines a light on the issue without alienating anyone in the process. There are few out there, at the moment, who manage to write as he does.
Take a look at the full review on Agragape.com
A surprising concept and interesting characters makes this a “head above” other science fiction stories. Great!
I don’t often read white men’s stories, but this one is such a fascinating look at disability and gender from the perspective of a world where people use robot bodies as their own, I just can’t stop reading.
As a follow up to “locked in”, this was great. The world of humans, “threeps”, and other robotic aids in crime fighting seemed very real, like “why aren’t we doing this now?” real. (You don’t need a plague to have people that are locked in. I really wish people who had debilitating diseases that cripple their ability to move and communicate had the use of a Threep. )
Anyway – this is about sports, threeps, and greed. And of course our erstwhile FBI agent Chris is caught in the middle of all the action. Again. What a great character. I really hope Mr. Scalzi writes more in this series.
I really like the idea of this series–I love how Hadens is explored in ways that mirror things happening in our own world in law and medicine and sports and equality without hitting you over the head with anything. It’s super interesting! And I love Chris and Vann’s partnership.
I think what’s missing for me though is some sort of deeper personal story. This book is a fully contained, fairly traditional mystery, and it works well, but while there’s depth to the world itself, it still doesn’t feel like there’s a ton of depth to the characters. To be fair, character depth is not generally Scalzi’s game, and in most cases I’m fine with that; most of the books I’ve read of his pretty clearly don’t have much need for it. But I feel like this particular setting deserves more, I guess.
Anyway, I like this series and will keep reading it, if only for Chris’s constantly destroyed threeps, Vann’s tough mouth, and the hope that there’s more underneath–and that we might at some point get a glimpse of it.
I love John Scalzi and couldn’t wait to read this book. I was disappointed. It is well written as is usual for him. What it was not was actual science fiction. Yes, it took place in science fiction like setting. But it was essentially just a detective story in an unusual setting. And I like detective stories too, just not when I want to be reading science fiction. It’s like having your mouth set for wine and getting grape Koolaid instead. I look forward to reading more Scalzi true to the genre in the future.
John Scalzi always presents a provocative scenario. I love that it takes me to a world that I could never have imagined myself, and feel comfortable there.
I am not interested or follow arena sports, especially with current political reality show bullying. It was hard sticking through the first chapter, then, only because I am a Scalzi fan. He pulled it off. I enjoyed the dialogues, witt, drama, twists & intrigue. I again marveled at the depth and complexity Scalzi writes into his stories.
I like John Scalzi’s writing style. I was not disappointed with his latest installment of the Lock In series.
The dialog is crisp and fun. The plot is not obvious. The characters are interesting. The story moves right along and I was through it too soon. I usually nibble at a book and one this size will take me nearly a month to finish. This one took less than a week.
Dare I say this was better than Lock In (Book 1)?
With each new novel, John Scalzi renews his spot (in this reader’s opinion) as the science fiction master of world building, character development and frank dialogue. He genuinely *gets* people and how they interact, and translates this understanding to the page with such ease.
If you’re not reading Scalzi — or listening to his audio books, narrated brilliantly by Wil Wheaton — you are truly missing out.
Very imaginative take on possible future of humanity!
Sci do at its best. Takes an interesting idea and twist it into a real life scenario.
At 12% I deleted it. Even though I paid 9 bucks for it. Broke my heart but I just could not continue with the Hadens.