Lock in

Great book, somewhere between 4 and 5 stars. The plot moved along really well, and I enjoyed the characters. Before I read it, I knew that the main character's gender was never revealed. But I was surprised at how seamlessly the author pulled that feat off. I doubt I would've noticed it if I hadn't known about it before. I did notice in [book:The Android's Dream 7081] that we never learn Sam's gender, but Sam is in the story primarily as someone's partner, while Chris is the point-of-view character here, which I think would be much more difficult to write. So I think this book is interesting from a technical standpoint, although it would also be interesting to learn how readers see this character - do we expect different behaviors from male, female, nonbinary characters? My only complaint about the book is that Chris is overpowered. They (I'll use that pronoun in my review) are kicking ass every few chapters, even though it's only their first week as an FBI agent. Chris is also very talented at getting along with people (so much so that another character compliments them on it), and everyone they meet seems to like them, at least at first. Other than a need for approval, Chris doesn't have any flaws. However, this trait didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book, because it's very plot-driven.I also like all the random lgbt people (well, lgb characters - the premise would lend itself very well to trans characters, but no one is explicitly trans, although there is a line that I think is referring to trans people in general - that some people prefer integrators that don't match their own assigned gender). The gay couple seems much more three-dimensional to me than several of the other minor characters, because we see a little bit of what their relationship is like; actually, they are both kind of awful people. But we don't know anyone's orientation; it's treated like an inconsequential thing. I like near-future sci-fi which is optimistic in this way. The Haden situation parallels a few real-world issues that marginalized groups face or have faced, but the book never feels heavy-handed, although I feared it might go down that road a few times. In fact, when someone else makes a comparison between the Native Americans and the Hadens, Chris shuts them down right away. Some of the facts of life for Hadens are very grim, because of the prejudice they face - for example, that businesspeople have to inhabit a borrowed body sometimes in order to succeed in the business world, because people aren't comfortable not dealing with a “real” person. I don't know if that would be true or not, but it might. As usual with Scalzi's books, I laughed out loud a few times and felt like crying once or twice. Johnny's plot is really, really sad, especially his video, not just because he's dead, but because he was a pawn of evil and powerful people. Scalzi is really good at making the reader think seriously about ethically complex situations, sometimes by showing how badly corporate and government policies can hurt individuals. I'm glad I read this, and I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Executive Summary: Another fun Scalzi book. That shouldn't really surprise anyone at this point.Audio book: I opted for the [a:Wil Wheaton 37075 Wil Wheaton https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1356706649p2/37075.jpg] version of the audio since he's the way I prefer to consume Scalzi books. However thanks to the Audible pre-order sale, I got a free copy of the [a:Amber Benson 27209 Amber Benson https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1231537678p2/27209.jpg] version that I definitely want to listen to at some point now that I've finished.I will say the run time of 10 hours (11 for the Benson version) is a bit deceptive because the last 2hrs and 15mins or so is actually a multiple reader version of the prequel Novella: [b:Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome 21805681 Unlocked An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome John Scalzi https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1397572655s/21805681.jpg 41068587]. I didn't listen to this since I had previously read it on tor.com, but if you haven't, I'd recommend you skip ahead (Chapter 27 I believe) to listen to it first before jumping into the book itself as it gives you more background than the book itself does.Full ReviewI think before last year I hadn't read a single book by John Scalzi. Before 2012 I hadn't even heard of him. Now he's one of my favorite writers and I've listened to just about everything he's written.I tend to read more fantasy than sci-fi. I seem to prefer my sci-fi in TV/movie form instead. Maybe because I like lighter sci-fi, which Mr. Scalzi writes very well. I also love his snarky sense of humor which I think Wil Wheaton does well.This might be my favorite book of his yet. It's not as funny as some of his others, but it's still a lot of fun. I really love the world he built with some hand wavy science fiction that is really just used to set the stage for a murder mystery. He said that he's got an idea for another book in this world if it does well, so everyone go out and buy a copy because I want him to write it!Our protagonist Chris is a rookie FBI agent on their first week with one major difference. They are “Locked-In” to their body since childhood due to a global pandemic. Chris uses a remote controlled robot nicknamed a Threep (after C-3PO) to be present in the world due to being unable to speak or move.Writing the previous paragraph was very difficult because I wanted to keep it gender neutral. Because this entire book is as far as I can tell written that way. Mr. Scalzi probably had an easier time of it than I did because 1) He's an experienced and professional writer and 2) It's written in first person. Still it's an interesting approach to a story.Since I did the Wil Wheaton version (and because I'm a guy myself), I assumed Chris to be a guy, only to realize we never really know if that's true or not.It goes to show that for all the emphasis on racial and gender differences it really doesn't matter when telling a good story. When your protagonist is interacting with everyone remotely with a robot what does gender or race matter? They look like a robot. Chris is a capable FBI agent because of their mind, because when you're Locked-In that's really all that matters.This is another fun and quick read from a master of writing those kinds of stories. Highly Recommended.

Late review, I already don't remember much about this book.

This is a very formulaic detective story with a sci-fi twist. I'm not much of a fan of detective stories, but this is competent and well written tale.

I didn't like much the robot bodies controlled by the mind, which is the whole sci-fi portion of the book. But again, it was a well written story. I was particularly bothered by the lack of contra arguments when the people that were forced to live like that decided to form a nation of their own and even preached that theirs were the preferred way of living. At no point it was mentioned how the poor were supposed to deal with this.

It's probably more like 3.5 but it's better than most stuff I rate 3 stars so I rounded up. I enjoyed the murder plot and the characters. It balanced the mystery with realities of a different lifestyle. The characters felt fleshed out and none of the named characters felt like place holders. My main complaints is it just didn't push certain plot points far enough. For instance, we see the digital world that the locked in have access to, but it feels more like a surface glance. Given the main character is locked in, this is kind of disappointing.

Truly, Scalzi never fails me. Not only does he write in a way I love (no long-winded, overly involved prose but straight to the point and punchy) but the concepts behind his sci-fi novels are so intriguing. This book is begging to be made into a TV series, I tell ya.

Plot: A whole new society have evolved to accommodate those who are ‘locked in' their bodies due to a terrible disease called “Haden's syndrome”. Technologies were created to give “Hadens” a way to play a part in society. They walk around in the physical world in “threeps” (robots to you and me) while their real bodies lie in bed, and they also exist in a virtual world called “the Agora”.

I would've loved to see more of the Agora, but in this book, it's all about Integrators (human rent-a-threeps) being murdered, so it is set in the real world most of the time.

As usual Scalzi writes in the first person, with our point man being Chris Shane, formerly one of the world's youngest Haden sufferers and poster boy for the cause. He is an FBI agent and his partner, an Integrator. This book moves at a nice and fast pace, and you hardly ever get bored. Lots of awesome adventure possibilities with this series and I'm glad that a second book is out soon.

PS: Do read the free online prequel novella, Unlocked first. I find that it helped me in understanding the universe. Here: https://www.tor.com/2014/05/13/unlocked-an-oral-history-of-hadens-syndrome-john-scalzi/

Read it in one sitting and really enjoyed it. Plausible political thriller, interesting near-future setting which is mostly believable, and a very engaging main character. (I knew from reading the author's blog that the gender of the main character was deliberately not revealed. I still found myself thinking that “Chris” was male, to be honest...)

When I first heard about “Lock In”, I thought it was just another pandemic book based on the descriptions. I was completely wrong! This book is much more of a combination of “Surrogates”, “I, Robot” and “Caves of Steel” – a detective novel with a sci-fi touch in a world facing a pandemic. The pandemic is different than the usual ones though. Instead of killing those affected, it locks them in, making them unable to communicate or move their bodies. This is where the ‘Surrogates” comparison comes in. The government develops a way for those affected to control robots which act as proxies for these people in the real world.

I enjoyed the world building in this one, as well as the main characters. The dynamic reminded me a lot of Caves of Steel, but without quite as much “Ohhh, of course that's it!” to the story.

This wasn't what I expected it to be. I think there is a potential for a real psycho horror story here, which if I am honest, was what I was expecting. However, it turned out to be an interesting crime story with moral issues to think about even when the book is finished. So, although I had a completely different story in my head, I enjoyed this book immensely.

So Lindsey Ellis mentioned this on stream, and I've been meaning to read John Scalzi's books, so this was literally my first, but she mentioned the Threeps and disability and capitalism and I was like “SOLD” and got ahold of this book not long after. It's a good book, and she was right, Scalzi has a light sort of writing. The book flies along, it's like a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of adult or scifi books that feel...like an emotionally trying situation. This has emotions to it, but nobody is like, intensely tortured or abused, it's not an intense amount of focus on suffering. We also have a disabled cyborg protagonist. He's a good guy, which is also nice, none of this tortured violent antihero stuff in other books.

As far as the actual plot–it's a detective story, about the system that has risen up around this intensely dangerous and traumatizing disease that affected people of all ages, genders and social classes. It highlights the difference between people who were minimally and maximally effected by the disease, known as Haden Syndrome.

This is honestly my platonic ideal of comfort reading. The mystery is tricky enough to not be predictable, but also not so obscure that the plot twists were frustrating. The main characters were fun and witty with snappy dialogue. I liked the exploration of Haden syndrome and the meaning of disability and virtual communities. I should read more Scalzi

Scalzi is one of my favorite dialogue writers out there, and Lock In is another showcase for his skills in this area. Othere than that trademark snark, though, this book is very different from other Scalzi books I've read. It is a murder mystery at heart, but one set in a future where a large percentage of the popuation suffer from a disease that locks their bodies up, but not their minds. Therefore, these people exist either in an online space or interact with the world via robot bodies, affectionately called “threeps.” This brings into play concepts of racism, classism, and other awful isms we have to deal with in the real world. It's probably not my favorite Scalzi (Redshirts will always have a special place in my heart), and it almost might have been a little too light with its subject matter, but I'll always take too light over too heavy. Also, Scalzi's extreme fondness for “said” speech tags seems to be fading as at least this time, it didn't often interrupt my reading. It's a short read, a good mystery, and a fine addition to any sci-fi collection.

This was my first Scalzi book (which might be scandalous considering I'm a sci-fi lover). I liked how he randomly included homosexuality, race and sex without making a big deal about any of them and how the main character is never identified with a sex.

I listened to this book on Audible and chose Wil Wheaton as my narrator because, c'mon it's Wil Wheaton!! It came with the Novella about Hadens which I didn't listen to until after the book. But I got the gist of the The Lock In plague (which is pretty scary–it reminded me of the book/movie “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”) fairly quickly, and while I had some questions about details about the disease it didn't interrupt my enjoyment of the story.

I loved the fact that it was actually a mystery/cop novel/thriller set in a sci-fi world which is always a perfect mix, just enough explaining of all the sci-fi stuff to enhance but not enough to be a distraction from a great story.