Lock in

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/