336 pages
Published Aug. 25, 2014 by Tor Books.
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.
Svizna knizecka. Naka akcicka. Na pozadi nenasytna korporace. Vse v kulisach celosvetove nevylecitelny choroby. Programovaci jazyk "Chomsky" pro interakci s mozkem lidi jako tresnicka na dortu. V poho lepsi oddychovka, klasickej Scalzi.
PS - Kdo vymyslel slovo "třipík" at si liskne ... aspon dvakrat ;-P
This is the only Scalziverse I have not dipped a toe into so I felt it was time to wrap that up. This was an engaging police procedural with a sci-fi premise. It had all the Scalzi quirks and a was a fast enjoyable read. I am not maybe going to rave about it as much as I have other Scalzi works because I felt the premise was a little divorced from the plot but this was still a fine read. Recommend.
Great Sci-Fi Near Future setting. Great Detective Story.
In a post-pandemic world, Chris Shane is the poster child for the survivors. Their body is at home in their parents' house. But thanks to new technology, Chris's mind can inhabit a threep and take up an active role in society. In their first week as an FBI agent, Chris becomes embroiled in a murder mystery.
I love that we never learn Chris's gender.
Great world building
This was a POFM in January, and I am pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it once I got used to the setting.
A terrible disease has swept the globe, causing people to be "locked in" to their bodies, essentially unable to do anything. However, technology finds a way, and now these people can transfer their consciousness to a robot-type device to interact with the world. Or they can join a virtual world and be what they want. Or they can hire someone to let them take over the bodies. Scary? Yes. And now you have the premise of the book. One of the most famous victims of Haden's Syndrome is now an FBI agent, and day one on the job he is assigned a case involving a Haden.
Once you get into the weird future/not future setting and the Haden technology, you have yourself a pretty good mystery …
This was a POFM in January, and I am pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it once I got used to the setting.
A terrible disease has swept the globe, causing people to be "locked in" to their bodies, essentially unable to do anything. However, technology finds a way, and now these people can transfer their consciousness to a robot-type device to interact with the world. Or they can join a virtual world and be what they want. Or they can hire someone to let them take over the bodies. Scary? Yes. And now you have the premise of the book. One of the most famous victims of Haden's Syndrome is now an FBI agent, and day one on the job he is assigned a case involving a Haden.
Once you get into the weird future/not future setting and the Haden technology, you have yourself a pretty good mystery with interesting characters. I'll probably read book 2, although the ending left me pretty satisfied and I think this could have just been a standalone. 3 stars.
Gotta love sci-fi crime thrillers.
скалзі... мабуть, він мій новий кінг! вміє закрутити сюжет, вміє вигадати вірогідно-фантастичне тло для нього, вміє оживити персонажів, — і, що найважливіше, розповісти історію так, що не хочеться відкладати книжку!
On story alone, I'd rate this three stars, but the world was interesting enough to bump it up an extra star.
Pretty good beach reading.
I got sucked into this book hard. The concept of lock-in is equal parts fascinating and terrifying, and the book does a good job of exploring psychological/societal/political implications of lock-in on a large scale. The bonus novella Unlocked is not essential listening, but I enjoyed the extra backstory.
I've seen some recommendations to read Unlocked first, but I disagree. I know that I wouldn't have appreciated the extra backstory up front, and it probably would have been a bit too dry or slow if I wasn't already invested. So for what it's worth, I'd suggest reading Lock In and then digging into Unlocked if you still want more.
Really good mix of police procedural and sci-fi. Will have to read the next one.
Quite entertaining. I'm a sucker for detective stories and this also is sci-fi. Great mix.
Not as great as I'd hoped. Okay story.
If you're unsure whether to check this book out, go get the prelude novella "Unlocked: An oral history of Haden's Syndrome" which is available free online from Tor books. This establishes the setting, a slightly-in-the-future world in which an epidemic has swept the world, leaving huge numbers dead and many more victims of "lock in" syndrome, in which they remain fully conscious but are completely unable to interact with their own bodies in any way.
Since no cure for Haden's Syndrom has been found, the best solution so far has been to create neural network links that allow those "locked in" to control android bodies that allow them to move around the world and interact with people through second hand. "Lock In" itself is set in this environment and is the story of a new FBI agent who is also a Lock In patient using an android body, investigating a …
If you're unsure whether to check this book out, go get the prelude novella "Unlocked: An oral history of Haden's Syndrome" which is available free online from Tor books. This establishes the setting, a slightly-in-the-future world in which an epidemic has swept the world, leaving huge numbers dead and many more victims of "lock in" syndrome, in which they remain fully conscious but are completely unable to interact with their own bodies in any way.
Since no cure for Haden's Syndrom has been found, the best solution so far has been to create neural network links that allow those "locked in" to control android bodies that allow them to move around the world and interact with people through second hand. "Lock In" itself is set in this environment and is the story of a new FBI agent who is also a Lock In patient using an android body, investigating a murder that may have an impact on the world of the lock in victims and their freedom itself.
It's an interesting world setting, well described, and the characters are likeable and detailed. One interesting thing Scalzi does is to be (I assume) deliberately ambiguous about some aspects of some of the characters, allowing you to make your own assumptions. For example, the race of one character isn't mentioned at all until very late in the book and only in a passing comment, and the gender of another character is never clear at all. Unsure if this is an intentional choice to emphasize the android world that Haden's Syndrome has created, or just a deliberate ambiguity on Scalzi's part to make us check our assumptions, but it made me double take at least once. Overall I think I liked Old Man's War better, but this was still an entertaining story and I'd likely pick up a sequel if there ever is one.
