Scalzi pulls from different genres and adds enough depth to his work to always make his books fresh and interesting. Like the virtual reality hinting at untouched layers to this world, the motivations for the villain were a flourish that set the book apart from yet another murder mystery. I don’t want to get too lost in the weeds, here, but the business policies at the heart of some of the events in this book gave the story a gravitas I wasn’t looking for when I started reading it. Unexpectedly, perhaps, one of the major themes in this book is corporate greed and the corruption felt at the individual level because of it. One of the defining characteristics of our culture is wealth inequality and corporate corruption. To some degree, I think we’re all looking for something in our own lives in the art we consume. The books are markedly different from one another, don’t get me wrong, and this is a fairly minor plot device in Lock In, but it was a pervading thought that followed me through the novel.Īs in most books, science fiction works best as a mirror.

In a way, this reminded me of Ready Player One, in that there’s an artificial reality that serves as an oasis for Hadens sufferers. Technology has been developed that allows Hadens to take control of personal transport vehicles, or “threeps.” Chris Shane is a Haden and FBI agent, and is assigned to investigate a Haden-related murder.

Sufferers are essentially in a coma, only they’re not unconscious. One percent of all people suffer from “lock in”, or Haden’s Syndrome. Set in the future, a disease has ravaged the world. From what I’ve read of him (Redshirts, the Old Man’s War series, and The Dispatchers), he’s very adept at centering his stories around a big idea, and this is no different. This is a fairly typical Scalzi novel, in that the world is well developed and multi-layered. I haven’t been let down by Scalzi before, and Lock In was no different. This was my second attempt to read this book, and I’m glad I gave it another go.

Scalzi lock in series