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John Scalzi

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Head On: A Novel of the Near Future (The Lock In Series Book 2) Kindle Edition

by John Scalzi (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 3,641 ratings

Book 2 of 2: Lock In

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"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

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 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.

Book 2 of 2

Lock In
Print length

328 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Tor Books
Publication date

April 17, 2018
File size

3098 KB
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

JOHN SCALZI is one of the most popular SF authors of his generation. His debut Old Man's War won him the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation,and Redshirts (which won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel), and 2020's The Last Emperox. Material from his blog, Whatever, has also earned him two other Hugo Awards. Scalzi also serves as critic-at-large for the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter. --This text refers to the mass_market edition.

Review

Praise for Head On

"New and fresh....Scalzi's smirking, impish voice is a nice touch." ―NPR

"Particularly relevant....A fun, breezy thriller, one that showcases a world that carries with it some extremely astute commentary on some of the real problems that we face in our own. " ―The Verge

"The Lock In universe is as fascinating as ever....Complex, expansive....Pretty damn cool." ―RT Book Reviews, 4 stars

"Head On doesn’t care if you’ve read Lock In or not, but it does care if you enjoy a mystery wrapped up inside a science fiction novel....This might even be one of the best introductions to Scalzi out there." ―Culturess

"[Scalzi's] prose flows like a river, smoothly carrying us through the story; his characters are beautifully crafted; and his future world is impeccably designed, at the same time wildly imaginative and wholly plausible." ―Booklist, starred review

"This taut mystery, filled with memorable characters in a well-constructed world, will keep readers on the edges of their seats." ―Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Readers will definitely show up for the witty banter and smartass takedowns….Very clever, wonderfully satisfying fun." ―Kirkus

"A snappy, cannily-driven police procedural in which Scalzi highlights and skewers contemporary issues and hypocrisies." ―The Seattle Review of Books

"Scalzi is in good form again here with his usual rich blend of smart, rapid-fire dialogue and well-paced bursts of hard-hitting action." ―Toronto Star

Praise for Lock In

"This is the kind of thriller that Michael Crichton, Lincoln Child, and James Rollins do so well. Add John Scalzi to that list." ―Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kraken Project and Impact

"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

“Satisfying.” ―NPR

“Scalzi takes his work to an entirely new level.” ―Cory Doctorow

“A smart, thoughtful near-future thriller…. This powerful novel will intrigue and entertain both fans and newcomers.” ―Publishers Weekly, starred review

“John Scalzi may be the most entertaining writer in SF today.” ―Toronto Star

--This text refers to the mass_market edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B072LD8JG9
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Books (April 17, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 17, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3098 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 328 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #81,373 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews:
4.4 3,641 ratings

About the author

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John Scalzi

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John Scalzi writes books, which, considering where you're reading this, makes perfect sense. He's best known for writing science fiction, including the New York Times bestseller "Redshirts," which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. He also writes non-fiction, on subjects ranging from personal finance to astronomy to film, was the Creative Consultant for the Stargate: Universe television series. He enjoys pie, as should all right thinking people. You can get to his blog by typing the word "Whatever" into Google. No, seriously, try it.

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Amanda R

great read!

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2023

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I love how the snark and the action keep coming! Scalzi writes a great , fast paced story that keeps you reading to found out more

Agents Shane and Vann have their hands full when a player dies on the field of the new popular game where Hayden’s attack each other in specialized threeps.

Highly satisfying! I’m ready for more!

One person found this helpful

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Mike Kremen

3.5*

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2018

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3.5*

Short Version: I liked this book. I liked the first in this series (?), Lock In, better, as the concepts were fresher. I like the non-sex-defined narrator/main character and the partner, but I have issues stylistically. I can see this being a long-running series.

Long Version (potential spoilers): Look, I finished the book in 2 days. It goes quickly, which is clearly intentional. But, now that we are two books in, it is also clear that the style is quite intentional. How would I best describe the style of writing here? Aggressively bland. If Scalzi is trying to corner a sub-market that otherwise doesn't really exist outside of Asimov's R. Daneel Olivaw, he might be having Pyrrhic success. Those books, while I am sure not current any longer regarding cultural issues, were not this bland.

What do I mean when I say bland? Here are a couple of ways I can comparatively describe it: 1) FBI in the 50s bland, in that agents were to have no facial hair and no personality (which has been depicted in fiction ad nauseum); 2) Yankees in the 90s bland? Nope, there was too much personality there; 3) Threep bland - i.e. threeps are just shells Hadens get into, so they're usually not supremely detailed and three dimensional people in their own right - the style matches that level of underdevelopment.

But why would you say this was on purpose, you might ask. This book feels like the opposite of 'turning it to 11'. You know how tons of science fiction and fantasy books have a bit of wow factor for showing the reader things that are clearly not in our world? This book makes all of those things mundane and lived in, as if OF COURSE these things exist and people procedurally know what to do. Also, having read Old Man's War (some wow factor), Redshirts (some solid satire), and the Collapsing Empire (wow, humor, and some cursing for color to boot), it is clear to me that the style here is not the 'natural speaking voice' of the author, but has to be an active focus.

Despite the style, there's plenty to like here, generally, including plenty of current-type issues: a professional sports league started around the newly handi-capable that has issues with growing, surviving, inclusion and exclusion (if you want, there's even a Kaepernick analogue - if you don't, it's different enough not to be right on the nose); tech-supported CSI; complications in sexual relationships when binary is further and further out the window... And more. All of it is built out enough that it isn't just mentioned, it is detailed enough that the few things the story needs are available.

Look, this series is certainly good enough. Scalzi could probably, audience demand depending, write 20 of these with how open this world is, and even with the issue I detailed above, I'd probably read them. But I'm not sure I'd like them.

7 people found this helpful

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ToldYouSo

Fantastic read, very solid detective work, but the “Lock In” novels are scary.

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2018

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As my review title says, these novels are scary —not Steven King scary, but a more realistic type of scary. I wouldn’t call the Lock In novels dystopian fiction, because it may someday be possible, when we learn more about the brain’s “wiring” and we make great advances in neural nets, to accomplish the feats described in these books. I’m old enough to know it it won’t happen in my lifetime, but if you’re in your twenties, you might see something aporoaching this. For those who doubt, just remember that 25 years ago we still had PC programs that had to run directly under DOS because they wouldn’t run under the Windows then available.*

*For those young enough to have no idea what I’m referring to with my reference, nearly all “real” video games and many other non-Microsoft programs required editing of the autoexec.bat and/or config.sys files to specify how memory above 640K (yes, K!) was to be treated — as extended or expanded memory. For more info, Google DOS expanded memory.

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2018

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First I have to state Scalzi is still at the top of my most favorite authors if not the most favorite. I would have liked to give this one 4.5 stars if that would be possible, but after much consideration, I decided to give it 4.

This is fantastically written, and the dialogues are witty and funny as hell. It almost felt like sometimes that the characters are in a Quentin Tarantino movie. The world is also really interesting and very coherent. I hope he will continue to write stories happening here.

So, the sole reason I gave it only 4 is that this is first and foremost a detective story in a sci-fi setting and I like his space operas much better. It is a brilliant and complicated detective story, with conspiracy and plot twists all the way. If that's your genre, you will love this. If you like sci-fi as well, you will be absolutely lost in this one.

I feel like this is somewhat similar to Asimov's detective stories, which I also liked, but were never my favorites among his works.

So, I recommend this one wholeheartedly either to crime story or sci-fi fans and if you are both, it's even better.

Meanwhile, I am sure I will buy and read any other books by Scalzi if he decides to continue this saga, but I'm eagerly waiting for him to continue the Interdependency series or maybe dare to dream about another installment in the Old Man's War books.

4 people found this helpful

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GCS

Engaging pot-boiler mystery in a SF envirenement. A must for John Scalzi Fans.

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2022

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This book is a great sequel to Scalzi's Lock In. It's an engaging pot boiler mystery set in John Scalzi's near-future science fiction world. It creates believable characters and SF conditions about augmented AI, and a pandemic that are the stuff of our real world's headlines today. The audio book is especially well performed.

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Margaret Searcy

A terrific second novel in the series!

Reviewed in Canada on April 17, 2018

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I'd forgotten to expect this download today and was delightfully surprised when it arrived. John Scalzi has crafted another wonderful mystery novel in the same world as Lock In. I still love these characters and look forward to more in the series.
This book is standalone so you don't have to have read Lock In first, but why wouldn't you?

Amazon Kunde

A good read

Reviewed in Germany on April 13, 2019

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A good read

Holly "Ragdoll Reads" Hodson

Capitalism, pro sports and disabilities don't mix!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2018

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What I liked…

I think my favourite part of this book was that a lot of the social and ethical themes from the first book are explored in greater deal in Head On. One such example from the first book was the idea that the things that made life liveable for Haden's would be taken over by non-Haden's in the name of profit. Haden's make up around 1% of the population, and after Abrams-Kettering (a bill that removed financial support for Haden's sufferers) the markets for Hadens-related products was set to shrink. In Lock In, preparations were being made to chase the non-Haden market by paving the way for non-Hadens to use threeps (the android bodies Haden's use to have a presence in the physical world. In 'Head On', this theme is explored further, and we see able-bodied protesters, whining that the Hilketa leagues only feature Haden players. Drawing obvious parallels to the sort of nonsense protests we see in the real world about 'safe' spaces for marginalised and minority groups. It is elements like this that demonstrate both a good understand of disability and minority issues, and it helps make the world both real and engaging.

We also learn a lot more about the world as seen through the eyes of Haden's. Scalzi has created a really rich culture for Hadens, and we learn a good deal about the etiquette, social norms and the role of the Agora (an 'online' world for Hadens).

Our two main characters, Shane and Vann were the leads in 'Lock In', and they continue to be interesting individuals with an entertaining partnership. After a year of working together, Shane and Vann have created an effective working relationship which often involves some delightful good cop / bad cop interrogations that are enjoyable to read and often very amusing to boot. In addition we see the return of the supporting characters in the form of Shane's housemates, who play a bigger role in this book than in 'Lock In'.

The plot summary makes it sound like this book is heavily centred around the sport of Hilketa - and it is - but this is not a sci-fi sports novel. I was quite worried when I bought this book that it might be mostly about sport...fantastic science fiction sport, but sport none the less, and that wasn't of great appeal to me. Fortunately this wasn't the case. It is first and foremost a crime / conspiracy novel, which happens to involve the sport. We do learn quite a bit about how the sport works but it isn't the primary focus.

Finally, I love the fact that Scalzi made sure to provide quick explanations of the key terms and themes as they arose. If you had read 'Lock In' recently then you might consider them superfluous, but it did mean that if you wanted to, you could read 'Head On' without having read 'Lock In' first, which I thought was pretty neat.

What I disliked…

I can't exactly put my finger on anything specific that I didn't like - I just know I enjoyed the first book more (and I read them back to back). Actually that's not quite true - for some reason, Scalzi switched from using the word "Harness" to describe the apparatus that held a Hadens physical body, and started using "Creche" instead. I don't know why, and it's not exactly a problem, I just found it a bit odd.

I don't think there was anything wrong with the book - in fact a lot of parts I thought were much better, it just overall felt a little less than its counterpart somehow. I couldn't decide if I should give the book a 4.5 or 5 button rating - I eventually decided on 5 because it seemed unreasonably to give a book I enjoyed so much a lower rating just because of a vague sense that the first one might have been better.

Final thoughts...

This book is an excellent sequel to 'Lock In' and an excellent story in its own right. Scalzi has created rich and full worlds, chock full of detail and careful thought - such careful world-craft deserves high praise.

The book doesn't just follow a simple murder or conspiracy track, it also tackles a whole bunch of social and ethical issues which made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable for me.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes solid science fiction, also to any crime fans who don't mind the futuristic setting.

5 people found this helpful

Leather DeBoeuf

les têtes brulées

Reviewed in France on July 21, 2018

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Ce second volet de "Lock in" repart avec le même duo d'enquêteurs, les agents du FBI Vann et Shane, dans un univers futuriste proche, dans lequel des millions de personnes sont paralysées par le syndrome "Haden" mais peuvent communiquer avec l'extérieur en réalité virtuelle et via des androïdes qu'ils peuvent "habiter".
J'avais été un peu déçu par le premier volet de cette série, qui se terminait en queue de poisson et que j'avais jugé bâclé.
Ce deuxième volet est plus consistant, mais ce n'est pas une totale réussite. Si l'univers est toujours aussi solide, si les personnages principaux sont attachants et drôles, l'intrigue policière est plutôt laborieuse.

Ça démarre mal dès un premier chapitre dans lequel Scalzi décrit de long en large un sport qu'il a inventé pour ses Hadens, le Hilketa. Ce n'est franchement pas passionnant, pas très crédible non plus.Tout le livre va tourner autour de ce sport, mais les descriptions d'actions sportives sans queue ni tête (surtout sans tête) nous seront fort heureusement épargnées par la suite.
L'enquête policière est longue, souvent ennuyeuse, émaillée de très longs dialogues avec de trop nombreux personnages interchangeables. Heureusement, l'humour de Scalzi vient souvent au secours d'une enquête embourbée, et l'univers reste très fouillé, très bien pensé.
Le livre reste agréable à lire jusqu'au bout, grâce au talent de l'auteur et à la fluidité de son écriture, mais sa conclusion ne me laissera pas un souvenir impérissable.
À mes yeux John Scalzi n'est pas un auteur fait pour le roman policier. L'enquête policière ressemble trop à un jeu de piste dans lequel les enquêteurs se déplacent d'un point à l'autre au gré des évènements.

"Head on" est un bon livre de SF, un bon Scalzi... et un polar médiocre.

4 people found this helpful

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Siddhartha

Like it, maybe even more than the previous one

Reviewed in India on April 21, 2018

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This is copied across from my Goodreads review. I'll keep the review mostly spoiler free.

This is another vintage Scalzi book. Taut, great pacing, funny, touches on some very interesting and important topics.

We meet our protagonists a year after we last saw them, in Lock-in. Abrams-Kettering bill has passed, Hadens are trying to adjust to the new reality of living without the funding support and the fastest growing sport in North America is one that's played almost exclusively by Hadens. Agents Shane and Vann are embroiled in another mystery when a journeyman Hilketa (the sport played by Hadens and what sounds like a cross between Rugby and Gladiatorial combat) player dies during a game.

This is the second book of the series, so it needs much less worldbuilding than the first one. It reads more like a police procedural than a science fiction. Scalzi is a wonderful writer of police procedural fiction. His sense of pacing is excellent, he knows how to give a break and when to reel it in, he understands the genre well. He does something that not many modern mystery writers do - after most of the characters are introduced, he makes his protagonist summarise the relationship between them. He does this very naturally (nobody writes exposition better than Scalzi), but this is an old school trick that helps a lot when reading a book with lots of overlapping character arcs.

This is also an odd book because the setting of the mystery is a professional sports league. That's a little unusual, to say the least, for a science fiction. I have also started reading Catherynne Valente's Space Opera , which is set against another unusual background. I am so happy to read speculative fiction with these backgrounds, because both of them are super important culturally.

If someone asks me what I liked best about the book, I would point out to the characters and the prose. Scalzi's technical prowess of writing is in full display here. The very best writers compel you to read a book not for the stories but for the sheer joy of reading. In my opinion, Scalzi does that in this book.

I love the characters as well. I love the dynamic between the main protagonists, I love the relationship the narrator has with friends and family. I love that the villain is deliciously evil.

I am not as fond of the overall plot. Some parts of the denouement seemed a little forced and a little too convenient. Nothing seriously wrong, but I felt that some of the help our FBI agents got were not earned - they did not work very hard for them. I don't know if it makes any sense to anyone else, but I like my detectives and my crime solvers to work hard to make progress. It's probably nothing, but I wanted to write my honest impression.

Let me finish with three things I absolutely loved about the book (spoilers from here on):
1. I hate it when fictional sports have team sizes of 15, 18 or 20.5 or whatever. A team size of 11 is standard across so many different sports. It's not going to change easily in near future. Thank you, Mr. Scalzi, for making Hilketa a 11-player team sport.
2. Scalzi actually used the "applied directly to the forehead" line in the book. I guess he could not resist himself, could he?
3. I'm so happy to see Cat Valente name-dropped!

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Head On: A Novel of the Near Future (The Lock In Series Book 2) Kindle Edition

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