Head On

John Scalzi

A follow up, of sorts, to Lock In, we are about 1 year later and FBI detectives Shane and Vann are still partners and still on the job. Recall that Shane is a Haden, a human who has contracted a disease that completely immobilizes their body, but not their brain. These Hadens have neural network hardware implanted in their brain that allows them to remote operate humanoid robots (Threeps) and participate in the physical world. The political/social culture in this novel opens with a new major sports league based on Hadens (i.e. their threeps) competing on a football-like field where the goal is to decapitate an opposing player and score with the head. At the same time, massive government subsidies to help Hadens with affording all this expensive access to the world is ending. And then a journeyman Haden athlete dies on the field (which shouldn't be able to happen) followed by a suicide, an arson, a murder-suicide, and assassination, etc. Special Agents Shane and Vann are on the job. I love the technology, the ethical gray areas, and the buddy cop dynamic that thread through the entire story. Keep them coming.

4 stars (out of 4)