My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In John Scalzi’s new sci-fi thriller, Lock In, human civilization has been ravaged by a disease that kills many and leaves many more in a coma-like state. At the outset, Haden’s Syndrome comes on like Avian flu before escalating to meningitis in a second stage. And then it gets really tricky…
Scalzi has come up with a fascinating and wholly unique premise; that of humans trapped in their own bodies – fully aware but incapable of any physical movement or speech. The syndrome and the resultant solution – transmitting consciousness into a robot (“threep”) or another receptive human being (“integrator”) make for fantastic science-fiction by themselves, but it is the larger issues created by this new reality that make the tale so interesting. As with most great sci-fi, the novel deals with troubling larger issues of identity, reality, morality, discrimination and what it means to be human.
The story is told from the perspective of Chris Shane, a “Haden” child of a famous businessman & former basketball player. The novel opens with Shane’s first week as an FBI agent, ambulating in a high-end threep (so named for the robots resemblance to a certain famous film robot). Shane’s partner is a former integrator and the two are uniquely qualified for their first case together, that of a murder that may have been perpetrated by an integrator – or someone else in their head…
The story mostly plays out as a police procedural mystery, but a spellbinding one. It is absolutely a captivating read that I could barely stand to stop reading. The ending was slightly less satisfying, being a bit too neatly wrapped up for a novel that raised so many interesting and thorny problems, but I’m not totally sure I wasn’t just annoyed that the story was ending…
The characters are very interesting with great dialogue, although the protagonist unsurprisingly is drastically more developed than any other individual. One sort of remarkable note about the character: the audiobook, produced by Audible Studios was actually created in two separate versions with different narrators, Amber Benson & Wil Wheaton. When they first promoted this, they offered both editions for the price of one if you pre-ordered – I was intrigued, so I did.* The author said this: “There’s a really excellent reason for Lock In to have two entirely different versions.” I have to admit that I read/listened to the entire novel without ever realizing why. It was only afterwards, when I was no longer afraid of spoilers that I listened to an interview with the narrators and was made aware that the author never specifies the gender of the main character. I was stunned – equally impressed that Scalzi pulled this off and that I read the entire book without recognizing this. While in another situation I might have interpreted my failure to pick up on this lack of detail about the main character as inattentive reading on my part, I can clearly recognize the skill on the author’s part here; he makes the gender irrelevant.
This is really rather impressive, and it’s not the only instance of this skill in the novel, although I don’t want to spoil the story. I’m not spoiling anything by noting the casual introduction of gay characters in the same manner; the author is merely fleshing out descriptive information about characters in the same way he notes physical appearance or mannerisms. There’s nothing revolutionary going on here, but utilizing gay characters in non-stereotypical ways – allowing gays to be powerful, corporate jerks just like everyone else is refreshing and another great example of how elegantly Scalzi writes. Much like the novella that teased this novel, Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome, the story feels like something the author just observed and reported; the writing seems effortless (I know it isn’t).
The action in Lock In is well written, but this really is a book more about ideas. It would be hard to believe that many of the issues the characters struggle with will not rear their heads in our lifetime. The prospect of a massive viral outbreak and our inability to stem it is bone-chilling plausible as are the myriad political, technical and societal responses dealt with here.
Lock In is top-shelf sci-fi and highly recommended. Now, do we get a sequel?
Update #1 – 09/04/2014
* I sort of half-read, half-listened to the the story. Although I initially bought the audio version, it was so immediately satisfying that I picked up the Kindle version so I could switch back and forth to maximize reading time. I started with the Wheaton version and will listen to Benson’s narration on my re-read, which will start in about 5, 4, 3…
I do highly recommend the well-made audio versions, found here: http://www.audible.com/mt/LockIn?bp_ua=yes&source_code=AUDGBWS0701149A1E
Update #2 – 11/10/2014
Just finished the Amber Benson narrated version, which I’ve been picking away at a bit at a time for the past 2 months. It’s equally fantastic! It’s very interesting to hear another narrator of equal quality with an entirely different take on each character and situation. Made the story fresh and different on my second read.
