Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I just wrote possibly my longest book review ever (odd considering this is a novella) and lost it when I hit save because I changed editions mid-review. Sigh…
Ok, MUCH shorter now:
Unlocked is a novella that appeared on TOR.com as a preview or teaser for Lock In, which just came out. The story is in the “oral history” style of writing, and gives the back story behind Haden’s Syndrome, a super-flu type disease which radically affects all of human civilization in author John Scalzi’s new book.
I’d never read anything in this style previously – it’s a fantastic exposition tool here and far more interesting than I would have expected. The novel itself has a clever tool of opening with an introduction written like an online encyclopedia article. It is very effective and gives all of the information you need to enter the world the author has created for his novel. But the additional background provided in Unlocked certainly provides greater depth and clarity to the overall story.
Had I been aware of the publication of this story earlier this year it probably would have been better to read it at the time, further whetting my appetite for the full novel. But I was already pretty eager for Lock In as it was.
My own odd method of consuming the story worked pretty well in hindsight. I purchased the Audible version of Lock In, narrated by Wil Wheaton (there’s also a version narrated by Amber Benson) and listened to the first 4-5 chapters yesterday. Then last night in bed when I wanted to read not listen, I purchased and knocked this out quickly. It absolutely added to my enjoyment of Lock In and proceeded to purchase the Kindle version of the novel as well, and stayed up too late continuing the story. It’s a grabber…
Long story short (too late), you don’t need to read this in order to enjoy Lock In, but it will certainly enhance your appreciation. It’s not a long read, but more substantial than I expected and very engaging on it’s own. And it will absolutely make you want to continue the story…
Highly recommended.
