Lock In
A Novel of the Near Future
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4.2 • 511 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A blazingly inventive near-future thriller from the best-selling, Hugo Award-winning John Scalzi.
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.
A quarter of a century later, in a world shaped by what's now known as "Haden's syndrome," rookie FBI agent Chris Shane is paired with veteran agent Leslie Vann. The two of them are assigned what appears to be a Haden-related murder at the Watergate Hotel, with a suspect who is an "integrator" - someone who can let the locked in borrow their bodies for a time. If the Integrator was carrying a Haden client, then naming the suspect for the murder becomes that much more complicated.
But "complicated" doesn't begin to describe it. As Shane and Vann began to unravel the threads of the murder, it becomes clear that the real mystery - and the real crime - is bigger than anyone could have imagined. The world of the locked in is changing, and with the change comes opportunities that the ambitious will seize at any cost. The investigation that began as a murder case takes Shane and Vann from the halls of corporate power to the virtual spaces of the locked in, and to the very heart of an emerging, surprising new human culture. It's nothing you could have expected.
Other Tor Books
Lock In: Lock In / Head On
Old Man's War: Old Man's War / The Ghost Brigades / The Last Colony / Zoe's Tale / The Human Division / The End of All Things
The Interdpendency: The Collapsing Empire / The Consuming Fire / The Last Emperox
The Android’s Dream
Agent to the Stars
Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded
Fuzzy Nation
Redshirts
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
After a virus paralyzes millions of Americans, trapping them in their own bodies, technological interventions are created that allow their consciousnesses to enter a virtual landscape, an android host, or a more capable survivor. That’s the imaginative near-future setting for science fiction master John Scalzi’s thought-provoking Lock In, which puts a bleak spin on gamification and explores what it means to be human in the digital age. But Lock In is also an exciting and twisty procedural mystery featuring two mismatched FBI agents in dogged pursuit of a particularly vicious murderer. It’s a spellbinding read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hugo-winner Scalzi (Redshirts) successfully shifts away from space opera with this smart, thoughtful near-future thriller resonant with the themes of freedom, ethics, and corporate greed. The story is set some 25 years after the first appearance of Haden's Syndrome, a virus that killed 400 million people and leaves a small percentage of its victims in "Lock In," a state in which they are fully aware but trapped inside unresponsive bodies. Neural net technology allows Hadens to use android-like "threeps" or make arrangements with Integrators, survivors whose virus-altered brains allow them to share their bodies. When a corpse is found at the Watergate hotel and the only suspect is a blood-covered Integrator who says he doesn't remember what transpired, newly minted FBI agent Chris Shane and veteran agent Leslie Vann are called in to investigate, uncovering an intricate tangle of political and business interests. Scalzi's characters possess tangible motivations and inhabit a thoroughly believable world, and the growing partnership between Shane and Vann is a pleasure to watch unfold. This powerful novel will intrigue and entertain both fans and newcomers.
Customer Reviews
Excellent
What a fun, interesting, and thought provoking read. I did notice a few edits. Using she and me instead of she and I. Happened twice. Still a good read and I'll buy another book.
Disappointed
While Scalzi's play on virtual reality was interesting and well-done, I found myself put off by the constant moralizing about how awful it is when the government doesn't just take care of everyone the way the author feels it should. Ultimately that made it feel like an especially whiny CSI episode set in the future.
Great read!
I have looked forward to reading this book since I first heard it was being published. It was worth the wait! The book was an easy read, but the computer stuff left me a little confused. Must be my age! I found myself eager to finish it, but regret that I read it so fast that the end of the book came too quickly. I would read one page at a sitting just to drag it out, it was that good.
Read it, you won't be disappointed.