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Book Review: Head On by John Scalzi (Lock In #2)
This is the second book which features Chris Shane, an FBI agent who suffers from Haden’s, a disease which keeps its sufferers completely immobile or ‘locked in’. To allow Hadens to interact with able bodied humans, a network is placed in their brain and they then communicate via a couple of options, the most common using a robot-like body called a Threep.
This book has Shane and his partner, Leslie Vann, investigating a death during a new sport invented for Hadens called Hilketa. Hilketa reads like a mixture between American football and a Roman Gladiator battle. The game involves one team protecting the Goat (a player supposedly chosen at random) whilst the opposition tries to rip off the Goat’s head to use as a ball (which will subsequently be punted through goal posts to score). The title, therefore, becomes pretty clever — keep your head on to win, face the danger head on etc.
Although still a police procedural at heart, there’s probably more action scenes in this installment, especially more featuring Threeps. There’s scenes featuring Tank Threeps which are Hulk-like ramming robots created especially for the purposes of Hilketa. There’s inert Threeps coming to life (I found this particularly creepy actually) and also the opposite situation, ie Hadens leaving an empty shell of a Threep after they’ve committed a crime. I won’t, however, go into the whole sex model Threeps which feature (LOL!).
Actually, I will go into the sex models slightly… They do strengthen the whole argument I’ve read on the internet regarding several characters, including Shane, never having their gender and/or sexuality really specified (pretty much every character has a non-gender specific name – Leslie, Chris, Taylor etc). A lot of readers say it’s a bit of a social experiment as to how you ‘see’ the characters but, as I listened to Wil Wheaton’s narration via Audible, I must admit I probably failed some sort of feminist test and think of Chris as male.
Talking of Wheaton, his narration again is superb. He has great comic timing. I literally laughed out loud at Shane and Vann’s witty back and forth banter. (Vann’s cranky old lady act will never get old.) There’s also some very funny scenes involving a cat. (This reminded me a lot of Connie Willis’s To Say Nothing of the Dog, so if you’re a fan of that book, I suggest you grab this one and give it a go.)
I must admit some of the passages explaining the politics and money and business interests surrounding the game got a little boring and, dare I say, a little American. Not enough to annoy me though.
I do recommend that you read Lock In before you attempt Head On. Although the mystery/crime plots are completely separate, I think you’d need to read the first book in the series to fully appreciate and understand Head On.
This is an instant 5 out of 5 favourite and I hope Scalzi comes back to this universe soon. In the meantime, I will give some of his other books a go.