Lock in

by John Scalzi

[leahrosereads]

The synopsis gives a pretty good summary of what happens without spoiling anything, so I definitely recommend reading that. It's more put together than what I can provide.

Before getting into this review, I'm really happy that I read others (namely Shelby's whose suggested reading the oral history prior to starting this novel. It allowed me to become more immersed into the world before ever entering it. So thank you!)


LOCK IN took me on a ride and a half, for sure! It was this crazy crime novel filled with some pretty spectacular tech and science fiction elements that felt bizarre but realistic all at once. Those pieces alone would give this book a 4 star rating for me.

The tech here, especially surrounding those with lock in was so intelligently thought out. This idea that something so horrific happened to people, and providing these 'quick fixes' with the robots (threeps) just felt like something that would actually happen vs. trying to find the cure. This virus was just too new and too unknown to make a cure at the beginning viable, and these robots felt like the perfect solution.


And while I wasn't overly impressed by the characters, they were developed enough to keep me from dropping the rating, but not developed enough to put this into the 5 star category, unfortunately.

I would have honestly loved a little bit more information about the characters because I felt like that's all that was missing to bring this into 5 star territory.

I enjoyed being in the head of Chris Shane and felt that they were pretty fleshed out. John Scalzi did something pretty interesting, conceptually with this character, by not stating their gender. However, though it was conceptually a good idea, Chris read male to me.

Maybe because they were a FEEB and by nature, I view cop and cop-esque characters as male, but it felt more with how they spoke (referring to themselves as a "coward" at one point felt pretty masculine to me). Anyway, I appreciated the attempt, but I felt John Scalzi could have taken this a bit further by really androgynizing everything coming out of Chris' mouth/mind.

I also really appreciated the societal issues faced in this story. Threeps being treated as sub-human also felt really plausible and that pretty much hurts my soul. But I can see it. I can see a world where humans are trapped in their own bodies and given robotic carriers being treated as less than. And that's a sucky thing to have to visualize, knowing that it'd probably happen exactly like that.

When I read those aspects, it reminded me a little bit about World War Z. Because, I felt that would be how a zombie apocalypse would actually hit humanity, and how humanity would react to such a situation.

I really do think that if Haden's Syndrome hit tomorrow, this is how we would react...and that's unfortunate with some aspects and really interesting with others (seeing technology evolve so quickly and in such fascinating ways).


This is now my second John Scalzi of the year, and I'm impressed. I'll definitely be picking up more of his work in the future for sure, and I believe there's going to be another book in this world. Definitely going to pick it up if/when it hits!