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Head On: A Novel of the Near Future (The Lock In Series Book 2) Kindle Edition

by John Scalzi (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 3,729 ratings

Book 2 of 2: Lock In

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"As much as Scalzi has the scientific creativity of a Michael Crichton, he also has the procedural chops of a Stephen J. Canell to craft a whodunit with buddy-cop charm and suspects aplenty—most of them in someone else's body." —USA Today

John Scalzi returns with Head On, the standalone follow-up to the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Lock In. Chilling near-future SF with the thrills of a gritty cop procedural, Head On brings Scalzi's trademark snappy dialogue and technological speculation to the future world of sports.

Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it.

Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.

Is it an accident or murder? FBI Agents and Haden-related crime investigators, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, are called in to uncover the truth—and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa, where fortunes are made or lost, and where players and owners do whatever it takes to win, on and off the field.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Book 2 of 2

Lock In
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328 pages
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Tor Books
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April 17, 2018
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What's it about?
A sport where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts.
Amazon editors say...
Scalzi prods readers to pull off their blinders of unthinking or unconsidered discrimination in this thrilling whodunit.
Adrian Liang, Amazon Editor

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Praise for Head On

"New and fresh....Scalzi's smirking, impish voice is a nice touch." ―NPR

"Particularly relevant....A fun, breezy thriller, one that showcases a world that carries with it some extremely astute commentary on some of the real problems that we face in our own. " ―The Verge

"The Lock In universe is as fascinating as ever....Complex, expansive....Pretty damn cool." ―RT Book Reviews, 4 stars

"Head On doesn’t care if you’ve read Lock In or not, but it does care if you enjoy a mystery wrapped up inside a science fiction novel....This might even be one of the best introductions to Scalzi out there." ―Culturess

"[Scalzi's] prose flows like a river, smoothly carrying us through the story; his characters are beautifully crafted; and his future world is impeccably designed, at the same time wildly imaginative and wholly plausible." ―Booklist, starred review

"This taut mystery, filled with memorable characters in a well-constructed world, will keep readers on the edges of their seats." ―Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Readers will definitely show up for the witty banter and smartass takedowns….Very clever, wonderfully satisfying fun." ―Kirkus

"A snappy, cannily-driven police procedural in which Scalzi highlights and skewers contemporary issues and hypocrisies." ―The Seattle Review of Books

"Scalzi is in good form again here with his usual rich blend of smart, rapid-fire dialogue and well-paced bursts of hard-hitting action." ―Toronto Star

Praise for Lock In

"This is the kind of thriller that Michael Crichton, Lincoln Child, and James Rollins do so well. Add John Scalzi to that list." ―Douglas Preston, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kraken Project and Impact

"As much as Scalzi has the scientific creativity of a Michael Crichton, he also has the procedural chops of a Stephen J. Canell to craft a whodunit with buddy-cop charm and suspects aplenty―most of them in someone else's body." ―USA Today

“Satisfying.” ―NPR

“Scalzi takes his work to an entirely new level.” ―Cory Doctorow

“A smart, thoughtful near-future thriller…. This powerful novel will intrigue and entertain both fans and newcomers.” ―Publishers Weekly, starred review

“John Scalzi may be the most entertaining writer in SF today.” ―Toronto Star

About the Author

John Scalzi writes books, which, considering where you're reading this, makes perfect sense. He's best known for writing science fiction, including the New York Times bestseller "Redshirts," which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. He also writes non-fiction, on subjects ranging from personal finance to astronomy to film, was the Creative Consultant for the Stargate: Universe television series. He enjoys pie, as should all right thinking people. You can get to his blog by typing the word "Whatever" into Google. No, seriously, try it.

Amber Benson is an American actress, writer, director, and producer. She is best known for her role as Tara Maclay on the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but has also directed, produced and starred in her own films Chance (2002) and Lovers, Liars & Lunatics (2006).

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B072LD8JG9
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tor Books (April 17, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 17, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3098 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 328 pages

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John Scalzi

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John Scalzi writes books, which, considering where you're reading this, makes perfect sense. He's best known for writing science fiction, including the New York Times bestseller "Redshirts," which won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. He also writes non-fiction, on subjects ranging from personal finance to astronomy to film, was the Creative Consultant for the Stargate: Universe television series. He enjoys pie, as should all right thinking people. You can get to his blog by typing the word "Whatever" into Google. No, seriously, try it.

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James B. Gibson

Bring Back Wil Wheaton!

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2024

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This is a fine book, both as a mystery and a sequel to Locked in. But the audio book misses Wil Wheaton’ great interpretation of Scalzi’s writing.

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2018

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First I have to state Scalzi is still at the top of my most favorite authors if not the most favorite. I would have liked to give this one 4.5 stars if that would be possible, but after much consideration, I decided to give it 4.

This is fantastically written, and the dialogues are witty and funny as hell. It almost felt like sometimes that the characters are in a Quentin Tarantino movie. The world is also really interesting and very coherent. I hope he will continue to write stories happening here.

So, the sole reason I gave it only 4 is that this is first and foremost a detective story in a sci-fi setting and I like his space operas much better. It is a brilliant and complicated detective story, with conspiracy and plot twists all the way. If that's your genre, you will love this. If you like sci-fi as well, you will be absolutely lost in this one.

I feel like this is somewhat similar to Asimov's detective stories, which I also liked, but were never my favorites among his works.

So, I recommend this one wholeheartedly either to crime story or sci-fi fans and if you are both, it's even better.

Meanwhile, I am sure I will buy and read any other books by Scalzi if he decides to continue this saga, but I'm eagerly waiting for him to continue the Interdependency series or maybe dare to dream about another installment in the Old Man's War books.

4 people found this helpful

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Milton

Murder and androids!

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024

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The partners are back and are trying to stay alive and solve the crime. Love, sex, money and intrigue this book continues the Haden FBI agent and his jaded senior partner's sleuthing.

Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2024

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The title of John Scalzi's Head On is what they call "antiphrasis" in rhetoric, or "flipping it" in Baltimore (at least, according to The Wire). Head On is about a sport called "Hilketa" (that's Basque for "murder"), in which players knock each other's heads off and attempt to throw them through a goal. But fear not! The players are Hadens using threeps (that is, telepresence robots, as you know if you've read Lock In), and they only knock the heads off of threeps. This, of course, is harmless to the Haden piloting the threep. So, as sports go, it is more violent than, say rugby or NASCAR, but less harmful to the players.

Until it isn't. In the course of a game, player Duane Chapman loses his head (literally) three times, then dies -- for real. Chris Shane, our favorite Haden FBI agent and World Champion Destroyer of Threeps, happens to be at the game when Chapman dies. Soon he and his partner Leslie Vann are investigating the death, and suspicious deaths are piling up in their To-Do lists.

And yes, there is a cat! Chris borrows the Philadelphia FBI office threep. He continues his record of careful threep stewardship by rushing into a burning building to save a cat, running out of battery power and burning up -- not him, but the Philly FBI threep -- a $50,000 value, and the Philly director is not happy. The cat, however, escapes. In fact, the cat turns out to be a material witness, providing a post hoc justification for Chris's rash and expensive heroism.

So, yes, there's a cat, and there are cat jokes. This is very on-brand for Scalzi -- see, for instance, the cover of Starter Villain, or his Love, Death and Robots story Three Robots.

So, yeah, it's a science fiction murder mystery and police procedural, and it's a bunch of fun. You do need to read Lock In first.

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Talia

As good as the first book

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024

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Another twist mystery that could only happen in the Hayden world. Vann and Chris have to wade through a mess of conflicting information before figuring it out.

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Joe Karpierz

Easy read, but nothing special

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2018

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I'm not really sure what to make of John Scalzi's writing these days. He has won three Hugos - Best Fan Writer, Best Related Book, and Best Novel. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. He has won other awards and been finalists for many others. His most recent appearance on the Hugo ballot was this year in San Jose at Worldcon 76 for THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE. He continues to be popular. So why am I getting this nagging feeling that he's starting to go through the motions?

HEAD ON is a standalone sequel to 2014's LOCK IN. Just before I wrote that last sentence I reread my review of that book. It turns out I feel the same way about HEAD ON as I did about LOCK IN.

There's a violent new sport in town played by Haden's controlling threeps called Hilketa. Hilketa is a team sport, the object of which is to score more goals than your opponent. Sounds pretty normal and boring, right? I mean, we've seen it before. Well, to score a goal a player must rip the head off of an opponent and carry it through a set of goal posts. Okay, that's a lot more interesting than the run of the mill goal scoring game, as long as you're into that whole ripping off the the head thing. Anyway, this "sport" gives the Haden population something of their own they can do. The sport's popularity is on the rise, and the league is looking not only to expand within the U.S., it's looking to start leagues overseas.

The book starts out at a preseason game that is being used as a showcase for wealthy investors who the league is trying to convince to become owners of new franchises in the U.S. All is going swimmingly well. The crowd is loving the game, and the wealthy investors are being courted by league officials. Then the worst possible thing that could happen did happen: a player by the name of Duane Chapman dies on the field during the game. And thus we have the event that starts this novel rolling.

FBI agents Chris Shane, a Haden and the main character of the previous novel, and his partner Leslie Vann are assigned to the case. The obvious question is whether the death is murder or simply an accident.

What, you actually thought this was an accident? It wouldn't be much of a novel if it wasn't a murder, now would it?

There are some interesting things and ideas in play here, and that's not really unusual for a Scalzi novel. Scalzi is using the idea of the marginalization of minorities here. Threep technology is advancing such that "normal" humans will be able to ride in threep just like Hadens can, thus giving them the ability to take over the sport that was meant to be played by Hadens. There is a technology that allows fans of the sport to read the biometric data of any of the players they want during a match, as long as they pay an extra fee (Here we get two ideas for the price of one, where a consumer can pay an extra fee to get content that other consumers cannot - think premium cable channels - as well as the spectators can see what is going on with their favorite players in gory detail - think (and maybe it's a bit of a stretch) bloodthirsty spectators watching battles in ancient Rome. All good stuff.

The rest of it? Well, it becomes a police procedural detailing a murder investigation. There's infidelity, jealousy, doping, drug dealing, conspiracies, and twists. Scalzi uses the ideas and world that he built in LOCK IN to help move the story along, which of course you would expect him to do. But it feels like he thought "How can I use the LOCK IN universe stuff in another novel? Right, I'll do a murder mystery!"

There's really nothing wrong with that. But he's not really exploring anything that hasn't been explored before by him or anyone else. The technology may be a bit different, but the ideas are not. And given today's society, the ideas aren't even that old.

Within the last day or two of me writing this review, Scalzi said on Twitter that he writes for the money. And that's okay. He has to feed his family, pay for his daughter's college tuition, and make sure the cats are happy. And if the best way to do that is to write what he does, good for him. A lot of people can't do that. But he's done better than this, with novels like OLD MAN'S WAR and REDSHIRTS. I'd like to see him get back to that level of quality.

Then again he's popular. Who am I to judge, since I like him too?

9 people found this helpful

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Margaret Searcy

A terrific second novel in the series!

Reviewed in Canada on April 17, 2018

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I'd forgotten to expect this download today and was delightfully surprised when it arrived. John Scalzi has crafted another wonderful mystery novel in the same world as Lock In. I still love these characters and look forward to more in the series.
This book is standalone so you don't have to have read Lock In first, but why wouldn't you?

Amazon Kunde

A good read

Reviewed in Germany on April 13, 2019

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A good read

Holly "Ragdoll Reads" Hodson

Capitalism, pro sports and disabilities don't mix!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 5, 2018

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What I liked…

I think my favourite part of this book was that a lot of the social and ethical themes from the first book are explored in greater deal in Head On. One such example from the first book was the idea that the things that made life liveable for Haden's would be taken over by non-Haden's in the name of profit. Haden's make up around 1% of the population, and after Abrams-Kettering (a bill that removed financial support for Haden's sufferers) the markets for Hadens-related products was set to shrink. In Lock In, preparations were being made to chase the non-Haden market by paving the way for non-Hadens to use threeps (the android bodies Haden's use to have a presence in the physical world. In 'Head On', this theme is explored further, and we see able-bodied protesters, whining that the Hilketa leagues only feature Haden players. Drawing obvious parallels to the sort of nonsense protests we see in the real world about 'safe' spaces for marginalised and minority groups. It is elements like this that demonstrate both a good understand of disability and minority issues, and it helps make the world both real and engaging.

We also learn a lot more about the world as seen through the eyes of Haden's. Scalzi has created a really rich culture for Hadens, and we learn a good deal about the etiquette, social norms and the role of the Agora (an 'online' world for Hadens).

Our two main characters, Shane and Vann were the leads in 'Lock In', and they continue to be interesting individuals with an entertaining partnership. After a year of working together, Shane and Vann have created an effective working relationship which often involves some delightful good cop / bad cop interrogations that are enjoyable to read and often very amusing to boot. In addition we see the return of the supporting characters in the form of Shane's housemates, who play a bigger role in this book than in 'Lock In'.

The plot summary makes it sound like this book is heavily centred around the sport of Hilketa - and it is - but this is not a sci-fi sports novel. I was quite worried when I bought this book that it might be mostly about sport...fantastic science fiction sport, but sport none the less, and that wasn't of great appeal to me. Fortunately this wasn't the case. It is first and foremost a crime / conspiracy novel, which happens to involve the sport. We do learn quite a bit about how the sport works but it isn't the primary focus.

Finally, I love the fact that Scalzi made sure to provide quick explanations of the key terms and themes as they arose. If you had read 'Lock In' recently then you might consider them superfluous, but it did mean that if you wanted to, you could read 'Head On' without having read 'Lock In' first, which I thought was pretty neat.

What I disliked…

I can't exactly put my finger on anything specific that I didn't like - I just know I enjoyed the first book more (and I read them back to back). Actually that's not quite true - for some reason, Scalzi switched from using the word "Harness" to describe the apparatus that held a Hadens physical body, and started using "Creche" instead. I don't know why, and it's not exactly a problem, I just found it a bit odd.

I don't think there was anything wrong with the book - in fact a lot of parts I thought were much better, it just overall felt a little less than its counterpart somehow. I couldn't decide if I should give the book a 4.5 or 5 button rating - I eventually decided on 5 because it seemed unreasonably to give a book I enjoyed so much a lower rating just because of a vague sense that the first one might have been better.

Final thoughts...

This book is an excellent sequel to 'Lock In' and an excellent story in its own right. Scalzi has created rich and full worlds, chock full of detail and careful thought - such careful world-craft deserves high praise.

The book doesn't just follow a simple murder or conspiracy track, it also tackles a whole bunch of social and ethical issues which made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable for me.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes solid science fiction, also to any crime fans who don't mind the futuristic setting.

5 people found this helpful

Leather DeBoeuf

les têtes brulées

Reviewed in France on July 21, 2018

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Ce second volet de "Lock in" repart avec le même duo d'enquêteurs, les agents du FBI Vann et Shane, dans un univers futuriste proche, dans lequel des millions de personnes sont paralysées par le syndrome "Haden" mais peuvent communiquer avec l'extérieur en réalité virtuelle et via des androïdes qu'ils peuvent "habiter".
J'avais été un peu déçu par le premier volet de cette série, qui se terminait en queue de poisson et que j'avais jugé bâclé.
Ce deuxième volet est plus consistant, mais ce n'est pas une totale réussite. Si l'univers est toujours aussi solide, si les personnages principaux sont attachants et drôles, l'intrigue policière est plutôt laborieuse.

Ça démarre mal dès un premier chapitre dans lequel Scalzi décrit de long en large un sport qu'il a inventé pour ses Hadens, le Hilketa. Ce n'est franchement pas passionnant, pas très crédible non plus.Tout le livre va tourner autour de ce sport, mais les descriptions d'actions sportives sans queue ni tête (surtout sans tête) nous seront fort heureusement épargnées par la suite.
L'enquête policière est longue, souvent ennuyeuse, émaillée de très longs dialogues avec de trop nombreux personnages interchangeables. Heureusement, l'humour de Scalzi vient souvent au secours d'une enquête embourbée, et l'univers reste très fouillé, très bien pensé.
Le livre reste agréable à lire jusqu'au bout, grâce au talent de l'auteur et à la fluidité de son écriture, mais sa conclusion ne me laissera pas un souvenir impérissable.
À mes yeux John Scalzi n'est pas un auteur fait pour le roman policier. L'enquête policière ressemble trop à un jeu de piste dans lequel les enquêteurs se déplacent d'un point à l'autre au gré des évènements.

"Head on" est un bon livre de SF, un bon Scalzi... et un polar médiocre.

4 people found this helpful

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Siddhartha

Like it, maybe even more than the previous one

Reviewed in India on April 21, 2018

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This is copied across from my Goodreads review. I'll keep the review mostly spoiler free.

This is another vintage Scalzi book. Taut, great pacing, funny, touches on some very interesting and important topics.

We meet our protagonists a year after we last saw them, in Lock-in. Abrams-Kettering bill has passed, Hadens are trying to adjust to the new reality of living without the funding support and the fastest growing sport in North America is one that's played almost exclusively by Hadens. Agents Shane and Vann are embroiled in another mystery when a journeyman Hilketa (the sport played by Hadens and what sounds like a cross between Rugby and Gladiatorial combat) player dies during a game.

This is the second book of the series, so it needs much less worldbuilding than the first one. It reads more like a police procedural than a science fiction. Scalzi is a wonderful writer of police procedural fiction. His sense of pacing is excellent, he knows how to give a break and when to reel it in, he understands the genre well. He does something that not many modern mystery writers do - after most of the characters are introduced, he makes his protagonist summarise the relationship between them. He does this very naturally (nobody writes exposition better than Scalzi), but this is an old school trick that helps a lot when reading a book with lots of overlapping character arcs.

This is also an odd book because the setting of the mystery is a professional sports league. That's a little unusual, to say the least, for a science fiction. I have also started reading Catherynne Valente's Space Opera , which is set against another unusual background. I am so happy to read speculative fiction with these backgrounds, because both of them are super important culturally.

If someone asks me what I liked best about the book, I would point out to the characters and the prose. Scalzi's technical prowess of writing is in full display here. The very best writers compel you to read a book not for the stories but for the sheer joy of reading. In my opinion, Scalzi does that in this book.

I love the characters as well. I love the dynamic between the main protagonists, I love the relationship the narrator has with friends and family. I love that the villain is deliciously evil.

I am not as fond of the overall plot. Some parts of the denouement seemed a little forced and a little too convenient. Nothing seriously wrong, but I felt that some of the help our FBI agents got were not earned - they did not work very hard for them. I don't know if it makes any sense to anyone else, but I like my detectives and my crime solvers to work hard to make progress. It's probably nothing, but I wanted to write my honest impression.

Let me finish with three things I absolutely loved about the book (spoilers from here on):
1. I hate it when fictional sports have team sizes of 15, 18 or 20.5 or whatever. A team size of 11 is standard across so many different sports. It's not going to change easily in near future. Thank you, Mr. Scalzi, for making Hilketa a 11-player team sport.
2. Scalzi actually used the "applied directly to the forehead" line in the book. I guess he could not resist himself, could he?
3. I'm so happy to see Cat Valente name-dropped!

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