Lock In (Narrated by Amber Benson)

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Amber Benson

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

Two editions. Two narrators. One thrilling story. You can also choose to download Wil Wheaton's narration.

"I love working with Audible, in no small part because they’re committed to doing what’s right, both for my books, and the people who listen to those books. There's a really excellent reason for Lock In to have two entirely different versions, so when it came time to make the audiobook, Audible did an ingenious thing: they asked both Wil Wheaton and Amber Benson to record entire versions of the book. As the author, I’m impressed with Audible’s commitment to my narrative - and I’m geeking out that both Wil and Amber are reading my book. This is fantastic." (John Scalzi)

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.

BONUS AUDIO: Audible's audio edition of Lock In contains the bonus novella, Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome, written by John Scalzi and narrated by a full cast.

©2014 John Scalzi (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"Hugo-winner Scalzi successfully shifts away from space opera with this smart, thoughtful near-future thriller resonant with the themes of freedom, ethics, and corporate greed….This powerful novel will intrigue and entertain both fans and newcomers." ( Publishers Weekly)

"The novel--which contains plenty of action, great character development, vivid and believable worldbuilding and a thought-provoking examination of disability culture and politics--is definitely worth the ride." ( Kirkus)

"Another brilliant novel from a writer who has quickly become one of the genre’s most successful and intriguing practitioners." ( Booklist)

Solid book. Interesting premiss.

A crime novel in an interesting future. The setting has many possibilities. I will read more if Scalzi returns to this world. The added novella is a history of the disease. It was well, but not overly, explained in the novel. I thought I might not finish the novella as it was telling me things I already knew. It was worth the time.

Painful to listen to

The narrator sounds like she just took a drama course and is trying to practice - really hard. The most annoying part is her voice going from normal volume to really loud and then really soft. Please don’t use this narrator again.
The story is ok; definitely not his best. It could have benefited from a good editor.

mirrored Covid pandemic & thescience part was interesting...

it seemed inpersonal and no real connection to any one character. Maybe that was supposed to help the story line... it could happen to anyone.

I love snarkiness in characters

This was set up in two different editions. The one I listened to was narrated by Amber Benson and I think she did a fabulous job. I actually looked to see if it was only one actor because Amber is so fantastic at voices that I thought another gal may have joined her. Her voice and play on characters is nice because there is not a small amount of characters in this. It would have been very difficult to keep up with everyone had she not done such a superb job with the accents. I actually laughed a few times because the idea of the person matched what her accent was.

As the book introduces the characters I got a sense of real snarkiness form the two lead gals. Both cops, one locked in and one not. I love snarkiness in characters so this really thrilled me. There is some stuff about both gals that Scalzi does go into later on in the plot but not so much that it drags anything down. I really enjoyed hearing about their backgrounds, although, we learn about the main character, Chris Shane, pretty fast.

Then there is the sciencey stuff. I totally loved this part until the explanations start rolling. To be honest maybe some of it went over my head but not so much that I couldn't continue with the story line so I just went with it and tried to keep up. It was fantastically done being that John Scalzi had to explain the entire mystery behind what is driving the plot. This was great too because at about 10% I was asking where the story was going to go and shortly thereafter I got my answer. There IS a mystery behind it all but the Hadens have to be explained before the story can really get in that direction.

Audiobook purchased for review by ABR.

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Halfway decent Scalzi...

My mission here is simple; to stop the litany of 5 star gushing reviews over books that are just...meh. Credits are expensive people. It's obvious the algorithms are against us, so why do you make it worse? I judge most books on, "was it worth my credit". This book...sort of was...I guess. Not a glowing endorsement, but I've read worse. I sort of wished I purchased the Wil Wheaton version. Amber Benson did a good job, but when the main character is male, it sort of threw me off. This book was good...not very good, and definitely not great. Other main characters were female, so I suppose it evened out. Would have been great for both Amber and Wil to have collaborated. So much happens in such a short span. It's just a few days, which makes the whole thing feel a bit rushed. I am judging this book against Scalzi's best, so keep that in mind. Guessing this is better than most of the others out there, so if you've got a credit and need a time killer give it a chance.

She said, He said

I have only one major complaint about Amber Benson's narration of Lock In. That is She using different voices for all the characters, but put a major pulse on the He said, I said, she said. I found this very much annoying as a listener. Some parts of interactions between conversation do not need the "he said, I said, or she said" at all. with use of the different voice omit these. and for haven sack, Do not Pulse so long when using them. given 2 stars as her voices were pretty good.

A little difficult to follow

Is there anything you would change about this book?

No

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Not a writer so I can't answer that.

What didn’t you like about Amber Benson’s performance?

nothing

Could you see Lock In (Narrated by Amber Benson) being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No

Any additional comments?

Amber Bensons narration was boring and lacked emotion.

exhilarating.

what a fantastic take on human beings adaptation to change... the novella is better than the main novel.

Amazing story - loved it

A really interesting look at how human- controlled robot bodies might integrate into modern society. Sufficient character development, though i would have liked a bit more in order to really empathise with the main characters. Really enjoyable - not too technical.

Good But

I highly recommend manuscripts be edited before being turned into audio books. There are so many unnecessary repetitions of "he said" "she said." When the narrator (in my case, Amber Bensen) does such a great job doing different voices, it gets comical and irritating when you know perfectly well who is speaking, and it's a conversation between two people anyway. Scalzi, or at least Audible, should be deleting much of these dialogue tags before making what is essentially a radio play. The medium is the message, and different formats have different needs.

The story itself is enjoyable and engaging, fast-paced and satisfying. Note that there's a bonus audio book as the last 1/4 of the recoding. I was very confused when the story suddenly ended when I thought there were a couple hours left.

As for the bonus novella, the first part is a little dull since it's not centered on a human story -- it reads like a governmental report, which it is. Starting with part two, though, when it tells the story of FLOTUS Margaret Haden, I enjoyed the novella very much (3/5 stars). It's interesting background information and world building, and strengthens the case for a sequel or a series set in the world of Lock In, which I eagerly anticipate. The technology here is fascinating and a ripe ground for many more stories!