Lock In (Narrated by Wil Wheaton)

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

AudioFile Best Voices - Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Audio Theater, 2014

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.

"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)

2 editions. 2 narrators. 1 thrilling story. You can enjoy Amber Benson's narration here.

©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)

"With narrator Wil Wheaton attacking Scalzi's text with both vigor and nuance, this story tells about a silent minority being given voice, then having that voice threatened.... Thanks to Wheaton's skillful efforts, this production is an enjoyable melding of narrator and material." ( AudioFile)

Enjoyable Book

I found the new take on a viral epidemic and how it was handled fascinating. The mystery was also good. The best part, to me, was actually the bonus novella. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the back story of the disease, how it was studied, and what happened to several seemingly minor characters in Locked In.

One thing that did annoy me was the over use of said. Someone needs to give the author and his editor thesauruses (thesauri?) so the the reader doesn't hear said up to several times a minute.

Meh, just ok

I found the plot to be interesting, but the characters and disease itself was really what dragged this down for me.

FBI crime thriller meets Isaac Asimov

Good story line that ties fictional corporate crime with real world budding IT technology. Great narrator.

darn good story!

The presentation of the story was a bit choppy. Many times did I notice the recording changed from sentence to sentence, as if each sentence was being read at a different time. I wonder if Scalzi was adding to or changing the text as the novel was being recorded. Nevertheless, a fantastic story! Realistic imagination of a potential future.

Fantastic speculative fiction w/ a side of mystery

I really love the way Scalzi blends the mystery genre with speculative fiction. It makes for edge of the seat story telling. This story blends the social and technological aftermath of a novel virus with the disaster of capitalism and greed.

Over the last year, everytime I read a book or watch a show that includes a story about a goober pandemic, I can't help but look up when it was written. This was written in 2014, and is set long after the initial pandemic, but it has an echo of the unexpected long term impacts of a novel virus that we're seeing with Covid. Different, but similar.

The bonus novela at the end is a pseudo-documentary about the original global pandemic that feels like the sorry of thing we'll see about Covid in another 10-20 years when we've had a chance to create a good history of this period.

Great story and very well told

The story is captivating and made you think and empathize with the Hayden's.

The main plot was interesting, but for me was the backstory and the world that was really the interesting part.

It was quite strange to think about global viruses, pandemics and society's response to them, given we have our own pandemic right now...

i really hope if it comes to something like this we could also create all the changes needed for people to be able to live their lives as normal as possible.

Clever Sci-Fi Premise

I enjoyed this book. I thought the premise was well thought out and somewhat believable (at least the Hayden's Syndrome aspect. Wil Wheaton is one of my favorite narrators and part of the reason I got this book. His performance was fantastic as usual. I got the second book in the series, Head On, as a daily deal so I got this one as well. There is a 2 hour novella at the end of this, that I enjoyed wayyy more than I thought I would. it's like all the background stuff about Hayden's that the author couldn't fit in the books. This book is slightly better than the sequel. I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone because its a great mix of sci fi and mystery with plenty of action. I appreciate a book that doesn't include a bunch of unnecessary romance. This book is understandable even if you are not tech savvy like myself.

Okay, not great

I thought that the premise and over arching story were pretty good and definitely had potential for a great book. I generally enjoyed the book and mostly enjoyed wil Wheaton as the narrator. He doesn't alter his voice much between characters so it can at times be difficult to follow if you are not fully attuned to what's going on. There also a lot of names and the bad guys' plot is admittedly pretty devious. So again I really had to pay attention because at time I got a bit lost wondering, who's this again? Who's do they fit into the story? Which wasn't necessarily bad... there were just a lot of moving pieces and because it's a relatively quick read ( the novel itself happens the course of a week I think) there isn't a whole lot of time spend on each piece but they all fit into the mystery solved at the end. The ending read like an episode of "Bones" or maybe "CSI". The criminal confesses completely and the good guys put all the pieces together in the last 15 minutes of the episode.

This is not a literary masterpiece but if you're looking for a quick read with a interesting backdrop then I think this is a perfectly good book. If you are looking for a little more depth... then meh... not worth your time.

Interesting story, would love more!

Any additional comments?

A very interesting premise for a novel. When I read some reviews prior they mentioned the premise was a mix of scifi and politics. I'm not a huge fan of politics so I was worried, but I had no issues with it. If there were a sequel I would be cautious going in, just in case that was the focus. I would love a sequel to delve further into more of the psychology/philosophy behind the challenges of the society.

Well read by Wil Wheaton. I haven't listened to any of his other stuff and I'm a fan of Tabletop, so it took me a little bit to stop picturing board games, but otherwise great!

Excellent book

Super interesting story. Scalzi has a knack for science fiction that's plausible enough to be creepy but still wildly entertaining. Wil Wheaton does another excellent narration job.