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)

combination of sci-fi and police procedural

In Lock In you get a combination of sci-fi and police procedural. The future setting feels real and other than the technology is not so different from today. We follow Agent Shane, who grew up as a poster child for Hayden’s Syndrome and is trying to leave that behind him, on his first day of work for the FBI which also happens to be a the first day of the Haden Walkout in protest of legislation that is going to go into effect taking away much of the government funding/benefits to people with Hayden’s. Agent Shane is paired up with the jaded and rough around the edges Agent Van, she used to be an Integrator for people with Hayden’s, so they each have a fairly unique understanding of each other, even as they get to know each other as partners. Shane’s first real day on the job starts with a murder that involves and Integrator and we get to watch the story unfold as clues are provided. Some of the plot was predictable and some of it very easy to figure out, ultimately it was a very tangled web weaved by the time the “bad guy” is revealed. While the story is wrapped up nice and neat at the end, there is still a possibility of another story for a new investigation. I hope we do see more as the characters were fun and would love to read more.

This was my first Audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton, I thought he did a great job and I plan on looking for more books narrated by him. While he did not change his voice much for the different characters, I found I did not have a problem following which character was speaking. I prefer to hear a narrator do this rather than give a voice that does not fit the character, which I find can ruin a good audio. The novella at the end has several different narrators, off hand I recognized Luke Daniels, Tavia Gilbert, and Therese Plummer…, the novella was interesting and helped answer questions I had while listening to Lock In, I like how it is done documentary style.

All in all this was a good story; good narration and I look forward to reading/listening to more by John Scalzi

Audiobook purchased for review by ABR.

Please find this complete review and many others at audiobookreviewer dot com

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An enthralling novel of big ideas

Reviewed by Marion, Terry, and me at Fantasy Literature.

Marion: In Lock In, Haden’s syndrome has created millions of people who are conscious and alert, but have no voluntary control of their bodies; they are, effectively, “locked in” to themselves. Government funded technology has developed ways to assist these, who are called “Hadens,” to function; both in a non-physical information-world called the Agora, and by using sophisticated Personal Transports or android bodies called “threeps.” (You might be able to figure out where that name comes from if you remember a certain gold-colored android from a popular trilogy of movies a few decades ago.) Chris Shane is a Haden, one of the two most famous Hadens in America, and a freshly-minted FBI agent. On the second day on the job, Chris and acerbic partner Leslie Vann take jurisdiction of a baffling case that involves a dead mystery man and an Integrator, a human who can let Hadens “ride” in his brain. This controversial murder comes on the eve of a week-long Haden protest against newly passed legislation that ends funding for services to Hadens. The Integrator, who is covered with the dead man’s blood, is the brother of a powerful and vocal Haden separatist, the coordinator of the protest demonstrations.

Terry read Lock In at the same time I did, so we decided to discuss it together. Kat just finished the audio version, so she’ll make some comments about that.

Terry: The police procedural style murder mystery plays out against a backdrop of dramatic political, social and technological changes. As in other books by John Scalzi, these rapid changes have brought humanity to a crossroads. The changes are sufficiently complex, however, that Scalzi is frequently pushed into dumping information by the bucketload on his readers. Most of the time, this works. The initial dump, which purports to be an article on a high school cheating website, reads well, just as do the conversations between experts we would expect FBI agents to utilize, or with witnesses. Sometimes the information is shoehorned in, as in an initial discussion between Chris and a Navajo police officer. I mostly appreciated the information, even when it was a bit awkward. As a mystery reader, though, I was alert to some of the stranger turns in the conversation, thinking that the odder information would serve as clues.

Kat: Infodumps usually bother me, and there were plenty of them in Lock In, but I actually welcomed them here. That’s probably because neuroscience and psychology are my areas of interest, so the parts of the book that I was most fascinated by were the parts explained in the infodumps. What happened in the brain to make these people lock in? How did scientists and engineers solve the problem? And, most importantly to me, is that even possible? (No, and probably never will be.) How did society react to locked in people walking around in robotic, or other people’s, bodies? The mystery was of less interest to me, except that it served to highlight the problems that would occur in a society where some of its participants are not physically in the bodies they’re using.

Marion: The info-dumps that bothered me came more, I think, from the roommate character, just because I thought the whole arrival of the roommates was a bit too convenient. That was my main plot-quibble with the whole book. On the other hand, watching Chris go house hunting gave me an idea of what many Hadens would be facing under the new laws. I’m a mystery reader too, and to me, this was a “how-dun-it” rather than a “who-dun-it.” I liked how Scalzi played fair with the clues, something even veteran mystery writers don’t always do. And the “how was it done?” question in this book was fascinating.

Terry: I liked that too, and it’s difficult to do with a science fiction mystery. There’s always the temptation to pull out a new gizmo and claim it fixes everything. Scalzi consistently avoids that temptation. The twists and turns of this particular law enforcement investigation are well-detailed, with no instances of Chris missing an issue because Leslie failed to point it out.

Marion: I liked the characters, too. Terry, you’re a more thorough reader than I am, and you noticed something important about one crucial character that leaves room for a lot of speculation. My favorite character was Leslie Vann, Agent Shane’s partner. I must just like humorously bitter cop characters! Chris Shane’s first-person narrative voice reads as youthful and sincere, funny without being overly snarky. Chris is a fully-realized character.

Kat: I thought that a few of the characters, including Chris and Leslie, sounded a little too much like the Scalzi persona, as many of his characters tend to do. They have that bantering, fast-paced, smart-and-snarky style that I associate with Scalzi online. If I didn’t know who wrote this book, I’d have guessed Scalzi right off. I listened to Wil Wheaton’s narration which was spot-on perfect but which, I’m sure, contributed to this feeling and to the fact that I didn’t notice what Terry did, either. By the way, there is another version of Lock In which is read by Amber Benson.

Terry: I thought Chris’s father, a wealthy former basketball player who is considering a run for the Senate from his home state of Virginia, is also nicely drawn. Other characters are little more than ciphers — we learn next to nothing about Chris’s mother, for instance, and not too much about the villains except that they’re people with no ethics or morals and a lot of greed.

Marion: And Dad’s a real estate mogul, don’t forget that.

Kat: Chris’s father was one of my favorite characters, too. I like that Scalzi didn’t portray him as I expected him to. (Though I think Scalzi’s playing with our expectations is getting a little gimmicky.)

Marion: I thought there was a bit of a gimmick with Chris’s father, too, but then I also think that we have a first-person narrator who’s a Haden, and this could be another example of how differently the Hadens view the world (certain things just don’t matter to them). And if you want an even more extreme example of that, there’s Cassandra.

Terry: Cassandra Bell! Even though we see very little of her, she intrigued me the most. She contracted Haden’s Syndrome in the womb, and has never known life as most humans do; in fact she spends most of her time in the non-physical world called the Agora. One gets the impression that Bell believes Hadens should not be cured, but should be treated as their own subculture, similar to the controversy in the Deaf community in our own world.

Kat: It made me think of the Deaf community, too, Terry. And, in fact, Scalzi makes that analogy in the prequel, Unlocked. I loved the Agora. I wish I could visit it.
Marion: Overall, Scalzi did an awesome job of “scaling” his Hadens, so we see a range on a continuum; some who got the syndrome as adults and are more closely identified to their physical bodies, and those like Cassandra. I want to say that it feels like Scalzi is creating a “post-appearance” culture among the Haden, where status and role will depend upon your Agora avatar and the quality of your “threep.”

Terry: Of rather more interest than plot or character to all of us, though, was Scalzi’s implicit — and sometimes explicit — commentary on various social and political issues, the sorts of “what if?” questions that really drive science fiction. Is a faction of humanity going to choose a life where all of the familiar markers, clothing, age, skin and hair color, height or weight don’t matter? How big will the divide be between the Hadens and the old-style humans?
People who make snap assumptions in this book will face some surprises, making this book a nice comment on political correctness.

But tolerance for the “other” has its most biting effect when considering the rights of the disabled, which seems to be Scalzi’s principal point. I found it rather unbelievable that threeps are so readily accepted in society as fully human, despite Scalzi’s backstory in the novella Unlocked. Chris never seems to run into anyone who wants to treat a threep as a machine instead of accepting that it’s a person. Have we really come that far, in a world that contains large numbers who still don’t even think of women or blacks as people worthy of being treated with respect? It would be nice to think so. Perhaps Scalzi had a few doubts on this score himself, given his inclusion of an episode with a wheelchair.

Marion: I don’t agree that there is complete acceptance. Chris seems to run into people who are willing to work with threeps, but he is mostly in large bureaucracies and mostly law enforcement. One of the Metro cops makes an ignorant remark about “clanks” versus “threeps,” and a Haden is mugged by a trio of Haden-haters. I agree with you that most of the time it seems remarkably idealistic. Part of the problem, I think, is that Scalzi thoroughly and carefully insulated Chris from any direct negativity growing up, by liberal applications of money and fame. Maybe that’s a weakness in the book.

Kat: Yes, there are some Haden-haters in the story, so society hasn’t completely accepted them, but remember that it’s been 25 years since the disorder started and almost everyone has a friend or family member affected. Most people would be very pleased about technology that lets their loved ones participate in the world, even if it does cause some Uncanny Valley discomfort.

Marion: I loved the wheelchair scene! When Chris shifts consciousness into a threep in Los Angeles, it is broken, because it belonged to a criminal and got damaged in a shoot-out. The threep can’t walk, so the L.A. field agent offers Chris a wheelchair for the damaged threep. I thought it said a lot about the gaps in acceptance of Hadens, without being preachy. It was in the Los Angeles FBI Field Office, so that seemed totally realistic to me. Plus, it was funny!

I’m impressed with how many big societal changes he worked into this story; technology, social policy and just social changes, in a framework of a police procedural. It’s a solid 4.5 book for me. I think I read the book too quickly on the first go-round to catch all the subtleties, but I’m hoping (and betting) that there will be more books and stories in this world.

Terry: I agree, except that the house-hunting plot quibble didn’t bother me. Someone just starting a new job is likely to be house hunting! I found the book enthralling throughout. I’d rate it a 5.

Marion: I have no trouble with a 5.

Kat: Lock In was probably the most thought-provoking AND entertaining book I’ve read this year. (I’ve read many thought-provoking books and many entertaining books, but most didn’t manage to be both.) As I mentioned, I listened to the audio version which was produced by Audible Studios. I chose Wil Wheaton’s narration, but readers may also choose to listen to Amber Benson’s narration. Both are excellent (I listened to a sample of Benson) because both Wheaton and Benson “get” Scalzi’s characters. As a bonus, the audio version includes the prequel novella Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome which is narrated by a full cast of well-known and excellent narrators.

Finally, a Scalzi audiobook I loved!

I haven't been really fond of Scalzi's more humorous science fiction, but this book sounded REALLY interesting. I am so glad I got it!

This is a more serious type of story. Scalzi has created a nightmarish future world where a new disease "locks in" a significant percentage of human beings to total paralysis, while their brains are still fully functional. The story is actually a crime mystery and a well-crafted one at that. People with the disease are called Haydens, named after the first lady who was afflicted early on with the disease. (She abhorred the disease being named after her but had no choice in the matter.) Aside from the mystery, there were issues of disabled rights, robotics, and corporate bullying, among others. Scalzi created a very plausible scenario, chilling in its believability.

This is a somewhat short audiobook with a satisfying ending. Attached to the end of the book is what is being called a "novelette." It is what I think of as an in-depth "documentary" on Hayden's Disease consisting of commentary from many health professionals and politicos, etc, on remembrances of the origin of the disease and also many disease factoids. It is just as compelling as the original audiobook. In a way, I wish it came before the original story, as knowing about Hayden's would have helped at the start of the story when I had some confusion.

Will Wheaton did a great job of narrating, as usual, and he is one of my favorite narrators. As someone else pointed out in their review, he doesn't do different voices. I hadn't even noticed until it was pointed out. Yet, it really works for him. I can't think of any other narrators who could get away with that.

And now, I am wondering about the other narration of this book, and what it is like . . . and wishing I had pre-ordered and gotten both.

“He said” “she said” “they said” said, said, said!

Ugh. Annoying. The premise of the story sounded so interesting but the utter lack of attention to the writing was annoying. Whatever happened to “he responded” “she wondered” “it was asked” “they screamed” “she bemused” “he yelled” “I told them” “she pointed out” “it was noted”....? If i READ instead of LISTENED I could’ve probably really enjoyed the book by skimming that. But really great authors don’t forget little things like that. So annoyed with all these Amazon authors that don’t pay attention to this. I’m returning.

Scalzi and Wheaton, what else can I say?

What made the experience of listening to Lock In the most enjoyable?

Scalzi writing and Wheaton's narration. Scalzi can draw characters that are "3D". They even talk in clichés when the characters SHOULD be using those clichés. I do think we connect with writers and Scalzi is one of mine. His characters can be funny, serious, scared, alien, or human and they are always believable to me. Bastard's got my number.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Scalzi makes all his characters interesting. Even the bad guys are interesting. I can't pick one so Sean and Van, the main character and his partner.

What about Wil Wheaton’s performance did you like?

Wheaton as a narrator is great at an art that is FAR harder than JUST acting. With a slight change in voice he gives me clear cues who is talking and they are consistent. There are few, if any, times I become aware of him as narrator. The story unfolds in my mind with ease. Females sound female without squeaky voices. Older people sound older without just sounding all one age. Men sound like men. Each character is each character. I have bought every Wheaton book, though I did return on because he was only in one story out of many. Audible has several gem narrators and Wheaton is one of that pantheon and I do think narration is a far harder art than acting.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, though it is 10 hours. The other version is 11, can't wait to find out why. I listened as much as I could at a time and finished it in two day.

Any additional comments?

It's a combination of two great artists.

a good listen

Although the book was indeed good there just wasn't enough somehow. It seemed like it could have been really great but turned out to be good. I agree with other reviewers that just when I thought the last part of the book was going to get good it just sort of ended abruptly. Worth a listen but did not go on to read any of the author's other books. I listened to Wil Wheaton's narration and it was quite good.

Felt like I'd seen the movie already

The premise of this book felt really familiar as I started listening to it. Then I realized I'd already seen the movie a couple of years ago, only then it was called Surrogates and starred Bruce Willis.

Seriously though, while I have enjoyed a lot of Scalzi's books, this one just wasn't nearly as exciting to me as most of the others. It was actually almost boring at times, and I think that is because it felt like we're just treading along well-plowed ground. Sure, the instigator of the technology (a virus) was a different twist, but that just made it feel like your average epidemic book, followed by, well, the film Surrogates.

Scalzi isn't known very much for blazing new trails, but rather refining concepts that are already familiar to us. Old Man's War was much like Starship Troopers or Forever War. Redshirts is essentially a Star Trek parody. Fuzzy Nation was based off of Little Fuzzy, and so on and so forth. Likewise, this novel is similar to Caves of Steel and similar detective stories featuring android/cyborg characters, and it doesn't offer all that much new except for including tons of modern culture into it. The book almost feels like it could happen within then next couple of decades, but stretches the imagination just a bit too far to sell the concept completely.

This is a solid 3-star book, and isn't Scalzi's best by any stretch of the imagination. It was solidly written in Scalzi's sardonic style, and included some good humorous moments. However, I'll have to give a strong language warning on this one, because there is definitely some filthy speech going on at times.

Unexpected Extras

Any additional comments?

Overall I enjoyed this book, but purchasers should be aware that two our of the ten hours of audio are a separate, documentary-style followup to the book. I was a bit surprised when the story ended with two hours of audio left.

fantastic story!

I listened to Lock In as I walked. The story hooked me immediately and I couldn't wait for the next day's walk to continue the story. I give this one highest marks. With all the voice talent used, it is a audio performance as much as the reading of a story. Will Wheaton does a fantastic job as a reader.

I loved it

If you could sum up Lock In (Narrated by Wil Wheaton) in three words, what would they be?

I robot meets ghost in a shell

Who was your favorite character and why?

Didn't have one

Which scene was your favorite?

when they discovered sonnies recording and they were watching it I felt bad for the guy

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Android, Body snatching corporate espionage,