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)

Learn to pronounce stuff Will..

Great book with great narration. Except for the fact that Will obviously had trouble with the word Agora, since it had to be retaped (audibly) all the time. Poor Will..

Amazing

I've been a Scalzi fan for a while and I thought this was fantastic. Different from a lot of his other work he created a new world and made it seem like you could live in it.

An Interesting Science Fiction/Dystopian Story

LOCK IN
Written by John Scalzi
Narrated by Wil Wheaton

I purchased the unabridged audiobook version of this novel at http://www.audible.com

I rate this as 4 out of 5 stars. This book is very well written. It is a Science Fiction/Dystopian novel. But, it is also a Mystery/Thriller.

The book is set in the near future. A virus has swept across the World, but it is unlike any virus in the history of mankind.

Even though the people who are the most adversely affected only make up one percent of the world’s population, that amounts to almost two million people on the United States alone.

The most severe sufferers of the disease have what is known as “Haden’s Syndrome. It was named this because President Haden’s wife was one of the first people to experience the worst symptoms.

What are those symptoms? And, why are they so horrific? Imagine being awake and aware of everything that is going on around you, but you are unable to speak or even move. Sufferers of Heydon’s Syndrome suffer from “LOCK IN” which means that the victims are essentially in a coma, but can’t move or communicate. They need to be kept alive with feeding tubes and IVs. Their bodies waste away and there is nothing they can do about it.

The horror of being “Locked In” can not be adequately described. That situation would make me want to kill myself. The problem would be that you wouldn’t even be able to kill yourself.

The President makes combating this disease a top priority and spends billions of dollars on research. When someone discovers a way for these patients to control specialized robots using their exceptional brains, threeps are born.

Haden sufferers were now able to interact with the world. Their bodies stayed in one place while their consciousnesses were inside their “threep” which could walk and talk and do most everything normal humans could do.

Chris Shane is a Haden sufferer and is extremely famous. His father is a millionaire tycoon who advocates for the Haden community. Chris has suffered from Haden’s since childhood.

Chris is now an adult and starts his new job as an FBI agent. His first week proves to be very eventful and he has to solve multiple murders, investigate billion dollar corporations and try to keep the peace between Hadens and humans. All in a week’s work for the new FBI agent.

The intricate plot is very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

I rate this book as 4 out of 5 stars.

The reason it is not 5 out of 5 is because the concept of “threeps” reminds me of the 2009 movie, “Surrogates” starting Bruce Willis. However, this book is very different (and much better) than that movie.

I also liked the fact that the audiobook also included a short novella that detailed the history of the disease.

I will definitely read more books by John Scalzi. To find out about more books written by this author

Loved it!

Story is a fairly run of the mill detective story, it's the setting and characters that lift it. listen and enjoy.

overall it liked it BUT

The story was good and as usual the narration was wonderful. There was just ONE thing that bugged me and will probably prevent me from listening to this book again.

Anytime there was a conversation in the book it was basically:
Blah blah, x said
blah blah, y said
blah blah, x said
blah blah, y said.

the sentence structure on conversations was so repetitive throughout the book that it got irritating. I don't know, maybe reading it would have made the problem less noticeable? I'm not sure but it kinda makes me question buying another audiobook by this author - will have to check one out from the library first to see if the flaw continues in his other books.

Surprisingly Good

I've been disappointed in Scalzi lately and was delighted to find myself loving 'Lock In' almost as much as his masterpiece: "Old Man's War". The main book is really a detective mystery--albeit a most unusual one--and somewhat over explained at the end; but the basic story about about Haydens and the Lock In virus was original and pure fun reading. I'm hoping for sequals!
Also, his novella at the end about the virus was as good if not better in my opinion than the basic novel or detective story. I wonder if he wrote this a long time ago, then used it to expand.
Good reader too. Highly recommend!

Great!

I love wil Wheaton as a narrator! His accents and voices aren't over the top but still distinct. The story itself is artfully crafted, and the novela at the end about the beginnings of Hayden's syndrome is really insightful. Definitely recommend!

Surrogates on Steroids

If you like Surrogates you will like Lock In. Great concept and world created. I wanted it to keep going.

Another great read by Scalzi!

Becoming one of my favorite authors, he has always a new and unusual outlook on creativity.

Very original, well written, technically credible

Interesting story, well performed. As a software engineer I really enjoyed the technical parts. Highly recommended.