Head On (Narrated by Wil Wheaton)

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

"As much as Scalzi has the scientific creativity of a Michael Crichton, he also has the procedural chops of a Stephen J. Cannell 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 stand-alone follow-up to the New York Times best-selling 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.

©2018 John Scalzi (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

favorite new Scalzi series

I'm a big fan of John Scalzi's novels, and the Lock In series is becoming a favorite. Head On is the sequel to Scalzi's 2014 book Lock In, and I'd definitely recommend reading Lock In first, if you haven't already. The series takes place in the near future, following a pandemic flu that has left many people 'locked in' and suffering from Haden's syndrome -- they're mentally alert but unable to move or speak. They're freed from lock-in by android-like personal vehicles ("threeps") that connect to their brains through a neural network and allow them to move around in the world. The protagonist of the series is Chris Shane, a Haden who joins the FBI and solves crimes that involve other Hadens. The world of Hadens makes for a lot of interesting plot twists and some thought-provoking moments about what it means to be human.

One of the things I really enjoy about this series, and a tribute to Scalzi's talent as a writer, is that both Lock In and Head On are written in a gender-neutral way -- Scalzi never states whether Chris Shane is male or female. So it's really fun to listen to both narrations, one by Wil Wheaton (who's my favorite narrator for anything Scalzi related) and another version by Amber Benson. Both narrators are excellent, and if you can afford to get both versions of the book, it's worth listening to both.

Loved it

I loved this book, and I am sad that it isn't part of a stupidly long series, because I want more and I want it yesterday!

LOVE IT

I loved Lock In, and I've been waiting for this follow up. Wheaton is my favorite narrator and I hope Scalzi continues this series for a long time!

Another great story from Scalzi

Scalzi books never seem long enough. I can’t put them down or quit listening to the audiobook, and then … it’s over all too soon. Once again, Scalzi has crafted a tantalizing mystery in his near future world of threeps and FBI investigation. It’s a bit like the wonderful detective novels from JK Rowling: not the stories you’re used to from the author (The Old Man’s War series being Scalzi’s Harry Potter books, of course), but wonderful nevertheless, and in a whole new way.

Scalzi never fails to impress

If you liked lock in you will like this one. I've yet to find a Scalzi book I didn't like.

Narration makes it difficult to follow characters

Will has a great voice, but does not do a great job differentiating between characters, especially some of the women. For instance, conversations between Vann and Chris, there is no tonal difference, just the accent, and that can get lost.

Wil, What Happened?

Another great story by J Scalzi and normally I enjoy Will Wheaton, but this time... I Had trouble picturing the female characters as well, female. Wheaton did this thing with his voice that made them all sound husky and butch, not feminine at all. It was very disconnecting. Otherwise, a good traditional whodunit with lots of excitement along the way.

Great follow-up

I loved Lock In and this was a great expansion of that universe and the characters within it. We start to see more of the intricacies of the politics around Haedon's and the impact of the previous book's legislation. But it's also a wonderful mystery, with lots of twists.

Good book, but.............

Ok I enjoyed the book. And I also enjoyed part one in the series “Locked in”. And this is where my biggest problem arose. It constantly felt like the author assumed I wasn’t familiar with the first book. I was constant being pulled out of the story as I was explained things about this world that were made perfectly clear in book one. If you liked locked in and can make it past this you will enjoy Head on. If you haven’t read Locked in I recommend it. But you could start here. Everything you need t know from it is painfully repeated here.

I love the concept and the story is great

I really love the concept for this story. Its very interesting and well thought out. It introduces some interesting moral and ethical dilemmas. Wil Wheaton is a decent narrator, but doesnt have enough range in character range. Also, I am not a huge fan of how Scalzi uses "said" in almost every 3rd sentence.