Head On (Narrated by Amber Benson)

By: John Scalzi

Narrated by: Amber Benson

Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

"As much as Scalzi has the scientific creativity of a Michael Crichton, he also has the procedural chops of a Stephen J. Canell 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.

Very Fun Listen

It's hard to be unhappy with anything John Scalzi writes and Amber Benson brings this story to life in such a great way.

Great mix of cop drama and sci-fi.

This is the second book in John Scalzi’s Lock In series. In this futuristic world, many people contracted a plague that left about one percent of the population with Haden’s Syndrome. Anyone who has Haden’s Syndrome, their minds are fully functional, but their bodies are pretty much useless, though they have to be cared for, like fed through a feeding tube and kept clean. In this world, scientist have created a neural net, which is implanted in their brains to allow them to exist outside of their bodies. The Agora is a virtual space where Haden’s sufferers can interact together or have their own personal space. They also have robots, known as threeps, named for C3PO.

Chris Shane, our main character, has had Haden’s Syndrome since they were a child. I use plural pronouns, because we don’t know Chris’s actual sex. The book is written, and narrated by two narrators, so you can choose the sex of Chris (something I didn’t realize when I listened to the first book). Chris is the child of a wealthy former NBA star. Chris is also a former child celebrity, because he had Haden’s so young and had a child size threep. There is even a famous picture of Chris giving a flower to the pope. Now, Chris is an FBI agent who works mostly on Haden’s related cases with his partner, Leslie Vann. Vann is actually a former Integrator. Basically, that means she has the neural net in her brain. She used to allow (for a fee, of course) Haden’s sufferers, to use her body for things they can’t do with threeps or in the Agora.

In Head On, we are introduced to a game that is professionally played by Haden’s sufferers. They have specially designed threeps which they beat the crap out of and try to rip the head off one of the players and get it through the goalposts. That is until someone dies in the middle of a preseason game with a lot of potential investors (including Chris’s wealthy parents). As Chris and Vann investigate, things get even more complicated.

I really enjoyed this combination of cop drama and science fiction. The characters are very well written. I’ve very invested in even the minor secondary characters, like Chris’s flatmates. I think the partnership between Vann and Chris is great. I’m also a big fan of all the sci-fi elements of this story. It really appeals to my geeky side, without being so techy, that I’m lost.

Narration:
The first book in the series, I listened to Wil Wheaton narrate the male version of the book. This time, I tried Amber Benson’s narration for the female POV. It was interesting listening to this with the different narrator. I’ve never listened to Amber Benson before. I think she did a really good job, though I thought Vann’s voice was a little too masculine for me (though, I think she did this on purpose. She is a very masculine woman).

Even though I was listening to Chris as a woman, I still continued to think of Chris more of a man. I think that is because that was the first time I was introduced to them. I still thought Amber Benson did a great job with her narration. I would listen to her in future, but will probably go back to Wil Wheaton for this series, just because Chris seems to want to be a man in my mind.

**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Another good Scalzi book

Amber Benson was a good reader, but I think I would've enjoyed Wil Wheaton more, based on previous books read by him. #scalzi #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

An excellent murder mystery

It’s got everything a murder thriller requires to keep you on the edge of your seat with a sci-fi element to distinguish it from the rest.

Finished it and meh.

I love John Scalzi's work. And I enjoyed the first in this series narrated by Will Weaton. This one, not as much. I gave it a 4 because the story kept me engage enough to finish, but, it was difficult at times to listen to the background information. I'm having a hard time thinking about specifics, just a sense of minimal engagement at times; distracted maybe.

It is not the same without Will Wheaton.

The story was pretty good if a little jumbled. Missed hearing WW as the voice as Chris but overall worth the spend and download

wonderful reading of a good story

could have been a little longer but hopefully another book will be along soon to continue.

Solid sequel

Very much hoping that Scalzi writes more stories in this universe. The dynamic between the two main characters is great!

story is fantastic as usual so unique and thank you so much for not using Wil Wheaton as your narrator

my favorite part was that he didn't use Wil Wheaton as his narrator. Wil Wheaton should not be a voice actor he is the worst actor I've ever heard reading a book

Not as good as the first, but definitely enjoyable

Love the Amber Benson version. Worth the listen, but not as good as the first book. I enjoy the banter between the two agents and definitely would enjoy reading more of their cases.