Scalzi is one of my top five as far as authors go. While Head On is a stand-alone sequel, I strongly suggest reading Lock In first as it *makes* the character understanding and comprehension of the world-building. Head On is a quick read with a terrific plot. So much of this universe seems imminently possible - a blending of where SF meets reality and where the base reality of the almighty dollar does actually drive the world. I give this book 4.5 stars.

John Scalzi is one of those authors whose books I grab almost without looking at the back cover blurb, and this was no exception, especially considering that I enjoyed its predecessor Lock In very much. Once more I found myself caught in a captivating story that expands on the previously established background: for those who have not read Lock In and the prequel novella Unlocked, Scalzi postulates that a particularly virulent strain of flu sweeps around the world killing many and leaving a percentage of the survivors locked in their own bodies – brains alive and functioning, but unable to move or to communicate with the outside world. Haden’s Syndrome (so called from the USA First Lady, probably the most notorious victim of the virus) spurs the international community to find a way to bring the people afflicted back into contact with the rest of the world: first a neural net is devised that allows Hadens to communicate with each other in the virtual space of the Agora, then a sort of robotic, remotely controlled body (or threep) is implemented to grant them mobility and the possibility to interact with non-Hadens, leading as normal a life as possible.

Like its predecessor, Head On focuses of Chris Shane, a Haden and an FBI agent, paired with the more experienced detective Vann: after reading the first book, I discovered from online discussions that John Scalzi had left out on purpose any indication about Shane’s gender, to stress how it doesn’t necessarily define a character, or what they can do. To say the truth, while reading Lock In I thought about Chris as male for no other reason that it made sense to pair a younger, inexperienced male rookie agent with a more seasoned, more pragmatic female partner like Vann, but on hindsight I realized that it didn’t make that much of a difference in their working and interpersonal dynamic. With this new novel I was ready to see how the lack of information on Chris’ gender would play in my perception of the story, and after a while I realized that it worked no matter what, that I cared only about Chris’ journey as the current investigation developed, and that was all that truly counted in the end.

The action starts some time after the events depicted in the previous book, and it does indeed begin with a tragic occurrence: a well-known sports player dies in mysterious circumstances during an important match, and the fact that the event is being aired and the players’ vital statistics uploaded for everyone to see, gives the start to a veritable avalanche of outlandish speculation. The match was no ordinary sports event, since it concerned Hilketa, a cross between rugby and the most ferocious gladiatorial games – a sport played by Hadens with their threeps, and one that is acquiring more and more attention not only from the Haden community, but also from the non-afflicted public and players, with increasing talk about including non-Hadens in threeps as Hilketa players. The threeps are an important part of the game itself, since the physical damage incurred by the participants is heavy, and because one of the rules requires that a player be labeled as “goat”, and their head forcibly detached from the body so that it can be used as a score-signing part by the opponent team – clearly not something one could do with a flesh-and-blood individual. When Duane Chapman, the rising star of the Boston Bays, loses his threep’s head for the third time in the same game, it becomes quickly clear that something is wrong with his physical body, and once he falls prey to seizures, death ensues in a matter of minutes.

How could the damage inflicted on the threep have repercussions on Chapman’s body is the first question facing the investigative team, and as Shane and Vann launch into their inquiry they discover several layers of financial and political implications underlying the structure of the Hilketa sports league, and here I must stress how John Scalzi managed to keep my attention focused on a topic that would normally not interest me, to put it mildly. I’m not a fan of spectator sports, and often think that the hype surrounding sport events sounds somewhat exaggerated and the emphasis of commentators quite over the top, even though I acknowledge the fact that my lack of interest might play a major part in that assessment: with Head On, though, the background theme did not bother me at all, and I found any mention of Hilketa and its surrounding apparatus quite interesting, which means that the author was able to draw me in despite my issues. Well done indeed…

The most interesting part of the story, however, is the one concerned with Hadens, especially in the way they are still adapting to a continuously evolving society that has partly lost the connection with the emotional impact of their tragedy – as it happens with many instances when they become a common fact of life. In a way, Hadens and their threeps are now an almost mundane fact of life, and the positive side of this is that there is no more question of their acceptance; on the other hand, however, this has led to the withdrawal of a good portion of government funding for afflicted people, so that many of them face economic difficulties in the maintenance of expensive threeps and in the much more costly maintenance of their immobile bodies, that still need to be cared for. It struck me deeply to see how the threeps, while affording Hadens the chance of interacting normally with the rest of humanity, have in some way robbed the syndrome’s victims of the recognition of their basic helplessness, of their continued need for specialized medical care.

And that’s not all, because aside from ordinary and extraordinary 'creature comforts', so to speak, the needs of Hadens concern human companionship too, something that is denied their paralyzed bodies as well as their threep “vehicles”: there is a moment where Shane’s parents are talking with their offspring through the threep, while at the same time Chris’ mother busies herself with some hair trimming on the actual, paralyzed body, as a way of still connecting physically with her child. In this instance Chris comments about the need for human touch that Hadens experience, the necessity to still feel connected, feel part of their families and of the outside world. It’s a very moving moment, one where we are brought to realize, once again, how our perceptions might lead us astray and rob us, and others, of some essential connection with our fellow humans, especially when they suffer from some kind of affliction.

There are many, many layers to this story underlying the surface of the investigation on the player's death, and they are all intriguing and thought-provoking, which is something I've come to expect from a Scalzi novel, and once more I was not disappointed. The pace was brisk, the humor well-balanced, the characters believable: one could not really ask for more. Highly recommended.

I couldn't wait for this book to come out-- I am a Scalzi fan in general, and greatly enjoyed the previous book in this series, Lock In. Scalzi continues to use the science fiction setting to explore themes of how society treats the disabled, as well as gender presentation and norms. Though personally I am not a fan of the athletic league setting for this mystery, it was a joy to see Chris and Leslie back in action, as well as the supporting characters like Chris' parents. A solid sequel that I would recommend to fans of the first!

3.5 stars. A fun, light, fast-paced read, with Scalzi's trademark snappy dialog. Having just read the first book in the series, I went into this one with a better sense of the tone for the series, and prepared for the fact that, while interesting issues abound in this world, the books aren't going to delve into them in great detail. Chris Shane continues to be a fun and interesting character to spend time with, and I look forward to more in the series.

A mystery/FBI procedural set in the near future, Head On has agents Chris Shane and Leslie Vann investigating an incident in which a Hilketa player dies on the field. Talk about a violent sport! But the thing is...the players are actually robotic bodies called threeps controlled by people with Haden's Syndrome, a disease that paralyzes the body, but leaves the mind functional. So no one is really supposed to be physically injured.

Because I had not read Lock In, I had a little trouble initially understanding certain elements, but I caught up on the idea pretty quickly. I recommend reading Lock In first, but even without the previous book, Head On was an intriguing read-- sometimes amusing, sometimes feeling a bit too much like a conceivable future which added to the tension.

Read in April. Blog review scheduled for May 1.

NetGalley/McMillan/Tor

Science Fiction. April 17, 2018. Print length: 336 pages.

This book is designed to be read as a standalone and as it is a fairly complicated setup, where the role of Haden’s Syndrome and how it has impacted on the sufferers and US society in general has to be explained, it takes a while for the story to really get going.

The game of Hilketa initially had me cringing, but I’m not used to watching massively armoured American football players charging at each other with the force of a small truck. Once I factored in the US national sport, this next step of ripping apart the robot avatars didn’t seem so extreme.

As with Lock In, for me, the joy of this book is the worldbuilding. Scalzi’s take on how this terrible syndrome has impacted on society, as well as the individuals who have contracted the illness, is beautifully nuanced. Throughout the book, there is the on-going discussion about the initial, very generous financial support package for Haden’s sufferers – and the effects now that has been drastically scaled back. I love the unforeseen consequences of both the government handouts and what happens to a number of the characters once those payments are suddenly withdrawn.

Chris Shane is an engaging, sympathetic protagonist, with an extra edge. His famous, wealthy father was in vanguard of finding new therapies and road-testing the threeps – the robot bodies that Haden’s patients use in daily life while their biological bodies remain bedbound and apparently unresponsive. So Chris became a posterchild in the political fight for recognition of the Haden’s Syndrome – and even now, he is moderately famous. I’m aware that I’ve been discussing the world rather than commenting on the murder mystery. I enjoyed that every bit as much as the futuristic setting and I particularly appreciated reading about a crime that wouldn’t be able to take place now, because we simply don’t have the technology or those circumstances.

Scalzi’s plotting and pacing is skilful, the mystery is suitably twisty with a satisfying number of suspects and I also liked the denouement and the reasons for the crime. Once again, they are all too plausible. There is plenty of drama with several memorable action scenes featuring these tough robots – I could see this world making a wonderful TV series. Once again, Scalzi has nailed this one and it is highly recommended for fans of futuristic murder mystery adventures.
10/10

Not a lot to say here besides I freaking loved this book. I loved Lock In (the first book in the series) and the world that John Scalzi created. I adored the characters of Vann and Chris. Though the book is told via Chris's POV, I do wish one of the books would be told in Vann's POV. She is just my favorite.

It's been several months or at least a year since the events in the first book. We have Chris still working for the FBI and partnering with Vann. When Chris goes to meet his parents at a Hilketa game, he witnesses a player being taken off the field. Everyone quickly realizes the player is dead. The FBI is brought in due to the fact that the Hilketa game is played by Hadens and that means though the crime took place in Washington, D.C. the Haden player's body was somewhere else. What follows is a lot of twists and turns until you have Chris and Vann figure out how somehow could have killed someone while they were playing a game.

Chris is still living with his roommates and though they were barely in the first half of the book, they do pop up in the second half more. His partnership with Vann is still the best. They crack me up and pop off each other a lot. Chris's parents are still reassuringly there for their son and are involved with the plot in this book too.

We do get new characters in this one and we get to meet another integrator (someone who had the first symptoms of Haden's, but didn't get the full disease) whose life I wish we were told more about. I swear that Scalzi could totally publish some novellas featuring new characters and I would not be upset.

I do love the world that Scalzi has built in this one. Hadens are unfortunately dealing with the fall-out from a bill that was passed in the last book. Many are struggling to make ends meet and now there are rumblings about having non-Hadens get their own threeps as well. I like that Chris sees the issues with this in this book, and I wonder if this is going to pop up in the next book as a plot point.

The ending leaves things with some of the bad guys caught, but with Chris and Vann realizing a bigger conspiracy may be out there. I really did need the X-Files theme song blaring away in the background at this point.

I love the idea of the genderless. This is a fabulous sequel and I hope continues as a series.

To some left with nothing, winning becomes everything

If HBO needs a near future season for True Detective, the world of Lock In is it, and Head On is the sci-fi buddy cop book you didn’t know you needed.

In this follow up to his hit book Lock In, John Scalzi takes us deeper into this near future world where 1% of the Earth’s population are unable to move and are “locked in” to their bodies. People afflicted with this disease, Haden’s Syndrome, use robot hosts to interact with the world outside their bodies.

Told in the first person, our main character FBI Agent Chris Shane, a person with HS, and his lead partner veteran agent Leslie Vann investigate a tragic incident in the popular game of Hilketa, a sport that is a mashup of football and gladiator matches born out of HS. From there the two agents travel down the rabbit hole of deception and murder surrounding the future of this sport.

As an exercise in world building, Scalzi delivers a masterclass creating a world that isn’t just about folks who need to use robot avatars. He has created the science behind the disease, the tech to overcome it, fleshed out the laws and economics for people with HS. He has developed the social etiquette of the afflicted and of course created the game Hilketa that this book centers on.

Head On is a fast paced thriller that sucks you in and Scalzi’s signature dialog keeps you engaged. If I’m ever murdered, I want Agents Shane and Vann on the case.

Head On will be released in hardcover and digital on April 17th 2018 by Tor Books.

Tor Books provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review.

Lock In was one of my favorite Sci-Fi worlds ever. I really appreciated all the thought John Scalzi put into how life would be different if the person you presented to the outside world was basically a robot. The prequel Unlocked (which should actually be read after Lock In) was fantastic, as it was presented as a documentary on how 1% of the population ended up being locked in their minds, not able to move and how all the science was done to create a way for them to get back out into the world. I actually liked the prequel more than the first book in the Lock In series.

What Head On has over Lock In is a better detective story to accompany all the very cool stuff happening in the SciFi world. This book will be a little different. For instance, we have zero idea if the Main Character Chris is a boy or a girl, even the audiobooks have two different narrator options one male and one female. Since everyone interacts with Chris either in virtual space or a robot system you really don’t get normal gender clues. I really like that Chris is essentially genderless by today’s standards.

Chris and his/her partner Vann are FBI agents normally tasked with crimes involving Hadens (members of society who are locked in their bodies and interact with the world virtually or with a robot they pilot). When there is death of a Haden player at a Hilketa match, Chris and Vann are the natural team to call in for the investigation. How does the beheading of a piloted robot lead to the death of the pilot who is states away?

“That threep’s the goat. That’s the player the other team wants to rip the head off of. They try to take his head, while his team tries to keep him from having his head ripped off.”
“And when the head is taken, they try to punt it through the goalposts.”
“Punt it, toss it, or carry it through, yes.”
“And everyone has swords and hammers and bats—”
“They have those because that shit’s just fun.”


The mystery plot for Head On worked for me a lot better and seemed more planned and polished. Chris and Vann have a fun banter between them that makes the dialogue fun and easy to read. I also like that both Chris and Vann are not flat characters but have a good dimensionality to them making them more human. But the real winner for me, at least in this series, is the world. I really get caught up in what it would be like to live in a world that has C-3POesk robot walking down the street being piloted by a person who can’t move and could be anywhere.

"I did not destroy another threep,” I said. “A car did.”
"You got hit by a car.”
“Twice.”
“So, once for the experience and twice to be sure?” Tony asked. “Hey, weren’t you hit by a car when you were a kid?”
“It was a truck.”
“Same concept. Three times is a fetish, Chris,” Tony said. “Which is your business. But it gets pretty pricey. You might want to take up a less expensive hobby, like cocaine.”


So if you are a fan of cool, fleshed out SciFi worlds and also like murder mysteries then the Lock In series could really be something to put on your TBR list. Wil Wheaton is the male narrator and I thought he did a fantastic job on Lock In if you are a fan of audio.

I received this book for free from NetGalley for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I actually liked this one more than the first one. I will definitely be adding it to my classroom library and recommending to students.

Although this is a sequel to Lock In, Head On can be read as a stand-alone. It's a little more methodical feeling, a little less of a madcap procedural. It's not quite as fun as Lock In. But it's a Scalzi book, and the characters are enjoyable. It's good to see Shane and Vann again. Head On is about the world of hilketa, a professional sport in which most athletes are Hadens, those who're "locked in" their bodies and interact with others through their on online personal space or in person through threeps, robots who serve as their stand-in bodies. (The titular joke is that the goal of hilketa is to wrench an opposing player's head off.) The extent of business intrigue kicked me out of the story a bit, but this is likely a personal issue. This will appeal to Scalzi's legions of readers, and he'll gain some new ones who're interested in professional sports and all the scandal associated therewith.

I adore John Scalzi. Whatever he wants to write I'll read it. Head On 1/2 mystery, 1/2 FBI procedural and 1/2 near future science fiction. (Hey, it's scifi so I can have 3 halves making a whole book!) You can read Head On first, but you'll want to read Lock In at some point, not because you'll be lost, it's just that good. I went back to read it again because I'd forgotten how much I loved the characters and the writing. I buy him for my library and for my personal horde as well.

I received a copy on NetGalley from the publisher, Tor/Macmillan, in exchange for an honest review.

Hugo award winner John Scalzi kicks off 2018 with his first of two novels this year in a follow-up to 2014’s Lock In. In Head On, we see the return of Haden FBI agent Chris Shane and partner, Leslie Vann. Set about a year after the events of Lock In, Shane and Vann are tasked with investigating the death of an athlete who participates in the Haden sport Hilketa, a robot murder sport of the future.

Like its predecessor, Head On is a bit of a genre mashup- with elements of sci-fi, police procedural, and mystery shining through. It goes without saying that as with most Scalzi books, readers will find themselves smiling in amusement at times, laughing at other times. Scalzi has a knack and talent for taking the reader on a journey using these various genre types.

Fans of Scalzi will find Head On enjoyable and a great companion piece to Lock In. It has solid world building, fun characters, and readers will likely want more from this world with another book.

Fun, clever, thoughtful...and it has a cat!
In the near-future world first imagined in Lock In, millions of people suffer from Haden’s Syndrome, a disease that leaves their minds untouched but completely unable to move. The sufferers use “threeps”, robot bodies that operate for them in the world, controlled by a network in the Haden patient’s brain. The game of Hilketa (Basque for “murder”), in which two teams try to rip off the head of an opponent, has become wildly popular and practical, since the players are threeps remotely controlled by Hadens. As narrator and Haden Syndrome sufferer Chris Shane says, “It’s all the violence every other team sport wishes it could have, but can’t.” But then one of the players dies, for real. Was it an accident, or was it murder? FBI agents Chris Shane and Leslie Vann are assigned to investigate. Of course, the death of the player is just the beginning, and Chris and Leslie soon find themselves deep into the financing and operations of big-time sports and pharma industries and new tech startups. There are lots of twists and complications, and some well-done surprises that lead to a non-obvious but satisfying conclusion.
Head On is Scalzi at his clever best. A carryover from Lock In is the question of Chris’ gender. The deliberately ambiguous name and carefully crafted sentences that manage to avoid any gender-specific pronouns (but also manage to avoid any awkward construction) give no clue to whether Chris is male or female. The author has fun with the idea of extrapolating online games to Hilketa with details like the name of the Pittsburgh team, the Pitbulls. As an additional treat for readers, Scalzi offers a Donut, a tuxedo cat who plays a cameo role in the investigation.
Head On is a rousing good tale with clever ideas and touches of humor, but, like most of Scalzi’s writing, it has its thoughtful moments, such as Chris’ comment on what it is like to be immobile but still sense, feel, and need human touch. Scalzi also made this reader think when he introduced the issue of non-Hadens complaining about not being permitted to play the game of Hilketa.
Scalzi fills in enough background that a reader can probably enjoy this book without reading Lock In, but there is a short (unnecessary) spoiler that would have robbed me of some of the fun of Lock In, so I highly recommend you read them in order.
But DO read them. Head on to your nearest source for books and lock in to some fun, suspenseful reading!
NOTE: My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance review copy of this book.

I'm a Scalzi fan. He writes imminently readable, engaging, and funny sci-fi. Head On is no different. I enjoyed the first book in this series, Lock In, immeasurably. The premise of a relatively near future where a disease has rendered a large section of the population immobile is a really interesting and fresh way to highlight the disabled, their rights, potential technologies that would develop, political ramifications, and now even entertainment.

The introduction of a football like sport for Hadens who can play with their robot extensions aka Threeps was really fun. Unfortunately, I think the weakest element was the mystery. I love our FBI agents Vann and Chris but their adorable hijinks, personal space visits, Donut, sex robots,shootings, and nicotine withdrawals couldn't surmount my disinterest in the mystery. I wanted more about the ramifications of the recently passed bill, Haden rights, and the game itself. I'm excited for the next book in this series, but I think this one just wasn't my cuppa.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for this copy for review.

A review in spanish: https://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/2018/04/head-on-john-scalzi.html

4ish stars.

John Scalzi succeeds again at writing accessible science fiction, but here also succeeds in writing something tense and mysterious, unlike some of his lighter fare. It's interesting, science-y (or at least science-ish) science fiction that's well plotted and edited. Well done, again, Mr. Scalzi.

Another excellent novel from John Scalzi!

Having read Lock-In, the story is familiar yet refreshingly unique. Scalzi intentionally wrote the novel to remove gender from the main character, and it was interesting to explore my own interpretations and find that I had slid towards thinking of Chris as male.
The gender dichotomy will be even more evident when the audiobook version of this novel is released, as I have been informed that there will be two versions - one read by a male and the other by a female.

As for the novel itself, it takes you for a rollercoaster through a world that can only be described as uniquely Scalzi. The characters are quick and witty, the story is fast-paced, and will hold your attention until the end.
This book stands on its own, but there can be the argument that there is a little to be gained by reading Lock In first.

Happy reading!

We at Genre Junkies have not read Scalzi's "Lock In" -- the first novel set in this world -- but we can comfortably say that "Head On" stands on it's own. It's a fun procedural mystery built around an original science-fiction conceit. The characters are incredibly intelligent and the dialog is quick and witty. We would say that Scalzi missed his calling as a mystery writer except that he's doing it!

There are some small missteps. By the end the culprit is obvious for the simple fact that every other suspect is dead. The ending is also fairly abrupt - We found ourselves wanting an extra 10-15 pages just to wrap things up.

Minor complaints, however, cannot keep us from recommending this book. "Head On" should hold appeal to both sci-fi and mystery fans alike. For more of our thoughts, listen to our review at GenreJunkies.com.