Lock In - John Scalzi

I really like the premise of this book. The idea of a virus causing people to get locked inside their own bodies is highly intriguing and after reading the short story I was really looking forward to be reading this book.

 

But upon finishing it I have to say that I´m slightly disappointed. Lock in victims, or Haden´s as they are called, are able to control personal transports, a kind of robot, or other people, who have the ability to make a connection with a Haden and thus being controlled by said Haden. So they are still integrated into society and I didn´t get the impression that Haden victims were at a big disadvantage opposed to the healthy population. And since the first Haden occured a mere 25 years ago, it´s really hard to believe that a society full of "normal" people adept so easily to a society, where you are having conversations over dinner to a robot or a man, who is controlled by another mind. I expected some further exploration of the social consequences that a disease like this would have on a society. Unfortunately this is missing from this novel.

 

Instead there is your run of the mill crime story, which isn´t a particularly good one to begin with. There hasn´t been a big plot twist and the revelation hasn´t been that exciting either, so the whole book left me with that "Meh, whatever"-feeling that I´m not overly fond of. Sometimes the characters are able to save the book from mediocrity but not this time, since I feel strangely indifferent towards all of them.

 

So I´m not blown away by this book. It has been an okay read, short but not memorable.

 

And another word of advice: Read the short story Unlocked before reading this novel. Scalzi doesn´t provide a lot of background information when it comes to his world buildung. And I have to admit that I enjoyed the short story a lot more than the novel itself.