Lock In by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Lock In is a near-future crime story set in a future America. The setting is defined by Haden’s disease a flu-like disease epidemic that causes some of its sufferers to experience what they call “lock in” leaving their minds perfectly healthy but unable to move. In reaction to this symptom technology has been developed to allow people who suffer these symptoms to be able to interact with the world. Neural interfaces are developed that allows the user to connect directly to a virtual internet-like space called the Agora and to perceptually inhabit android bodies (called Threeps after everyone’s favorite annoying droid C-3PO from Star Wars) or other humans who have also been implanted with a neural interface. The story revolves around a locked in rich-kid joining the FBI in the midst of rising tensions as Federal funding for supporting victims of this disease is being withdrawn and follows a sequence of crimes that are related to violence against these digitally assisted humans.
I’ve read several of Scalzi’s other novels (Redshirts and Android’s Dream) so I was familiar with his style and I was not disappointed. His writing is clever and concise with a refreshing tone of wit throughout. This novel was a little bit more serious than the other novels I had read but still maintained an optimistic note of techno-optimism throughout. The worldbuilding is well done on the large and small scale, it is obvious that a lot of thought went into thinking about the disease symptoms and technological consequences. The narrative is involved with the technical and political ramifications but does not devolve into heavy-handed exposition. The world felt natural through the eyes of the characters who were themselves fun and enjoyable people to spend some time with.
The discussion of the partisan political debate as government considers decreasing funding that previously went to Haden’s research and healthcare for the victims is in the background of the novel with characters reacting in understandable personally motivated ways. I find it unlikely in the current political climate that the imagined bi-partisan effort could have unified behind spending the billions of dollars necessary to support the technology development and special treatment of the victims in the first place. And I also find it highly unlikely that if such technology as the neural network were available that it would be possible to restrict it only to victims of Haden’s. It is also strange to me that the use of Integrators is allowed, it seems to me the ethics of having a brain network implanted in your mind expressly for the purpose of allowing a locked-in individual to inhabit your body would be the subject of a heated debate. Most importantly the technology is handled with respect. The presentation of neural net coding and the security flaws, obsolescence and software development process described were refreshingly believable from a technical standpoint. I basically squealed with joy at the plausible description of the exploitation of a security flaw and the description of how it was accomplished and the resultant deployment of a security patch.
It is to the author’s credit that I didn’t realize until reading the discussion about it, but the main character, Chris Shane’s gender is never mentioned throughout the book. As expected I just kind of assumed that he was a white male, but that is mostly because I am a white male, I know Scalzi is a white male and I listened to the audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton who is also a white male. There is another version of the audiobook narrated by Amber Benson for this reason. Looking back on the novel it makes sense that since Chis doesn’t inhabit his own body for most of his life that he doesn’t associate strongly with gender.
The plot is that of an exciting action-thriller with clever twists and turns and it holds together until the end when the motivations and execution of the overarching plot turn on a comically implausible super-villain economics. Other than that it was a refreshing quick and exciting read. It manages to accomplish two things very well. It provides a framework to explore concepts of self and identity while giving us a diverse cast of characters and a fun and engaging plot that manages to stay lighthearted and endearing throughout.