Head on

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Head on

Title:

Head on

Author:

Scalzi, John, 1969- author.

Edition:

First edition.

Subject Term:

Virus diseases -- Fiction.

Epidemics -- Fiction.

Virtual reality -- Fiction.

Summary:

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 an up-and-coming athlete drops dead on the playing field. Is it an accident or murder? FBI Agents for Haden affairs 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.

Publication Date:

2018

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Available:*

Library	Item Type	Item Barcode	Call Number	Current Location
Searching... Bittersweet Branch	Book	33028011307511	Science Fiction SCALZI, John	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Mishawaka Library	Book	33028011307529	Science Fiction SCALZI, John	Searching... Unknown

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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 standalone follow-up to the New York Times bestselling 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.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Hugo-winner Scalzi returns to the fascinating world of the near-future thriller Locked In with this provocative sequel. Chris Shane was the poster child for Haden's syndrome, a condition in which a lively mind is trapped in an unresponsive body. Like other "Hadens," Chris uses an implanted neural network to control a "threep," an android body, and interact with the rest of the corporeal world. He works as an FBI agent handling Haden's-related cases alongside his partner Leslie Vann. This time, they are called to investigate the suspicious death of professional hilketa player Duane Chapman during a match. Hilketa (it means "murder" in Basque) is a violent sport of carnage and decapitations played by Hadens in specially built threeps; the damage dealt to Chapman's threep shouldn't have affected his physical body, but he reported unusual pain from his threep's injuries and then died. The sport is growing in popularity and money-making potential, bringing the possibility of corruption. Is the North American Hilketa League trying to cover up some skullduggery, or did Chapman's jilted wife kill him? Chris and Leslie need to uncover the truth before the tangled case ignites a national scandal. Scalzi expands his complex future with master strokes, balancing buddy-cop wryness with thought-provoking social and political commentary. This taut mystery, filled with memorable characters in a well-constructed world, will keep readers on the edges of their seats. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

The long-awaited second in a series (Lock In, 2014) that explores disability politics within the context of a near-future techno-thriller.FBI Agent Chris Shane (gender carefully unspecified by the author) is a Haden, a survivor of a devastating meningitislike disease that has left them "locked inside" their body, able to interact with others only virtually or via sophisticated robots known as "threeps." Chris and their partner, senior Agent Leslie Vann, investigate scandal and foul play in the world of Hilketa, a violent sport played by Haden-piloted threeps in which the objective is to tear the head off a designated threep and carry it to the goal. Promising player Duane Chapman inexplicably dies during a game intended to recruit new investors for the sport, and a league official who attempts to hide data about the suspicious incident commits suicide soon after. Labeling Chapman's death a murder, Shane and Vann follow a trail obscured by arson, kinky affairs, FBI mishandling, threep attacks, and slimy lawyers to a scheme concerning Hilketa's shady (and shaky) financing. As in the previous installment, the villain is obvious halfway through; the true puzzle is figuring out the details of and the motivations behind the complex plot. There is plenty of trenchant commentary on disability rights, prejudice against minorities, and the ways in which plutocrats take advantage of government funding. Readers will definitely show up for the witty banter and smartass takedowns Scalzi (The Collapsing Empire, 2017, etc.) liberally sprinkles through all his novels. They may be less amused at Scalzi's running joke about the way Chris' threeps are always being destroyed, reminiscent of how Stephanie Plum's cars are always exploding in Janet Evanovich's novels; this sort of mild physical humor gets tired quickly. There's also a vital clue that's somewhat too reminiscent of a plot point in Men in Black.Very clever, wonderfully satisfying fun. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* The sequel to Scalzi's sf mystery Lock In (2014) is, like its predecessor, a tightly plotted police procedural with several interesting twists. For starters, in this near-future world, a small but substantial percentage of the population has been stricken with what's known as Haden's syndrome, which locks people inside their own bodies conscious and able to feel sensation but unable to communicate or interact with the world. But this doesn't mean Hadens, as they're known, are not part of society; using personal transportation devices popularly known as threeps, they are able to have fulfilling lives and careers. For example, Chris Shane is an FBI agent; in Lock In, Chris and fellow agent Leslie Vann (who is not a Haden) uncovered a nasty truth about one of the world's most famous Hadens. Now, in the sequel, they're looking into the death of a professional athlete, a Haden whose body expired at the same time his threep sustained major injuries a death that shouldn't have been possible. Soon after, another man dies, and what appeared to be an isolated suspicious death begins to look like part of a conspiracy. Scalzi is one of the sf genre's most popular writers, and it's easy to see why: his prose flows like a river, smoothly carrying us through the story; his characters are beautifully crafted; and his future world is impeccably designed, at the same time wildly imaginative and wholly plausible. Let's hope the author doesn't wait another three-plus years to deliver another book set in this exciting world.--Pitt, David Copyright 2018 Booklist

Library Journal Review

The latest hot sport Hilketa consists of teams of players who attack each other with weaponry, rip off their opponent's head, and send it through the goalposts. With "threeps" (robot bodies controlled by those afflicted with Haden's Syndrome) as players, this violent game attracts major crowds and investors until one star athlete dies in the middle of a game under mysterious circumstances. FBI agents Chris Shane and Leslie Vann (introduced in Lock In) are called in once again to investigate this Haden-related crime and discover a darker world of sex, drugs, and deals gone wrong. When Shane's parents are courted as possible investors in the game, he must use his own experience as a Haden and his investigative skills to discover the truth before more deaths accumulate. VERDICT This sequel to Lock In continues the intriguing partnership of two agents with their own unique Haden experiences in a world not too far removed from our own. Scalzi's accessible prose will keep readers on a page-turning course to the book's finale. [See Prepub Alert, 11/15/17.]-Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.