Play Book Tag discussion

Written a few years prior to Covid, but set at some point in the near future, this novel explores the fall-out from a new virus. It spread like the flu, but was then determined to be something unique. A side effect for a portion of the population was to exist in a sort of waking coma called being locked in. Eventually this was called the "Haden Effect".

Not as a cure, but as a way to cope with this side effect, robots (called Threeps) are developed to allow the locked in population to live lives outside of the life support they still depend on. Humanoid in shape and function, the Threeps allow those with the Haden Effect to walk and talk and interact with the larger world if they want. And for some who can afford it, there are people who are trained to act as human hosts for the locked in.

The narrator is someone who is locked in, and works for a specialized unit with the FBI. He and his partner are certain that a human host can't be forced to commit acts against their will, but when a host commits suicide they have a mystery to unravel.

The author did a great job of explaining a ton of very technical world building interwoven into the overall action. I really enjoyed both the thriller aspect as well as the world building.

KTloves2listen wrote: "Looking forward to listening to this as a buddy read in January."

I listened to the audio - narrated by Wil Wheaton who was excellent!

I think I need to do a binge on John Scalzi books next year. The only one I’ve read is ‘Red Shirts’, which I loved (Trekkie that I am) but all his others including this one sound so inventive and fun

Make it so, KT!!