Play Book Tag discussion

This is an FBI detective story set in a dystopian near future Washington, D.C. 25 years after a global pandemic appeared and left some stricken with it in 'lock in', a condition that leave the physical body a motionless cage for the victim who is still fully awake and aware. Those experiencing 'lock in' become known as Hadens. It is Agent Chris Shane's second day on the job at the FBI, in the special Haden related crimes division, when he and his partner are called to a murder scene at the Watergate that is Haden related. This leads them into the highest levels of government, corporate greed, and the virtual spaces of the locked in and the evolution of a new human culture.

I loved this. lots of action, interesting characters, snarky dialogue between the partners, and not too many info dumps. This was my first Scalzi and it won't be my last.

BWF - Letter S - no tag - Shadow & Flame

Steeplechase - Medical 19x

I really enjoyed this book when I read it last month. I bought the sequel already. I also read the first book he wrote - Agent to the Stars - and loved it. It was creative and funny, and felt looser (in a nice way) than his later books.

I love the world-building for this and am anxiously hoping he will continue to write more stories for this series. Two is not enough! Of all Scalzi's work I've read so far, this series is my favorite.

Theresa, I think you would also enjoy his standalone book Starter Villain, it's great fun.

An interesting thing about this book is that Scalzi never indicates the gender of the main character Chris. The audiobook was available with either a female or male voice. I took the male one because I had enjoyed the narration of all Scalzi's other books, done by Wil Wheaton. It was only after I finished that I found out about this deliberate ambiguity.

Robin P wrote: "An interesting thing about this book is that Scalzi never indicates the gender of the main character Chris. The audiobook was available with either a female or male voice. I took the male one becau..."

Wow, I had no idea! I just made an assumption from the beginning that narrator was male. But of course there is absolutely nothing on the printed page that says one way or another!

I almost want to reread it again right now.

This will not be my last Scalzi.

annapi wrote: "I love the world-building for this and am anxiously hoping he will continue to write more stories for this series. Two is not enough! Of all Scalzi's work I've read so far, this series is my favori..."

I too hope he decides to keep this series going. But I have to think that living through an actual global pandemic, and seeing longterm COVID coupled with routine new varients may have turned him off this world. Too real perhaps.

The 2nd one was published in Sep 2018, about 4 years after the first. Bet there is a partially written one saved on a flashdrive, having been abandoned in 2020.

In the introduction to The Kaiju Preservation Society, Scalzi talks about how the stress of covid stopped him from his usual writing, so he finally decided to write that one, which was total escapism. I can't remember if he had covid himself with complications, something like that.