I think if I'd read this in 2014 I'd believe a lot more that the world economy would change to support survivors of a pandemic. The one described here is much worse than COVID, and there's also a bit of cynicism about how it affected the wealthy, but still now I think society would prefer to forget.
However it's a great thriller, with some interesting ideas although some of the tech and biology doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. The characters are funny without being "too funny" which I think Scalzi has strayed into before.
Scalzi monta una buena historia aquí a partir de la premisa de que hay millones de personas "encerradas" en su cabeza y que viven y trabajan a través de robots. Le da una vuelta de tuerca a mitad del libro (sin entrar en destripes) y se lee como el que ve una película de acción palomitera.
Seguiré leyendo cosas suyas que tengo en la biblioteca más adelante.
(edito que no sé por qué le di cinco estrellas, con tres va bien 😅)
Svizna knizecka. Naka akcicka. Na pozadi nenasytna korporace. Vse v kulisach celosvetove nevylecitelny choroby. Programovaci jazyk "Chomsky" pro interakci s mozkem lidi jako tresnicka na dortu. V poho lepsi oddychovka, klasickej Scalzi.
PS - Kdo vymyslel slovo "třipík" at si liskne ... aspon dvakrat ;-P
This is the only Scalziverse I have not dipped a toe into so I felt it was time to wrap that up.
This was an engaging police procedural with a sci-fi premise. It had all the Scalzi quirks and a was a fast enjoyable read. I am not maybe going to rave about it as much as I have other Scalzi works because I felt the premise was a little divorced from the plot but this was still a fine read.
Recommend.
I really liked this... mostly because I found the concept unique, or at least unique to me.
I found Scalzi through The Dispacher, which was an Audible freebee at some point. I like his voice. That said, my biggest issue with this novel is the quantity of exposition through dialog. Granted, there is a lot to explain in this world, but generally people don't talk like this. They think like this.
I was a bit worried about reading a novel about a pandemic during the current pandemic and quickly relieved to find out that the plot really doesn't revolve around the hisotry of Haden's syndrome. The end of the version I listened to had an audio drama of the history of the disease, but by the time I got to it, I was curious, so I enjoyed it. Some of the paralells between our current situation and Scalzi's fictional history …
I really liked this... mostly because I found the concept unique, or at least unique to me.
I found Scalzi through The Dispacher, which was an Audible freebee at some point. I like his voice. That said, my biggest issue with this novel is the quantity of exposition through dialog. Granted, there is a lot to explain in this world, but generally people don't talk like this. They think like this.
I was a bit worried about reading a novel about a pandemic during the current pandemic and quickly relieved to find out that the plot really doesn't revolve around the hisotry of Haden's syndrome. The end of the version I listened to had an audio drama of the history of the disease, but by the time I got to it, I was curious, so I enjoyed it. Some of the paralells between our current situation and Scalzi's fictional history are a bit striking though, particularly about the frustration and misinformation caused by scientific process of learning about a new virus.
As characters Chris Shane and Leslie Vann are engaging and reasonably developed. I'm interested to learn more in Head On. The mystery is unusual and a bit Holmesian in that by eliminating all of the possibilities, the only options become the impossible, turning the story to figure out how the impossible is possible.
Though enjoyable enough, this lacked something for me. I really didn't click with Shane, I must confess, bit of a Chris Longknife thing going on there and that properly put me off. A shame, as I was expecting to really, really dig this one.
Review of 'Lock In: A Novel of the Near Future' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Though enjoyable enough, this lacked something for me. I really didn't click with Shane, I must confess, bit of a Chris Longknife thing going on there and that properly put me off. A shame, as I was expecting to really, really dig this one.
