Review: Lock In

Lock In - John Scalzi

This was fantastic.  Scalzi is a brilliant writer and Wheaton a brilliant narrator.  They are quite the team.

 

It's a scifi mystery adventure.

 

The worst  "flu" epidemic takes out a huge portion of the population in three stages.  First it's basic flu symptoms, many people died.  But for those who didn't, just when a patient feels well, the meningitis symptoms hit; many more people died.  And for many a third  stage hits them, which locks that person inside their body.  They are conscious, but unable to walk or talk or physically function on their own.

 

After years of research and development and billions upon billions of dollars, neural networks are created for those "locked in" and they are able use this to at least communicate.  And later, personal conveyances are created, which allow the locked in to link through their network, control the conveyance and actually go out into the world.  

 

An entirely new subculture of humanity is born and with it prejudices, and the usual exploitation.  Then the newly voted in government voted to rescind much of the funding which is the lifeblood of many locked in citizens. 

 

Insert greedy people and the thought of massive profits and then there is corporate espionage, plots and murder.  It was a fascinating story/listen!  The bonus novella after told the origins of the disease, Haddon's, and how it was handled by the world at large.  I'm glad it was included because the only part of the original story I was salty about was not knowing more about where the disease had come from and how people dealt with it in the early years.