Lock In by John Scalzi
Mar. 21st, 2016 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroVictims of Haden’s Syndrome are “locked in” to their bodies and unable to move, so new technology allows them to move around in remote-controlled robot bodies or riding a for-hire “integrator”. Except that some of them are turning up dead. It’s a murder mystery in a near-future sci-fi buddy cop novel.
I have to admit, I like Scalzi’s vision of the future where the police can taze a guy and the FBI can hold him for questioning, and then his lawyer can actually make them admit to wrongdoing and force them to let the guy go. I feel like in real life, if somebody was suspected of murder, the police officer would get a commendation for “only” tazing him instead of shooting him dead, and the FBI would conveniently “lose” him for a few weeks before his lawyer could get to him. Maybe I’m just cynical—and to be fair, the guy in the story is well-connected and the lawyer in question is very expensive. The police do occasionally face consequences for beating up rich people.
In the explanation of why there was no online backup of company data, there’s mention that a server full of encrypted cat pictures was hacked within a few hours. I love this idea…especially since I came up with it independently a few months ago. Mine was that a company boast about their “completely uncrackable” data servers that are full of layers upon layers of encryption, and let the hackers work at those (which actually contain pdfs of Steven King novels in Dutch) while they store their actual sensitive data elsewhere.
I’m going to guess that Scalzi read a bunch of things about various deaf/disabled community politics that inspired this. Heck, I’m going to guess that he put all of his frustration about / ideas based on current events into this book, because this is classic-style near-future spec-fic. I like his politics, but this is still hella political. It’s practically a tract if you’re looking for it. (I’d rather read a tract of politics that I agree with than some of Orson Scott Card’s later stuff, though. Nothing in here throws me out of the story in a fit of outrage. The same cannot be said of Card.)
The financial scheme that’s at the heart of the book’s mystery? It’s actually moderately feasible. (And the bit with Buchold’s drug company had me thinking of Who Framed Roger Rabbit: “I bought the red car so I could dismantle it…”) I often have to turn off my brain where corporate financial dealings appear in books and movies, and while this wasn’t perfect (the DoJ would probably take issue with certain monopoly practices, for one), it wasn’t bad, either.
Overall: This was pretty good, and I can certainly see where sequels would come from. I’m starting to get a sense of Scalzi’s voice, and I like it. Though I’m trying not to gorge myself on his books for fear it’ll wear out its welcome, I’m sure I’ll be back here soon enough.
I have to admit, I like Scalzi’s vision of the future where the police can taze a guy and the FBI can hold him for questioning, and then his lawyer can actually make them admit to wrongdoing and force them to let the guy go. I feel like in real life, if somebody was suspected of murder, the police officer would get a commendation for “only” tazing him instead of shooting him dead, and the FBI would conveniently “lose” him for a few weeks before his lawyer could get to him. Maybe I’m just cynical—and to be fair, the guy in the story is well-connected and the lawyer in question is very expensive. The police do occasionally face consequences for beating up rich people.
In the explanation of why there was no online backup of company data, there’s mention that a server full of encrypted cat pictures was hacked within a few hours. I love this idea…especially since I came up with it independently a few months ago. Mine was that a company boast about their “completely uncrackable” data servers that are full of layers upon layers of encryption, and let the hackers work at those (which actually contain pdfs of Steven King novels in Dutch) while they store their actual sensitive data elsewhere.
I’m going to guess that Scalzi read a bunch of things about various deaf/disabled community politics that inspired this. Heck, I’m going to guess that he put all of his frustration about / ideas based on current events into this book, because this is classic-style near-future spec-fic. I like his politics, but this is still hella political. It’s practically a tract if you’re looking for it. (I’d rather read a tract of politics that I agree with than some of Orson Scott Card’s later stuff, though. Nothing in here throws me out of the story in a fit of outrage. The same cannot be said of Card.)
The financial scheme that’s at the heart of the book’s mystery? It’s actually moderately feasible. (And the bit with Buchold’s drug company had me thinking of Who Framed Roger Rabbit: “I bought the red car so I could dismantle it…”) I often have to turn off my brain where corporate financial dealings appear in books and movies, and while this wasn’t perfect (the DoJ would probably take issue with certain monopoly practices, for one), it wasn’t bad, either.
Overall: This was pretty good, and I can certainly see where sequels would come from. I’m starting to get a sense of Scalzi’s voice, and I like it. Though I’m trying not to gorge myself on his books for fear it’ll wear out its welcome, I’m sure I’ll be back here soon enough.
