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A review by timinbc
Lock In by John Scalzi
4.0
I don't think Scalzi tries to write epics. He's not aiming to be the next Clarke or Heinlein.
He's writing stories that are enjoyable and SF-based.
This one happens to be a police procedural mystery set in a world just like ours except for one big thing.
"Except for one big thing" is one of my favourite plots.
The Haden thing - and I got it without reading the prequel - is a bit of a stretch, but SF authors are allowed that, and once we accept it Scalzi rolls it out very credibly - full marks for that.
Full marks, too, for the plot. Plenty of little details that are brought together much later to make the reader think, "Ah, of course ..."
Scalzi's strength, for me, is that he becomes invisible as the story rolls along. His weakness might be that he can get slightly preachy (even though I agrees with his positions) and occasionally overdoes the character-explains-what's-happening.
Personal quirk: I read fast, but I skid to a halt and seethe for a while when an author uses "step foot into" or "step foot on." There is NO need to replace the perfectly good "SET foot" with something that actually doesn't make sense. If you're going to say "step" you don't NEED "foot." The Bad Form appears a lot online, and I know Scalzi more or less lives online, so he's probably absorbed it unconsciously. Go now, Scalzi, go and be cleansed! I am willing to accept that several uses of wording like "me and Vann were ..." are just part of the character, although his/her grammar is otherwise excellent.
Another small quirk: I thought it was made quite clear that Perhaps I missed something.
Daddy was a bit of a Marty Stu, but Scalzi didn't over-use him so it did no harm.
Anyway, still a very good book. I look forward to the sequel(s).
He's writing stories that are enjoyable and SF-based.
This one happens to be a police procedural mystery set in a world just like ours except for one big thing.
"Except for one big thing" is one of my favourite plots.
The Haden thing - and I got it without reading the prequel - is a bit of a stretch, but SF authors are allowed that, and once we accept it Scalzi rolls it out very credibly - full marks for that.
Full marks, too, for the plot. Plenty of little details that are brought together much later to make the reader think, "Ah, of course ..."
Scalzi's strength, for me, is that he becomes invisible as the story rolls along. His weakness might be that he can get slightly preachy (even though I agrees with his positions) and occasionally overdoes the character-explains-what's-happening.
Personal quirk: I read fast, but I skid to a halt and seethe for a while when an author uses "step foot into" or "step foot on." There is NO need to replace the perfectly good "SET foot" with something that actually doesn't make sense. If you're going to say "step" you don't NEED "foot." The Bad Form appears a lot online, and I know Scalzi more or less lives online, so he's probably absorbed it unconsciously. Go now, Scalzi, go and be cleansed! I am willing to accept that several uses of wording like "me and Vann were ..." are just part of the character, although his/her grammar is otherwise excellent.
Another small quirk: I thought it was made quite clear that
Spoiler
the Loudoun explosion wiped out ALL their research, which was all backed up only onsite. But as things resolve we're told that they did recover some and hoped to reconstruct the rest in time.Daddy was a bit of a Marty Stu, but Scalzi didn't over-use him so it did no harm.
Anyway, still a very good book. I look forward to the sequel(s).