Book Review: Lock In

Ever since I came across Old Man's War a few years ago, I've kept my eye out for the latest John Scalzi novels.  Through his writing I've read some great epic science fiction, been introduced to H. Beam Piper, enjoyed a novel that moves from science fiction to fan fiction and back again, and have even enjoyed one of my favourite mixes (although rarely done well), a Science Fiction Horror.

Last month I picked up his latest, Lock In, and at first was a little hesitant.  A brief scan of the description made the book sound like a mix between the Fox series Almost Human, and a Bruce Willis movie called The Surrogates (which yes, I know was based on a comic book).

But I figured, what the heck, it's a Scalzi, and dug right in.

The book is actually pretty great, and although it does have a lot of elements similar to those two texts (buddy cop procedural, people moving around their daily lives through robots), it actually went to a lot of places I wasn't expecting, and had a great murder mystery plot that I feel does play fair with the reader.

The book is a lot of fun, well worth the read, and I'm already looking forward to whatever the author comes out with next.