Lock In was published by Tor Books in 2014. The premise: a flu-like pandemic called Haden’s syndrome has swept the world. Most people recover normally, but one percent of those infected suffer “lock in” — they remain fully conscious but entirely paralyzed, unable to move or communicate through their biological bodies. Decades later, “Hadens” interact with the physical world through robotic bodies called “threeps” (after C-3PO) and inhabit a virtual reality called the Agora.
FBI agent Chris Shane — a Haden since childhood, navigating the world through a threep — investigates a murder that appears connected to corporate manipulation of a new technology that would allow some locked-in people to “ride” the bodies of specially-adapted humans called Integrators. The mystery becomes entangled with politics: the government is about to cut Haden support services, forcing locked-in people to rely on private corporations.
Scalzi notably never specifies Chris Shane’s gender — readers can and do read the character as male or female. This is not a gimmick but is thematically integral: in a world where your physical body is dissociated from your social presence, conventional markers of identity become irrelevant. The novel uses its SF premise to explore questions of disability, accommodation, embodiment, and the politics of normalcy.
Collecting Lock In
First edition (Tor Books, New York, 2014): Hardcover with dust jacket. Also issued with two different audiobook narrators (Wil Wheaton and Amber Benson) to reflect the gender ambiguity.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $20–$50
- Signed copies: $40–$80