Tag Archives: Locked In

New John Scalzi is Unlocked

John Scalzi is one of my favorite new authors I’ve discovered in the past few years. He’s got a new book coming out this summer with a free sample and an introductory novella that’s also free. Score!

Scalzi writes sci-fi that’s funny, fast-paced and always exploring interesting ideas (in some cases by rehashing old ones in new ways).  Old Man’s War is probably his seminal work.

His new novel, Locked In, is a near-future story about a mysterious virus that renders people completely immobile. They’re still alive and can sense things, but they can’t move or respond in anyway. They’re essentially trapped in their bodies.

It’s a fascinating idea with bizarre repercussions, and Scalzi introduces us to the world with Unlocked, a novella that uses the oral history approach of World War Z (though he came up with the idea first) to follow the outbreak and subsequent response.

And the free part?

You can read Unlocked: An Oral History of Hayden’s Syndrome for free, right now, in its entirety.

Tor is also releasing the first five chapters of Locked In for free (one chapter per day, so just be patient).

Unlocked is pretty great and I can’t wait for the full novel, which comes out in late August.