Lost in a Good Book

I just started reading John Scalzi’s Lock In and am having one helluva time putting it down.

It’s, very basically, a police procedural, a detective story BUT way weirder. Of course it is – this is John Agent to the Stars/Old Man’s War/Collapsing Empire/Redshirts Scalzi after all.

The premise is this – a virus hits the population. Most folks only get flu like symptoms but a not insignificant portion become locked in – completely paralyzed except for their minds, their persona. Those bits are still very much on line. GodDAMN this sets off my never far from the surface, mega muscular claustrophobia! I was near Code Blue adrenaline levels before I even cracked the spine.

Just FYI and shit, locked-in syndrome is an actual thing.

Locked-in syndrome is a rare neurological disorder in which there is complete paralysis of all voluntary muscles except for the ones that control the movements of the eyes. Individuals with locked-in syndrome are conscious and awake, but have no ability to produce movements (outside of eye movement) or to speak (aphonia). Cognitive function is usually unaffected. Communication is possible through eye movements or blinking. Locked-in syndrome is caused by damaged to the pons, a part of the brainstem that contains nerve fibers that relay information to other areas of the brain. (source)

In real life and in ScalziWorld, it's incurable.

The French writer/editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who dictated the slender memoir The Diving Bell And The Butterfly after becoming locked in, is probably the most famous sufferer.

So then, there IS life after lock-in, especially in Scalzi’s novel.

While the locked-in (or Hadens as they’re called – after the US president’s wife who was one of the first and the most famous to fall victim) are in bed, their consciousnesses can be shifted, whole, into other forms or beings.

There are Integrators – people who have the ability to let the locked in borrow their bodies for some period of time. Unclear yet whether that’s an hour, three? a day? a month?

Imagine this. How incredible would it be? I’m not locked-in but my hearing is. If I could borrow someone else’s body (I’d settle for just the audio, ‘natch) I’d spend a weekend downstairs at The Middle East. I’d SO be at tomorrow’s Richard Thomson’s gig in Aysgarth. On October 10th I’d be front row/center at the Vancouver Performing Arts Centre for Kronos Quartet’s performance of The Green Fog — A San Francisco Fantasia. And that’s just the beginning of my list.

*ahem* back to the book.

There are also Personal Transport devices – mechanical body forms known as threeps (“threep” is derived from C-3PO). Threeps are a jarring sight for some but they're as commonplace as wheelchairs or canes.

Amongst all the usual mysterious murder stuff, is this question, who's guilty of the crime if it's committed by an Integrator while they're being piloted by a Haden

I’m half way in and wishing there was a tad more exposition. Though answers are eventually laid out, I’m having a hard time following/keeping up. Frustrating but still, I'm utterly hooked.

The title of today's post? That's Jasper Fforde's second installment in the most awesome Thursday Next literary detective series.