A candy bar of a book

My husband, when I was reading The Martian, said he had liked the book but his one complaint was that it read like it was being pitched as a screenplay already.  I didn’t feel that way, but also didn’t see why that would be a negative even if I had.

I get it now.

Which is not to say I disliked this book, quite the contrary. A science fiction thriller that uses a murder mystery as a plot to support the world building the writer is clearly more interested in,  Lock In clearly has fun playing with the “what if’s”. It explores how technology would redefine selfhood in a world where bodies were in various states of necessary following a meningitis outbreak that leaves a significant portion of the population “locked in” their paralyzed corporeal selves, but Scalzi seems to have as much fun thinking up slang for the robotic shells the afflicted use as he does the implications of what a computerized San Junipero-like community of those people would be like.

The result is fun; at no point was I tired of this book, even as I predicted a lot of the story beats, occasionally expecting greater complexity than what was delivered.  But it did feel like I was being pitched a movie, even if it is one I would watch, I’d like a bit more complexity.

I am complaining a lot about a book I tore through quickly and enjoyed thoroughly; I can absolutely see buying more of the author’s work.  Just know you’re getting a candy bar and not a meal when you dig in.