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Head On
A Novel of the Near Future (Lock in)
429 pages
A snappy, near-future buddy-cop mystery wrapped in a high-octane sci-fi sports thriller.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like strapping into a high-speed roller coaster that seamlessly transitions into a locked-room mystery. It is a brisk, wildly entertaining ride that balances the adrenaline of futuristic, no-holds-barred sports with the meticulous, satisfying unraveling of a police procedural. The atmosphere is energetic and wry, grounded by a deeply pragmatic buddy-cop dynamic that crackles with sharp banter and dry humor. Beneath the flashy, violent spectacle of its central game, the narrative hums with thoughtful explorations of corporate greed, bodily autonomy, and the commodification of disability. It will thoroughly delight fans of accessible, dialogue-driven science fiction who love a clever whodunit wrapped in a meticulously constructed, post-pandemic world.
- Mood
- energetic
- high-stakes
- futuristic
- suspenseful
- Tone
- wry
- pragmatic
- witty
- cynical
- snappy
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- corporate greed · commodification of bodies · disability and accessibility · ethics of entertainment · post-pandemic society
- The writing
- Effortlessly readable and heavily dialogue-driven, characterized by sharp banter and dry, pragmatic humor.
- The arc
- Moves from the adrenaline rush of a violent spectacle into a satisfyingly tangled web of corporate conspiracy, culminating in a clever and hard-won resolution.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave a clever, fast-paced buddy-cop procedural set in a meticulously built near-future world.
Content notes
- murder
- sports violence
- corporate corruption
- ableism
About the book
Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent's head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh and bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are "threeps," robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden's Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it.Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.Is it an accident or murder? FBI Agents and Haden-related crime investigators, Chris Shane and Leslie Vann, are called in to uncover the truth--and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa, where fortunes are made or lost, and where players and owners do whatever it takes to win, on and off the field.
Description from Open Library.
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