Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome

A well-told story of how a nation responded to a terrible public health crisis. The crisis itself is horrifying- a new virus of unknown origin, with an unpredictable subset of patients advancing to a "locked in" state in which the patient is alive and conscious and unable to move at all. However, the story is ultimately hopeful, because despite the usual political difference, the nation does rise to the challenge. I found the story engrossing and think it would be an enjoyable and worthwhile read even if you aren't planning to read the novel that it supports.

Much like “World War Z”, “Unlocked” is told through the eyes of a number of people who lived through and had significant impacts on (or was significantly impacted by) Hadens Syndrome. It’s a great story that sets up “Locked In” well (I think since I read this beforehand). I’d love to see an expanded version that goes through the whole time line in more detail, the panic, how day to day life was impacted, etc, but for a short story that was free you can’t beat it!

When the author tweeted about a 1 star review this story received, I had to read it for myself. The story is compelling and interesting, thoughtful and well imagined. The “oral history” multi 3rd person narrative viewpoint is an interesting and fresh approach to story telling. The technical and political ramifications are explored without becoming polemic. The story is concise and a quick read. Mr. Scalzi should ask for more money.

My sense is that Scalzi wrote Unlocked both to build enthusiasm (and market) for his to-be-released novel, Lock In, and to provide some back story for it. He succeeds brilliantly in both. Plus, you get the first chapter of the actual novel included, and everyone who has read his works knows John writes WONDERFUL first chapters.
To be honest, the original description of the plot mostly creeped me out but once I got swept up in the action, all of that went away. It will be fun to see if this turns into a police procedural or an up-to-date version of Childhood's End, or something else. Meanwhile, you need to read this before tackling the novel due August 14th. If you don't want to spend the money, it's free on Tor.com but you lose out on Chapter 1 of Lock In.

This is an optional purchase leading up to Lock In. Having read both you don't really need to read this but this does give the book Lock In more context. Definite must for fans, optional otherwise. But it's still well written in a World War Z (the book not the movie) style with lots of "contributors" writing their own little perspective and involvement in the Haden's Syndrome outbreak and aftermath.

I've read many works by John Scalzi and I must say that this is completely different than anything else I've read by him. Some authors find a type of story and then milk it for the rest of their career. John Scalzi is not that type of author. He somehow continually writes outstanding stories that bear little resemblance to each other aside from the fact that I enjoy reading them.

That said, if I were to compare this novella to any other book, it would be World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. The danger in those type of books is that they can sometimes feel very disjointed and hard to track. This book definitely avoids that trap.

It is a very hard book to put down - one would think in a narrative story that changes viewpoints every few paragraphs that would not be a problem, but it is. If I didn't have so many events to go to last week and a pesky thing called "work", I would have read it all in one sitting.

The only quibble I have is that I really wanted a bit more information and details in several parts, but given the fact that this was just designed to provide background information for Lock In, I'm hopeful that the information I crave will be provided then.

Like World War Z, this novel is presented as an oral history, and it works. This is a prequel to Scalzi's new book Lock In, which I am now much more eager to read. I was warned to read this first, and my gut is telling me that was the right call. Scalzi is hit and miss for me, but this one worked.

I'm a giant fan of World War Z, probably the most famous SF/F story using the oral history format. Scalzi's Unlocked adapts the format to a report/overview of Haden's Syndrome, a devastating disease with a curious end-game of locking people in to their bodies, conscious but paralyzed.

In the beginning and middle, I found several of the character voices to bleed together, but toward the end, when the threeps and other sociological speculation elements kicked in, I was totally absorbed, and my quibbles dropped away.

An impressive, if short, use of the oral history format, an a great primer for Lock In, his next novel.

This is a lead-in short to his new book Lock In which comes out the last week in August. Scalzi had indicated that this short was going to be an “oral history” a la World War Z. Now, I haven’t read World War Z so I really wasn’t sure what to expect.

What it is turns out to be is a narrative from several points of view explaining how a mysterious new virus, which becomes known as Hayden’s Syndrome, spreads through the US and the world and how everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, becomes affected.

I can hardly wait until July for the release of Lock In!

The book is written as snippets of writings and interviews after a flu-like virus alters the brains of ~1% of the human population, sometime in our near future. From the beginning, I fell right into the format and never had to think about how the story was being told. Unlocked is the backstory for Scalzi's "Locked In" and I'm glad I read it first. However, as a novella - and not just an introduction - Unlocked stands on its own as a complete, well written story.

As always Scalzi writes in a style that is an effortless pleasure to read. What I found interesting about this book is that in a few instances characters took positions that I found to be so foreign to my own that I was tempted to dismiss them as unrealistic, cartoonish even. And yet if there is anything I've learned from being online is that in fact, people do hold such beliefs. So perhaps my incredulity was a testament to the realism of Scalzi's portrayal.

It's not secret that I'm an unabashed Scalzi fan, but I really loved this "Oral history" that acts as the set up for his next novel. As a biologist I'm always interested how science fiction authors handle things like outbreaks of biological agents, and you could imagine that the outbreak here was anything from bird flu to the plague - except the results on humanity are somewhat different. After the infection decimates the population a secondary wave of infection occurs in those who have apparently recovered. The results which, were it not for humanity pulling resources together to help the afflicted would be the worst kind of hell on earth for the sufferers.

As technology comes to their aid humanity becomes divergent - those still inhabiting their corporeal bodies. And those inhabiting avatars - synthetic constructs, controlled by the brains of the bedridden infected.

Told in the style of a recalled documentary and interview format it's a great setup for the next piece of work.

What can I say? Scalzi knows how to write, plain and simple. It doesn't even really matter what he's writing about -- he's just excellent at the craft. Good background for upcoming new novel -- can't wait to read it!

I liked this quite a bit. The only challenge for me (and may have only been for me) is that I kept forgetting which names belong with which organizations in the story.

Convinced me to buy the forthcoming "Lock In" book just as soon as the price drops below $10. Personal preference, but I won't buy an ebook for more than that price point and I only buy SF in digital these days.

The book is definitely at the top of my list, though.

An interesting precursor to Scalzi's upcoming novel about a devastating disease and how the human race adapts to it. Told in a report format with different folks telling their part in the story. It's available in all reader formays if one wants or it can be read free at Tor's website.

I received Unlocked in an email from Tor. It does two things. It is an oral history of Haden’s Syndrome told by various people who were witnesses and builds the world for Scalzi’s upcoming novel, Lock In. It is very interesting and after reading I am ready to read Lock In.

I loved this little book and the preview chapter of "Lock In", John Scalzi's new book. The discussion in the book held my attention and made me more curious about the upcoming book. I'm going to pre-order the book as soon as possible.

I've only just started the book proper (Lock In), but I can tell already that I will be very glad to have the background information. I like the way it is told; the different voices make it even more interesting

One of the worst accounts that did not happen. This author cannot seem to write a story without interjecting his venomous political views into the story, thereby ruining his work of fiction. John Scalzi is an angry man who wears his feelings on his shoulder and has not learned the wisdom of being quiet when that quality is in order. Sorry I ever began to read this travesty of fiction literature. Don't waste your money or time!!