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  • Head On (Narrated by Wil Wheaton)

  • By: John Scalzi
  • Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
  • Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,404 ratings)
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Head On (Narrated by Wil Wheaton) cover art

Head On (Narrated by Wil Wheaton)

By: John Scalzi
Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
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Summary

"As much as Scalzi has the scientific creativity of a Michael Crichton, he also has the procedural chops of a Stephen J. Cannell to craft a whodunit with buddy-cop charm and suspects aplenty - most of them in someone else's body." (USA Today)

John Scalzi returns with Head On, the stand-alone follow-up to the New York Times best-selling and critically acclaimed Lock In. Chilling near-future SF with the thrills of a gritty cop procedural, Head On brings Scalzi's trademark snappy dialogue and technological speculation to the future world of sports.

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.

©2018 John Scalzi (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Head On (Narrated by Wil Wheaton)

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Heading in Anotner Direction

Not sure what happened here. Loved the premise, I have plenty of time for Wheaton's narrating and I've enjoyed previous books by the author. But from the moment this started I struggled to listen, felt it was trying to be too clever about the fictional sport and my head just couldn't take it in. I had several goes at it but no luck. In the end having made it to a couple of hours in I realised I wasn't paying attention.

Wrong book on the wrong day? Maybe, but I simply did not get on this one's wavelength for more than a minute or two at a time and even when I did I very soon slipped back under.

Sorry Wil, John, I genuinely like you as a combination but this one's going back.

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23 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I think I need a cigarette.

The Boston Bays were a popular team, so there was a large audience to see Chapman's head torn off for the third time shortly before he died of an heart attack - not long before one of the Hilketa League's top executives committed suicide. The two deaths were obviously linked.
Hilketa was primarily a Haden game, the players robot-like threeps controlled by the human sufferers of that lock in illness, able to feel and think like everyone else but without any bodily functions and needing constant care and attention to keep them alive. They accessed the natural world through the threep bodies or lived in the virtual world that had been created, the Agora.

Chris Shane was a famous Haden, son of rich parents, and also an FBI agent. So it seemed only appropriate that he and his partner, Leslie Vann, were called in to investigate the deaths. Head On is the complex and deadly investigation into corruption and betrayal in the violent gaming world of Hilketa and corporate greed.

John Scazi paints a fascinating future world where the regular bodied and threeps mix and work together. Seen from Chris'point of view, both he (my version of the audio was related by the male narrator, Will Wheaton. There is also another, female reader, version of the book so Chris' sex is unknown) and his super grouchy colleague are wonderfully characterised, as are many of the other protagonists, especially Tony, another Haden housemate of Chris'. There is even a cat. The whole is peppered with Scalzi style banter and amusing Vann outbursts of anger when things, and people, don't go her way. The narration is superb, Will Wheaton delivering a fast paced performance perfectly matched to the text. Savour every moment. A good murderous mystery in a futuristic S.F.setting which stands alone, although this reader highly recommends the excellent previous tale, Lock In, simply because it was so good.

This is one of those times I really wish Audible allowed for an additional bonus brilliance star.

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17 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

another great listen John Scalzi legend!

cannot fault any of what I have read and listened to when John writes it comes to life I stopped reading a very long time ago and he brought back a passion for listening and reading again I listen in work and pick up the book at home and continue to read

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10 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Depressingly believable future gladiators

Well plotted, well written, with the new world order and the consequences well realised. And it made me laugh. Recommended

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Looking forward to the next instalment of Lock In

Scalzi's view of the foreseeable future feels real. The writing has also improved since LockIn

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good story but just OK narration.

Enjoyed the story but disappointed by Wil Wheatons narration. He is entertaining enough to listen to but makes every character sounds the same!

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Funny, original and fantastic narration

really enjoyable, the main characters are sarcastic and funny and Wil Wheaton is brilliant as ever ❤️

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Großartig!

Man steigt in diesen SF Krimi ein und er ist spannend bis zum Ende! John Scalzi kann das hervorragend!

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Got even better the story progressed

During the 1st 10mins I thought this wasn't gonna be the book for me as I'm not a sports fan as thought it was going be to boringly sports heavy. It also took me a while to be able to visualise the main characters as I kept seeing the well known actor/narrator's image in my head. Luckily the character development wove lavers into each characters as they came to live in my head. The story was engaging & really made you think what living in this SiFi world would actually be like. I ft will happily try another book from this author or narrator.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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great

I didn't think that the second book will be as good as the first one, obviously I was wrong.

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3 people found this helpful