This is a cute exploration of the world in which Lock In is set, how it functions and how the pandemic spun out of control. Does it feel a little bleak to the 2020 reader to read about the denial and spread of a pandemic? Sure does. Does it feel even bleaker to read about the nation coming together to respond...

Anyway, maybe not the best 2020 reading, but well put together and a solid piece of world-building. ( )

Short but raises so many interesting moral and ethical questions and makes you think about issues from multiple angles. Blurs the line between 'real' people and virtual presence.

I really enjoyed this and can't wait to read the Locked In novel. ( )

A journalistic-style history of the illness that caused the locked-in condition that is the basis of Scalzi's two books. VERY interesting to read this in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic, though it was written in 2014. The Haden syndrome is the result of a worldwide pandemic of a variant of the H5N1 flu! How did Scalzi know? ( )

Summer 2021 (May);

I didn't know this little piece was tucked behind [b:Lock In|21418013|Lock In (Lock In, #1)|John Scalzi|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1438701397l/21418013._SY75_.jpg|26115712] in my audible pick-up so color me incredibly surprised when the books stopped with more than an hour to go and this suddenly was announced as being included. Unlocked is sheerly brilliant, and after not really loving the previous I was amazed to find myself riveted to this prequel piece written after the book, which details in interviews everything from the beginning of the pandemic start through the history up to the book.

Yes, at times it was a little too close to comfort for our real world and what we've watched happen to the planet and the people in it during the last year, but it was alarmingly well done and engrossingly put together, with so many people's interview and article and video pieces. ( )

3.5 stars

I had a hard time keeping track of all the characters (interview subjects?), but I think the idea’s fabulous, and I’m excited now to read Lock In. ( )