Scalzi brings us a tale of intrepid FBI Agent Chris Shane in Head On. Head on is set in the same near future world that the previous book from the series, Lock In, was. Shane suffers from a medical condition that leaves patients locked in their bodies. Medical technology has been developed to allow such patients to remotely control what are essentially robots so they can interact with the world. A game has developed where players use these robots to play what sounds like very violent football --- the goal is to rip the head off the designated “goat” player and kick it into the goal --- and that is where our story starts. Someone dies in the middle of an exhibition game and things begin to look suspicious. Shane is part of the team that investigates the crime, a crime that soon blossoms to include suspicious financial finagling, arson, lots of mayhem, and more deaths. The book tells an interesting story that can be read as a stand-alone, though if you enjoy it and haven’t read the first you’ll find yourself picking it up.
