John Scalzi returns with Head On: A Novel of the Near Future, the standalone follow-up to the New York Times bestselling 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.
Head On is available April 17 from Tor Books, and John Scalzi is going on tour! Check out the full list of dates and venues below.
Buy the Book
Head On
Tuesday, April 17 at 7:00 PM
Literati Bookstore
124 E. Washington
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Wednesday, April 18 at 7:00 PM
Prairie Lights
15 S. Dubuque St.
Iowa City, IA 52240
Thursday, April 19 at 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble – Roseville II (HarMar Mall)
2100 N. Snelling Ave.
Roseville, MN 55113
Monday, April 23 at 7:00 PM
St. Louis County Library
(hosted by The Novel Neighbor)
1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63131
Tuesday, April 24 at 7:00 PM
The Strand Bookstore – Rare Book Room
828 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Wednesday, April 25 at 7:00 PM
Politics and Prose @ The Wharf
70 District Square SW
Washington, DC 20024
Monday, April 30 at 6:30 PM
Troy-Miami County Public Library
419 W. Main St.
Troy, Ohio 45373
Check out an excerpt from Head On!
