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A review by joelteon
Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome by John Scalzi
4.0
Haunting.
I had the opportunity to read Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome at the height of COVID and I sure am glad that I didn't. This novella was released in 2014, some five years before the world even started to learn about an unstoppable virus. Yet John Scalzi has perfectly predicted just such an event.
Starting on Super Bowl Sunday the virus that would come to be known as Haden's Syndrome took over the world. Told in an interview-like format, Unlocked is a harrowing tale of hope in a time of little to no scientific evidence. Unlike COVID, Haden's Syndrome's origin is never discovered and many suffer a fate that could be worse than death as solutions are desperately sought. We get to see governments, scientists and reporters trying to work out the impossible solutions to this impossible problem. It is a fascinating and riveting story told through an unusual format.
This tale is the prequel to a novel I now desperately want to read, Lock In, released in 2014 also. I have read little else by Scalzi, but with his incredible world building in this oddly designed novella I will definitely find the time to explore his more well known works.
I had the opportunity to read Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden's Syndrome at the height of COVID and I sure am glad that I didn't. This novella was released in 2014, some five years before the world even started to learn about an unstoppable virus. Yet John Scalzi has perfectly predicted just such an event.
Starting on Super Bowl Sunday the virus that would come to be known as Haden's Syndrome took over the world. Told in an interview-like format, Unlocked is a harrowing tale of hope in a time of little to no scientific evidence. Unlike COVID, Haden's Syndrome's origin is never discovered and many suffer a fate that could be worse than death as solutions are desperately sought. We get to see governments, scientists and reporters trying to work out the impossible solutions to this impossible problem. It is a fascinating and riveting story told through an unusual format.
This tale is the prequel to a novel I now desperately want to read, Lock In, released in 2014 also. I have read little else by Scalzi, but with his incredible world building in this oddly designed novella I will definitely find the time to explore his more well known works.