I’ve always enjoyed a good cop show, however, a cop procedural book has never been my cup of tea. John Scalzi’s quick-witted dialogue is the exception to every rule.  HEAD ON, a standalone follow-up to LOCK IN has done the trick again. Throw a science fiction twist, where a portion of the population are robots and suddenly this is exactly what I want to read.

In the first book, we’re introduced to a gender nonspecific character, Chris. One of my favorite things is that the audiobook is read by both Wil Wheaton and Amber Benson. I’m a fan of Wil’s and will always choose to listen to a book read by him.

Scalzi has never let me down with a story and I’ll happily read whatever he puts out. HEAD ON is no exception. We’re easily thrown back into this semi-futuristic world without being forced to know what happened in book one. Truly a stand-alone. I mean, obviously I’d recommend you read book one but if you stumbled upon this, it’s fine to read it on its own.

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.