Head On by John Scalzi

Head On by John Scalzi, 335 pages

From the MARC: "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 a rare occurance of the sophomore effort of a series almost being equal to its first. I find myself coming back to this series as a comfort listen, as I really enjoy the audiobooks. 

 

Head On by John Scalzi

 Head On by John Scalzi, 335 pages (456 minutes)

Hilketa is the fastest growing sport in the world and the future looks bright... until one of its players drops dead on the field. The player's tragic death is shrouded in mystery and sets off an unsettling chain of events, slowly unraveling a dark conspiracy lurking behind the sport. Once again, it's up to FBI Agents Chris Shane and Leslie Vann to expose the truth. 

This sequel completely stands on its own; in fact, the first time I read the Lock In series, I read them out of order with this one first. It does however cement just how bad Agent Chris Shane is at keeping a threep intact for any length of time.