A Review of the Book "Head On" by John Scalzi

Title: Head On
Author: John Scalzi
Publisher: Macmillan Publishing Group LLC
Year: 2018
332 pages

In the end, sports is a business. Owners want to make the most money they can while having a winning team. Athletes will do anything they can to get ahead in their career. Fans will spend all their money for the change of even a glimpse of their favorite player.

But just how far will people go for success?

John Scalzi's "Head On" takes place at some point in the future where a new disease, called Haden's Disease, has wreaked havoc on the human race. Doctors and scientists have developed a way for humans to survive with this illness. They created robotic bodies (called "threeps") that are occupied by the minds of the patients.

Fast-forward many years and there became a desire from people with this illness to be able to play sports, to be athletes. Because of their advanced abilities, having a robot body and all, special leagues were created. In fact, an entire new sport was created - Hilketa.

Hilketa is a violent team sport where the goal is to obtain your opponent's head and carry it through goalposts. No one actually gets hurt, of course.

Until someone dies on the field. Or, at least, their human body does.

With all the monitoring that is in place, this is something that should never have happened. The league calls in the FBI to investigate and determine if this was a freak accident or murder.

"Head On" combines the unbelievability that is science fiction with the edginess of crime fiction. Scalzi's writing has a way of getting you invested in the characters and moving the plot along with just enough twists and turns that makes you want to keep reading to find out what's going to happen next.

It's a fun read full of sarcasm and wit that could be enjoyed by any reader, even if you're not a science fiction fan. The focus of the story is on the criminal investigation, not the fact that the athletes they are investigating exist in robot-like bodies.