Headless Robots and John Scalzi's Head On

To view this email as a web page, go [here.]( [Tor.com Newsletter]( [Forward to a Friend]( THE FUTURE [Head On and the Potential of the Future]( In Lock In and Head On, John Scalzi uses culture in fascinating ways to flesh out his near-future world and make it deeper and more familiar by creating parallels with how we currently interact with technology. Renay Williams explores some of the ways Scalzi uses current technologies and ideological challenges to inform the world of this compulsively readable series. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( HILKETA RULES [How to Play John Scalzi’s New Robot-Smashing Sport: Hilketa]( In Head On, Hilketa is a sport in which teams attempt to score points primarily by tearing off the head of one of the opposing players and either throwing or carrying the head through goal posts. Because of the violent nature of the sport, no human bodies are on the field during play; all play is performed with personal transports (“threeps”). Maybe you can’t actually play Hilketa — yet — but here are the rules, straight from the author himself! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( ESPORTS [How Head On Envisions the Future of Esports]( Today, video game players compete in "esports" tournaments for millions of dollars. John Scalzi's Head On sees a future where those same players become the NFL of their time. Naturally, we have to ask: How realistic is this? [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( SCALZI 101 [Where to Start With the Work of John Scalzi]( From Beginner Scalzi (The Android’s Dream) to Extra Credit (Fuzzy Nation), a guide to making your way through John Scalzi’s books as told by our resident self-described “Extreme Scalzi Fan,” who would very much like to convert everyone into the ways of the Scalziverse! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( UNLOCKED [Unlocked Reveals How Humanity Arrives at the Near-Future of Lock In]( Not long from now, a virus will sweep the globe. Most will suffer no worse than flu-like symptoms, but an unlucky one percent will be changed forever. Hundreds of millions become “locked in,” awake, aware, but completely unable to control their bodies. Discover the history of Haden’s Syndrome in the prequel novella Unlocked — available in a new paperback edition July 24th! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( EXCERPTS [Read an Excerpt From Lock In, the Predecessor to Head On!]( In a world shaped by Haden’s syndrome, rookie FBI agent Chris Shane and veteran agent Leslie Vann are assigned what appears to be a Haden-related murder. The suspect is an “Integrator” — someone who can let the locked in borrow their bodies for a time. If the Integrator was carrying a Haden client, then naming the suspect for the murder will be that much more complicated. But “complicated” doesn’t begin to describe the puzzle that ensues. Read the first five chapters of Lock In , the predecessor to Head On! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( EXCERPTS [Read an Excerpt from Head On!]( When a star Hilketa player 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. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( Follow Tor.com to get updates on all of our original fiction. FOLLOW US: [Follow Us on Facebook]( [Follow Us on Twitter]( [Follow Us on Tumblr]( [Follow Us on Pinterest]( This email was sent by: Macmillan 175 Fifth Ave., 6th Floor New York, NY, 10010, US We respect your right to privacy - [view our policy]( Macmillan believes piracy hurts writers, readers and everyone who loves books. Learn more and report suspicious activity [here.]( To subscribe to this or other email communications from Macmillan, please click [here](. Visit our [profile center]( to update your email address and/or other information. If you no longer wish to receive this email communication, click [here]( to unsubscribe.