Head On by John Scalzi

 

So this is the sequel to Lock In, and it's a lot like that novel, both in tone and in story content. It's not Scalzi at his most witty-breezy, but it's plenty quippy; the science and tech in it have had some thought applied to them, however implausible at least some aspects of the novel might be. The characters are very much mostly themselves, even his villains have personalities that in some cases are laden with surface charm. There's a strong political angle to the novel, suitable for a noirish detective novel (which this is, under the near-future-SF skin) all kinds of text and subtext about government turning its back on its neediest citizens, the cruelty being the point. It feels as though Scalzi thought there'd be more novels about Chris and the rest of the Hadens when he finished this; it's been a while, he might have been wrong.