Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. 95% of those afflicted experience nothing worse than fever and headaches. 4% suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And 1% find themselves 'locked in' - fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. 1% doesn't seem like a lot. But in the US that's 1.7 million people 'locked in' ... including the President's wife and daughter. Spurred by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering, America undertakes a massive scientific initiative. Nothing can fully restore the locked in. But then two new technologies emerge. One is a virtual-reality environment, 'The Agora', where the locked-in can interact with other humans, whether locked-in ornot. The other is the discovery that a few rare individuals have brains that are receptive to being controlled by others, allowing those who are locked in to occasionally 'ride' these people and use their bodies as if they were their own. This skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go wrong. Certainly nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for political power, or worse ...

Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It's a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship's Xenobiology laboratory. \nLife couldn't be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship's captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed. \nNot surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expendedon avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues' understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives. \nRedshirts is the winner of the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel.\nOld Man's War Series #1 Old Man’s War #2 The Ghost Brigades #3 The Last Colony #4 Zoe’s Tale #5 The Human Division #6 The End of All Things Short fiction: “After the Coup”\n Other Tor BooksThe Android’s DreamAgent to the StarsYour Hate Mail Will Be GradedFuzzy NationRedshirtsLock InThe Collapsing Empire (forthcoming)

The New York Times bestseller, Lock In, is a blazingly inventive near-future thriller from the Hugo Award-winning John Scalzi.\nNot too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge.\nA quarter of a century later, in a world shaped by what's now known as "Haden's syndrome," rookie FBI agent Chris Shane is paired with veteran agent Leslie Vann. The two of them are assigned what appears to be a Haden-related murder at the Watergate Hotel, with a suspect who 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 becomes that much more complicated.\nBut "complicated" doesn't begin to describe it. As Shane and Vann began to unravel the threads of the murder, it becomes clear that the real mystery - and the real crime - is bigger than anyone could have imagined. The world of the locked in is changing, and with the change comes opportunities that the ambitious will seize at any cost. The investigation that began as a murder case takes Shane and Vann from the halls of corporate power to the virtual spaces of the locked in, and to the very heart of an emerging, surprising new human culture. It's nothing you could have expected.\nOld Man's War Series #1 Old Man’s War #2 The Ghost Brigades #3 The Last Colony #4 Zoe’s Tale #5 The Human Division #6 The End of All Things Short fiction: “After the Coup”\n Other Tor BooksThe Android’s DreamAgent to the StarsYour Hate Mail Will Be GradedFuzzy NationRedshirtsLock InThe Collapsing Empire (forthcoming)

Our universe is ruled by physics and faster than light travel is not possible -- until the discovery of The Flow, an extra-dimensional field we can access at certain points in space-time that transport us to other worlds, around other stars. Humanity flows away from Earth, into space, and in time forgets our home world and creates a new empire, the Interdependency, whose ethos requires that no one human outpost can survive without the others. It's a hedge against interstellar war -- and a system of control for the rulers of the empire. The Flow is eternal -- but it is not static. Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well, cutting off worlds from the rest of humanity. When it's discovered that The Flow is moving, possibly cutting off all human worlds from faster than light travel forever, three individuals -- a scientist, a starship captain and the Empress of the Interdependency -- are in a race against time to discover what, if anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

Amazon.com Review\\nAn Amazon Best Book of March 2022: An alternate world of giant monsters where the heroes have to watch Godzilla to get in? Yes, please. In The Kaiju Preservation Society, John Scalzi returns to modern times after The Last Emperox, the capper of his far-future set— and also excellent!—Interdependency series. The novel kicks off in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic but doesn’t dwell long on the general devastation of 2020 before escaping into Kaiju Earth, where terrifying beasts and pop culture comedy are both in ready supply. Jamie Gray is the perfect reader insert, a sci-fi fan (they wrote their master’s thesis on Frankenstein and the Murderbot Diaries) who, after being fired from a food delivery company, gets swept up in the effort to protect the Kaiju. Jamie’s delight in this new world and tendency to ask the same questions readers will have— just how does a creature that large exist in real life?— make for a compelling protagonist who is easy to root for. I flew through the pages of this one like a winged Kaiju searching for a human-sized snack. —Marcus Mann, Managing Editor\\nThe Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi's first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy.\\nWhen COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.\\nWhat Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm, human-free world. They're the universe's largest and most dangerous panda and they're in trouble.\\nIt's not just the Kaiju Preservation Society who have found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.

Following the events of The Last Colony, John Scalzi tells the story of the fight to maintain the unity of the human race.\nThe people of Earth now know that the human Colonial Union has kept them ignorant of the dangerous universe around them. For generations the CU had defended humanity against hostile aliens, deliberately keeping Earth an ignorant backwater and a source of military recruits. Now the CU's secrets are known to all. Other alien races have come on the scene and formed a new alliance―an alliance against the Colonial Union. And they've invited the people of Earth to join them. For a shaken and betrayed Earth, the choice isn't obvious or easy.\nAgainst such possibilities, managing the survival of the Colonial Union won't be easy, either. It will take diplomatic finesse, political cunning…and a brilliant "B Team," centered on the resourceful Lieutenant Harry Wilson, that can be deployed to deal with the unpredictable and unexpected things the universe throws at you when you're struggling to preserve the unity of the human race.\nBeing published online from January to April 2013 as a three-month digital serial, The Human Division will appear as a full-length novel of the Old Man's War universe, plus―for the first time in print―the first tale of Lieutenant Harry Wilson, and a coda that wasn't part of the digital serialization.

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi is the dazzling follow-up to The Collapsing Empire - a space opera in a universe on the brink of destruction. The Interdependency, humanity's interstellar empire, is on the verge of collapse. The Flow, the extra-dimensional pathway between the stars, is disappearing, leaving planets stranded. Billions of lives will be lost - unless desperate measures can be taken. Emperox Grayland II, the leader of the Interdependency, is ready to take those measures. But it's not that easy. There are those who believe the collapse of the Flow is a myth - or an opportunity for them to ascend to power. While Grayland prepares for disaster, others prepare for civil war. A war that will take place in the halls of power, by the altars of worship and amongst the titans of industry as much as between spaceships. Nothing about this power struggle will be simple or easy . . . and all of human civilization is at stake. Praise for The Collapsing Empire 'Provocative and unexpected' The Wall Street Journal 'Scalzi continues to be almost insufferably good at his brand of fun but think-y sci-fi adventure' Kirkus Reviews 'Scalzi builds a fascinating new interstellar civilization in order to destroy it....[ The Collapsing Empire is] amusing escapism full of guts and brains' Ars Technica