{"product_id":"9780765388933","title":"Head On","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"As much as Scalzi has the scientific creativity of a Michael Crichton, he also has the procedural chops of a Stephen J. Canell to craft a whodunit with buddy-cop charm and suspects aplenty—most of them in someone else's body.\" —\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Scalzi returns with \u003ci\u003eHead On, \u003c\/i\u003ethe standalone follow-up to the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling and critically acclaimed \u003ci\u003eLock In\u003c\/i\u003e. Chilling near-future SF with the thrills of a gritty cop procedural, \u003ci\u003eHead On \u003c\/i\u003ebrings Scalzi's trademark snappy dialogue and technological speculation to the future world of sports.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHilketa 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUntil a star athlete drops dead on the playing field.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIs 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Tor Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47015889240304,"sku":"9780765388933","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780765388933_p0.jpg?v=1763655949","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780765388933","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}