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So, Black Madonna - what was that all about then?

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AceFace

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« on: <06-29-12/1611:06> »
Hello,

Have been picking up the SR novels whenever I stumble across them in second-hand bookstores and mostly enjoying them. I recently read Black Madonna however and I'm assuming it's not exactly considered a classic of the series.  Might just be me, but I found it pretty hard going and, in honesty, I barely understood the ending. As far as I could work out, Leonardo DaVinci was an immortal elf who worshipped Mary Magdalene, who was sort of an old Egyptian goddess and John the Baptist was more important than Jesus. Also, Leonardo had a magic cyberdeck that could piddle all over corp systems and he sold the tech to Renraku in return for them letting him do research into something mysterious. Just writing that down makes me think I might have been taking something hallucenogenic whilst reading. Can anyone clarify what the ending was all about, so I feel a bit less like an idiot?

DarkLloyd

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« Reply #1 on: <06-29-12/1709:51> »
Sorry man, but that was the General feeling we all got after reading that book.

I'm sure some of the others will along here and give you a break down but I've been trying to block everything from that book except that I didn't like it.
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CanRay

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« Reply #2 on: <06-29-12/1713:08> »
Maybe if I took hallucinogenics, it might have made better sense...
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redwolf

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« Reply #3 on: <06-29-12/1721:58> »
you don't get it do you? that the book that gave dan Brown the idea for "the de vinchi code" and they had to hide in as shadowrun novel for fear of the inod and the black lodge and... the freemasons and.... no i'l be good dont take to the padded room again
yes i'm red and it's not blood, and no i'm no comy i'm just red, so are you going for that pis' or going away!!!

AceFace

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« Reply #4 on: <06-30-12/0527:17> »
So glad I'm not alone on this. Any suggestions for other novels that it might be best to walk past if I find them in a book store?

DarkLloyd

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« Reply #5 on: <06-30-12/0900:05> »
So glad I'm not alone on this. Any suggestions for other novels that it might be best to walk past if I find them in a book store?

While it's not Shadowrun, but it's the same company, if you are into BattleTech stay away from Far Country. Worst BT book ever.
Runing the shadows since '90
If you can't Dazzle them with STYLE, Riddle them with BULLETS.
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"Sometimes those are the same thing."-Mirikon

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ArkangelWinter

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« Reply #6 on: <06-30-12/1549:07> »
So glad I'm not alone on this. Any suggestions for other novels that it might be best to walk past if I find them in a book store?

While it's not Shadowrun, but it's the same company, if you are into BattleTech stay away from Far Country. Worst BT book ever.

Not worst IMO, but it deviates farthest from canon.

Ethan

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« Reply #7 on: <06-30-12/2116:41> »
Actually, Far Country is well written and well paced. It's just not a BattleTech book. It's a good sci-fi book, but it strays so far from the BattleTech universe that it really shouldn't have been related to BT at all.

I think I have Black Madonna somewhere... Might give that a read.

AceFace

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« Reply #8 on: <07-01-12/0402:32> »
Don't do it!   ;)

raggedhalo

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« Reply #9 on: <07-02-12/1504:36> »
 Much like The Da Vinci Code, Black Madonna takes more than a little inspiration from Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Worth a read, I guess.
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AceFace

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« Reply #10 on: <07-02-12/1511:07> »
Are the other books by those two guys any good, or are they equally weird? I've noticed from the listing in Wikipedia that they wrote some others together.

The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #11 on: <07-03-12/0017:57> »
Sargent, Gascgione, moderately good apart.  Sargent, anyhow.  Gascgione, well -- basically, if it's Shadowrun and it's them, do your best to avoid it.  Turn away from the fiction, dial their sourcebooks back to about 70%.  Avoid their adventures as you would the plague; worst case of 'players don't matter' railroading I've ever seen.  I use Imago as the top example of What Not To Do.
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TheVanguard

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« Reply #12 on: <07-05-12/1508:31> »
I think the book makes some more sense when seen in the light of Earthdawn lore. We've already got an immortal elf (Leonardo), so it's not that unlikely.

According to him, the Black Madonna predates Christianity and other religions by far. My guess is, that this is a left-over bare-bones cult of one of the Passions from Earthdawn, presumably Astendar (revered as Astarte by the Egyptians).
It could  be that Leonardo is trying to bring the Passions back to the Sixth World. This would fit the prologue of Harlequin's Back, where the titular character is supposedly visited by the Passion Vestrial.
Others have also theorized that Primeira Vaga's Great Mother incarnation could be a Passion in disguise, but I'm not convinced of that.