This book has characters I don't like (the dragons). It also has characters I really love. And yes there are a hundred other characters that are just as deserving to be in this book as the ones who made it. It's already been said how and why, and believe me if I had the time I'd have gladly worked on more than just Nadja Daviar. I introduced over forty to fifty new characters in Spy Games alone, and I'd love to have them all detailed and statted up in addition to the old fart runners like Argent and Dodger, whose entry would also include me killing off Ronin in a shadowtalk aside because fuck that dude, or Harlequin (whose writeup in this book would probably suffer by ... Something), Ryan Mercury, or someone like Lloyd Ritter whose entry could also cover Saito's fate—but whose background is only known in the pool to two ex-freelancers and myself (and maybe Critias). The fact that Ryan Mercury even gets named in this book is nothing short of a miracle considering everything I had to cram into my chapter, and when you see it you'll probably agree that yes he deserved his own entry, but I am comfortable in saying that I am the only one happy to do it because he and Daviar are literary dynamite. I am going to get slagged for her writeup, and would no matter what. But after all of the shit I've said about some of my predecessors and co-authors I am due.
Half a page badly formatted equipment list for a character?
You're looking at quite simply the most gear intensive page in the book, the equipment list for a high-end drone rigger, and a page so full of goodies that it got Jason to comment -- just about the amount of stuff in that one page -- about it over on the Shadowrun blog months ago.
This is exactly why I included it.
I knew that there was going to have to be at least one example stat block to show off how incredibly badass some of these characters' stats are, and since Jason had already commented on it I felt it appropriate to show it off.
This is same reason why of all of the short fiction pieces in the book I chose the opening to Parlor Tricks is because Jason and/or Randall had already commented publicly about how it has such an amazing opening line.
Considering Critias is my best friend and co-writer on the stories we did for SL, and considering that I am hardly above self-aggrandizing the fact that it was already being used to whet peoples' appetites is why I picked her story over the intro to ours (since part two is certain to really fucking piss off some people, and the third piece is the damn climax).
Here's an overview of what I did to build this.
Page 1: TOC. BTW, in the full PDF the chapter headings are hyperlinks. Bonus points to Matt for including those. I want the TOC because a) it's one page, and b) there are no surprises on who is or isn't in there.
Page 2. Credits. Because credit where credit is due.
Page 3. Intro. This goes back to when Mike M. was the line developer and they had started releasing previews of the book. I also wanted to include it because right there that one page sets out exactly where we stand. If you don't buy that, the next seven pages and the book are probably not something you're interested in.
Page 4. JackPoint. Yeah, I succumbed to the "this is how it's always done" mentality for that one. It's the JP login page, and were I to go back I'd cut it out.
Pages 5-6. Cayman. Page 6 is an amazing full-page illustration that deserves to be shown off (since Jason has already shown off Hestaby, Puck, and ... someone else I forget offhand). It is in fact my favorite piece in the book. Going back, Page 5 shows you exactly how these things are going to begin, and besides that Cayman has a great introduction to the book.
Pages 7-8. Parlor Tricks. See above.
Page 9. Rigger X stat sheet. See above.
Page 10. Bull. I wanted someone from each grouping, and that seemed the most appropriate page. Plus Bull looks like a damn pimp in that image. My second favorite after Cayman.
Page 11. Villiers/Lanier. Group three.
I wanted to keep this to ten pages or less, and I think I put a decent amount of thought into the layout aesthetic of the sample to convey exactly what readers should expect from the entirety of the book. What you see in the sample is, expanded to 180 or so pages exactly what you'll get from the full book.