Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Pathica on <03-08-11/1414:06>
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It's hard to admit as I've played SR since ye olde first edition... But I never read any of the SR novels before, saw a stack of them as of late at my local used book store, was wondering if you folks have thoughts on the 'good ones', and/or the must reads? (i.e. ones with all the meta-plot goodness. ;D )
(Oh and: sorry if I posted on wrong board, move her if need be. ;) )
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The traditional starting point has often been seen as the Secrets of Power trilogy; Never Deal with a Dragon, Choose Your Enemies Carefully, and Find Your Own Truth. They go over lots of the broad strokes of the Sixth World and how it got this way, and play...uhh...maybe less "fast and loose" with the game rules than lots of the other books. They're also fun because they take you to Seattle, London, Australia, and lots of points in between. These feature awesome characters like Ghost-Who-Walks-Inside, Dodger, Hart, and Sally Tsung. They've also got some Sam guy in the middle of 'em, too. ;)
Wolf and Raven, by Michael Stackpole, is another oft-cited favorite. W&R was written before the Shadowrun rules, though, so there's some bits of wonkiness where Stackpole's vision isn't quite what Shadowrun grew into (with the main character, Wolf, in particular, now feeling like a very strange but very awesome hybrid of shaman, adept, and shapeshifter, emphasis on awesome). It gives us some neat characters, though, some fun slang and footnotes, and Kid Stealth. It's also nice because it's a collection of short stories, so you don't have to read it in one big go, necessarily, for it to still make sense.
I like Night's Pawn, because it's a weird sort of espionage, multiple-alias, very elite spy/agent type (Jack Bauer, only semi-retired), kind of over the top story. Lots of high ranking NPCs are floating around, a lot more tension than action, that sort of thing...but it's not for everyone.
Dead Air is probably my guilty pleasure favorite of all the old-school Shadowrun novels. It's not even about a shadowrunner, really (though the main character's getting chased by some), it's about a Combat Biker celebrity superjock with a bajillion dollars and a cool Troll adept surfer dude bodyguard. It's...uhh...better than I just made it sound (in my opinion). For some reason I've just always loved the silly thing.
And...and...and I'm getting tired of typing, now, so I'll let someone else come in and take over. When in doubt, though, if I see Shadowrun novels for a good price, I snatch 'em up. They're not always the most faithful to the setting (since every author has their own idea of what they like, and since they've been written in varying universes, edition by edition), and some of them truly do have some horrible characters in my opinion (like the assassin/stripper weretiger, the female 'runner who wants a sex change so her gay teammate will love her back, the lesbian stripper vampire hunter, that sort of thing)...but by and large they're worth it, as just fun reads, if you can get 'em cheap.
I'd also suggest taking a look at eBay sometime. You can often do a search for "Shadowrun lot" and hit it really big, instead of paying just half price at a used book store.
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I'd get them all. Like Critias said some are better than others, I personally didn't like the characters in the Secrets of Power trilogy. Some of my favorites are Headhunters, Preying for Keeps, Shadowplay, Run Hard Die Fast, anything by Mel Odom, House of the Sun, Night's Pawn and Dead Air.
If the characters mentioned are Dirk Montgomerry (sp?), Argent, or Jack Skater it's going to be good, imo anyhow.
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Don't forget Nigel's books:
2XS
House of the Sun
Shadowplay
Lone Wolf
God, has it really been 16 years?? :'(
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Nigel was a hell of a writer. R.I.P. :(
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Thanks for the input everybody, the book store is on my to-do-list tomorrow. :)
I don't get to actually play anymore, pulled out my old books, have been getting my SR fix from rereading old shadowtalk. :P
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To make another suggestion, try checking out some of the fan-made fiction. They're easier to find, although some of their quality does suffer compared to professional work.
I'm hoping that we'll see some more re-releases of novels, however. Nigel's books are available in digital format from the Battleshop (http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=28_222&products_id=2476). Which I consider a good thing. Even if I've already gotten most in Dead Tree Format, there's one that's been a Unicorn for me. The book that introduced me to Shadowrun, "Shadowplay".
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I'd second the "get em all" comments - even the ones that aren't as good will still provide some additional insight into the world and the life of a runner. I just re-introduced myself to Shadowrun and decided I wanted to get the books off eBay. But the shipping costs were going to kill me!
I lucked out the other day, and found 17 of them at one of my local used bookstores - snatched them all up for a whopping $24.00. Best book buy ever!
I'll compromise and just get one or two a month from eBay, all the while keeping my eyes open at the used stores.
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The Nigel Findley books +1000
And Houses of the Sun is a bonus since it's metaplotty. Well, so is 2XS now that I think about it...
Ya Dead Air was cool too. I've always wanted to play a combat biker game cuz of that story.
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Ya Dead Air was cool too. I've always wanted to play a combat biker game cuz of that story.
Dead Air was a Simsense, however. :P Not based on "Reality".
...
OK, I can't believe I just said that.
Anyhow, it made me think about how the combat cycle armor is designed and so on, and I figure the boots are like Ski Boots. One of the characters I write for has a pair that he wears on Shadowruns.
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Burning Brightly if you want a good run down on what happened in Chicago.
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Burning Brightly if you want a good run down on what happened in Chicago.
Just finished it, the first of the handful I grabbed. (Thanks again to the advice posters ;D )
Wasn't bad, fun enough read, though sometimes it read a little like the rules examples in books: "Character A summons spirit B, rolls 5 dice..."
I knew what I was getting into, not going to pick it apart with interweb literary critique, I had fun while I read it, that's all I wanted. :)
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I cannot agree strongly enough, the Nigel Findley books are a must.
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I always enjoyed the Steven Kenson novels. I don't know, I just really liked the fact that he wrote his novels where the main character (Tommy Talon) is based on his in-game character. But I also must say, grab all the ones that you can find as I have yet to read one and not enjoyed the ride.
~Dodger
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But I also must say, grab all the ones that you can find as I have yet to read one and not enjoyed the ride.
I feel the same way, but I say to grab all of them you can find cheap because it's sort of an insurance policy. There have been some that I've just plain not enjoyed, and it's always been nice to be able to remind myself I bought a stack of them for $5, so that (a) I didn't spend much on the one I found disagreeable, and (b) I've got another one handy to use to wash away the memories. ;D In fairness, that's my general feeling towards just game books in general, it's by no means something that I feel about Shadowrun in particular. Lots of D&D stuff, Star Wars novels, you name it, are real "hit and miss."
So when in doubt, I troll eBay to buy in bulk.
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They see me surfin', I be trollin'... :P
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As long as you are not buying the new german ones, you should be mostly fine regardless of which ones you are buying . .
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The Secrets of Power trilogy is ok, but again deviates from the rules (well the rules that existed back then) pretty frequently, but it was pretty good at catching the mood of SR.
Findley wrote several good ones, but alot of the one-shot type writers were passable to really awful. I also can't stand Kenson's books.
Burning Bright was one of the best IMO.
Overall I'd say the novel line is pretty weak overall, but honestly you don't go buy novels based on RPGs expecting consistent high quality stuff.
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Can anyone tell me a good website to order the novels from?
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I would throw my favorite out there: Changeling. Story about a young boy who turns troll, then the catches up with him after he makes a rep for a Hitman in Chicago and some of the choices he has to make.
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I would throw my favorite out there: Changeling. Story about a young boy who turns troll, then the catches up with him after he makes a rep for a Hitman in Chicago and some of the choices he has to make.
A nice, shiny Chi-Town, at that!
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Can anyone tell me a good website to order the novels from?
Ebay is a good place to find the old novels. They've also started releasing ePubs at BattleCorps.com and DriveThruRPG.com
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Why aren't the novels sold on this website? I tried ebay but I didn't see much. I'd really prefer to get the hard copies instead of pdf also.
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Why aren't the novels sold on this website? I tried ebay but I didn't see much. I'd really prefer to get the hard copies instead of pdf also.
I'm not sure, but it might have to do with licensing issues and/or just how old some of them are (and out of print). Remember, the game's been around 22 years or so, now, and the novels have been around about as long.
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Not to mention dealing with the authors/writers.
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Other than the already mentioned ones, I have a soft spot for Mel Odom's work: Preying for Keeps and Headhunters. But so far my favorite is Run Hard, Die Fast also by Odom. Being a relatively new father, I kind of have a soft spot for Jack Skater.
But I would also HIGHLY recommend Steven Kenson's works, Crossroads, Ragnarok, and The Burning Times. Tommy Talon is one of my favorite SR "legends" and yes, can't wait to see his bio in Street Legends.
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I really liked the Kenson novels as well. I honestly Don't understand why many people didn't care for them. (I get this from reading many forum posts about the novels)
~Dodger
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Secrets of Power Trilogy, anything by Nigel Findley ( :'( ), and anything by Tom Dowd. I also happen to like Fade To Black by Nyx Smith, although may don't.
Out of the other old stuff, there's stuff that I think is better than other stuff, but I won't post my 'de-recommendations' as that would not be suited to professional courtesy.
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I'm just hoping we'll hear news of new ones soon...
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Now I like the Striper books, if only for the different viewpoint. an animal viewpoint with human level intelligence
I notice that no one mentioned "Never trust an elf". it has Kham from the powers triology. it shows a different of running, caring for one's family. Also, some metaplotting going along with one of the first sighting of cyborgs. And it shows life for an ork in Seattle.
Into the shadows is a collection of short stories are interconnected together, excpet the 1st story.
Mel odom, nyx, both good writers.
there were 4 novels that came out during the 3rd ED.
3 dealt mage coming into her own. basically, the 3 books were written to bring new players into the world of SR and it scope. not the best of novels, but a fair intro
one book wasn't about a run, but about a corp trying to move a bunch of squatters off some hidden medical stuff.
a fifth book with the same kind of borders, is about a troll archer and a crew he had put together to do a run. 95% of the book is about what happens after they steal the items they are after, and it gets wild at times. until Spells & Chrome came out, it was the closes to 4th Ed the novels had come.
sorry I cannot remember the names or find my copies at the moment to refresh my memory
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As reinforcement to my earlier "cast a wide net on eBay, see what you can dredge up," advice? I've just got to crow to someone about an auction I snagged and a box I just got in the mail. I scored 32 Shadowrun novels for $27. Even after shipping, I paid less than a buck apiece for 'em. Even factoring in the handful that this gives me doubles of, I'm quite happy with the purchase. ;D
Now, uhh, now I've just got to fit 'em on my bookshelves, which are already overflowing.
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Lucky bastich.
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Aye, that was me you were bidding against, Critias. Leave the lot of 16 alone, mmk? That one's mine.
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Aye, that was me you were bidding against, Critias. Leave the lot of 16 alone, mmk? That one's mine.
Hahah, my bad! Didn't mean to rob another forum regular. ;) And no worries, I'm not about to go bidding on any more. 32 did me just fine, with all the reading I've got to do for school this semester.
And for what it's worth, I never really "bid against" people, or try to one-up them purposefully. I just find an auction, bid once (type in the amount I'm genuinely willing to spend), and then I leave it alone until I get a notification email. So I wasn't out to snipe it away from you or anything like that, at any rate. Just buying what I wanted to buy, for the amount I wanted to spend.
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Yeah, no worries. It was probably for the best because the 16-book one is more in line with what I can actually read, and I really shouldn't spend too much money at this point. So it was probably a good thing.
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I was lucky enough to pick up a couple of lots a year or two ago...have the full set. :)
That being said, if there was a more aggressive plan to re-release these in electronic format...a lot more convenient to actually read on my Kindle.
AJC
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Ahhh, gotta love the classics. I just started reading Technobabel again. Not the best, but its the only one in my collection I havent re-read in the last few months.
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If the collection comes out on E-Book format, I might honestly think about investing in an E-Book. Until then, I'll support local industries and buy in DTF.
(Just checked my Shadowrun rulebooks again, "Printed in Canada" and "Printed in the USA" are nicely printed on them. Only the Runner's Toolkit was Chinese, my SR4A LE was made in Tailand.).
Support your local industries and FLGS!