Thanksgiving. 2070. Shadowrunning vampire Rick "Red" Lang used to live in a world hunting infectious insectoid spirits and twisted mages, but now he's awakened after eight years to find the world has gotten impossibly stranger. After being retrieved by agents of his long-time ally Needles, Rick embarks on a quest to piece together the events of his lost time, and find his place among the conflict that rages among ghouls and the eldritch forces that have begun to encroach from beyond our reality. He journeys through the neon-drenched ruins of a leveled Chicago and its augmented facades as he teams up with Pretty, a beautiful ghoul, and Slim, hacker extraordinaire, as they weave their way through the schemes and power plays of a dangerous new conflict that threatens to shatter the delicate balance between peace and an all-consuming chaos.
Jimmy Kincaid is an elven p.i., damaged mage, and friend to the downtrodden. He roams the streets of 2074 Seattle, dispensing justice the only way he knows how—fast and direct. But when a mage contacts him to let him know hie magical mentor has died—and left him a datachip—Kincaid thinks his old professor was simply taking care of some minor unfinished business. But the professor hires Kincaid to find out who killed his mentor, an old enemy from Kincaid's past pops up as the prime suspect—the same vampire that stripped him of his magic. Now Jimmy's got two reasons to tie up this loose end—permanently. But the bloodsucker's involvement goes deeper than Kincaid first realizes, and soon he's running for his life while trying to figure out exactly what his old mentor was up to—and why so many will kill to get their claws on it.
When a magical grad student on the trail of a ancient, powerful relic uncovers lost writings that reveal a link between the Sixth World and the long-lost, magical Second World, she sets off a chain reaction of megacorporaate machinations and cold-blooded killers who will do anything to get their hands on her. the only question is, will they sell her to the highest bidder, or throw in on her quest to find a true artifact that could change the Sixth World forever?
There was talk of another print anthology in a semi-recent Critical Glitch podcast interview with Jason and John Helfers, the novel line guy, but I'm not sure what the status on that is. I'd like one, too, though.
Heyas! Patrick said I should "out" myself here, so, yeah, I'm Kevin Czarnecki. Damn glad you enjoyed the piece! I'm pretty excited for Crimson's release. Adding to the canon is a big bucket list item. No way it could have happened without Patrick. The guy is a perfect creative partner.