Aeternitas, What is this novel? Options

[JesterX]

I've seen the novel named "Aeternitas" on Amazon...

Is this a new novel? Is it good?

[Ancient History]

One of the German novels. According to the poorly-translated synopsis I found, it follows the shadowreporter Poolitzer as he recovers some magical goody from the SOX and gets involved in an urban brawl game. Full of German standbys like the negamage. Not new, supposed to be funny-if you can read German.

[-Nyx-]

Aeternitas is a shadowrun novel by Markus Heitz (other SR-novels from him being TAKC 3000, Gottes Engel, Sturmvogel, 05:58, and Jede Wette). Markus' SR-novels are always writen in a quite humorous way and focus upon the reporter Poolitzer, just like Ancient History said.
Due to this fact, his SR-novels were either loved enthusiastic by the German readers or condemned, but sold well AFAIK.

Markus Heitz is BTW one of Germany's most successful fantasy-writers with his Dwarf-series (Die Zwerge, Die Rache der Zwerge etc.) and the Ulldart-series being well known (and due to less slapstick a little more "common").

[ravensmuse]

His name is Poolitzer.

Genius.

[hermit]

I've seen the novel named "Aeternitas" on Amazon...

Is this a new novel? Is it good?

It's a fast, fun, shallow read. Better than most german novels, but does take advantage of several rather odd 'character options'. It's part of a loose five novel series about Poolitzer, the Urban Brawl Team Black Baronsand a number of shadowrunner characters. Lots of those characters die during that cycle, with only few survivors in the end. The first novel and part of the second are set in Seattle, then there're two in various parts of the German setting, and the last is half in Germany, half in Dubai. Aeternitas is the third of that cycle, I think.

The stories are pretty epic, including pacts with ancient free spirits, a power gambit in Dubai, elf conspiracies, a new piece of cyber, combining the VCR, MBW 3 and a sattelite uplink and a sattelite master control unit, and nazi terrorists with nuclear weapons in possession of a russian missile sub, who annihilate a russian city and irradiate a good deal of the baltic sea (a bit of that actually made it into Shadows of Europe). But it IS fun to read, if not exactly low level. If you know your German, try them.

I'll try and write up a synopsis from memory, bt as the novel juggles three or four storylines that only in the end unite, it's a bit tough to sum up into one paragraph.

[ravensmuse]

The stories are pretty epic, including pacts with ancient free spirits, a power gambit in Dubai, elf conspiracies, a new piece of cyber, combining the VCR, MBW 3 and a sattelite uplink and a sattelite master control unit, and nazi terrorists with nuclear weapons in possession of a russian missile sub, who annihilate a russian city and irradiate a good deal of the baltic sea (a bit of that actually made it into Shadows of Europe).

Dear lord you Germans get cool stuff. We get cool stuff too, but there are times I wish I read German (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Stahlseele]

we get dwarven kaers that lived from 4th to 6th world too . . we get the H&K Urban Series Weapons and Zeiss Eyes and Ear/Voice/Rigger/Administratware-Stuff . .
on the downside, we get to be Nazi and the Allied German States as a practical experiment in Anarchy gone wrong . . and THEN we get to be global scale terrorists with magical nukes who take out most of the matrix in america . .

[CanRay]

My character swears by his Zeiss Cybereyes! Uhu-II Model 748, with the Gold Finish and custom optical display in blue.

And the Magical Nukes ROCKED!

Oh... You're not talking about the Industrial Dwarf-Core Band, are you?

[Jackstand]

we get dwarven kaers that lived from 4th to 6th world too . . we get the H&K Urban Series Weapons and Zeiss Eyes and Ear/Voice/Rigger/Administratware-Stuff . .
on the downside, we get to be Nazi and the Allied German States as a practical experiment in Anarchy gone wrong . . and THEN we get to be global scale terrorists with magical nukes who take out most of the matrix in america . .

Hmm... I suppose that explains why I come across people, from time to time, who insist on there having been immortal dwarfs along with the elves, but how are Zeiss Eyes different from regular cybereyes that come in a box marked Zeiss?

Also, I thought Winternight was Swedish, or Scandinavian, in general... Sure, they're germanic, but not German-German.

[CanRay]

but how are Zeiss Eyes different from regular cybereyes that come in a box marked Zeiss?

Well, real Zeiss eyes are from a few centuries of opticians, and the skills and quality that they're known for.

Knockoffs are known to give you infections of the eye sockets. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Tycho]

how are Zeiss Eyes different from regular cybereyes that come in a box marked Zeiss?

In the German Version of "Man and Machine" (iirc) where rules for them and they are of cause better than normal Cybereyes, just like the HK Urban Combat series in the German Cannon Companion. In this time the German developer thought it is cool to make "German only" gear that is always better than all other equipment. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dead.gif)

cya
Tycho

[Fuchs]

Yes. The Urban Combat was the non plus ultra of the SMGs at its time - 7M dmg code, undetectable by MAD detectors, integrated silencer, smartlink and vent 3 if I remember correctly.

The story synopsis reads like the usual overdone trash (nuking cities for cheap "oh, it's epic" effects is a hallmark for stupid authors not showing any restraint or respect for the game world.)

[-Nyx-]

In the German Version of "Man and Machine" (iirc) where rules for them and they are of cause better than normal Cybereyes, just like the HK Urban Combat series in the German Cannon Companion. In this time the German developer thought it is cool to make "German only" gear that is always better than all other equipment. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dead.gif)

Well, but nowadays, the "old odd German ubertech" should be pretty much in line... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I just wasn't able to find an reasonable usage for this Hexenhammer-gun from the novels (with the other drum-feed shotguns already taking up that place...)... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[Stahlseele]

I just wasn't able to find an reasonable usage for this Hexenhammer-gun from the novels

dude, fully automatic shotgun with adjustable choke that is still silenced! o.o

[hermit]

In this time the German developer thought it is cool to make "German only" gear that is always better than all other equipment.

Yeah, with the Urban Series and Nitamas crappy Pulse Rifle rip-off being in Arsenal, courtesy of Chris Lonsing ... guess we should to be happy there's no steampunk Reichsflugscheibe among the Arsenal vehicles.

But the Germany ubercyber just pioneered the idea of cyber suites. It's even called a cyberware suite in Germany 1, IIRC.

[Stahlseele]

it's starting again in 4th . . we have a really complete write-up of Hamburg in the german vrsion of Runner Havens, a whole chapter instead of just some pages . .

[Blade]

How good is it?
In France we've got a write-up of Marseille, complete with some nice art.

[Tycho]

The Hamburg Chapter is nice. about 50-60pages, nice Artwork and good Informations...

Marseille whould be interesting, but I don't speak France...

cya
Tycho

[-Nyx-]

it's starting again in 4th . . we have a really complete write-up of Hamburg in the german vrsion of Runner Havens, a whole chapter instead of just some pages . .

Well... just that the person responsible for the short English and the extended German Hamburg chapter was the same...

So I'd say the coherence shouldn't be an issue... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Stahlseele]

*shrugs*
maybe i'll blame it on english not being my native language(german is), but to me it's somehow not easy to understand how coherence between 1(yes, something's there, like in the german write-up) and 0(nothing to see here folks, move on like you did in the english version of the book) should not be an issue O.o
just makes me question why he did not do one write-up and translated it into the different languages o.O

[Jackstand]

It's not that they were saying that there's nothing to see in Hamburg in the English edition. They were saying that there's cool stuff to see, but Seattle and Hong Kong have cool stuff too, so, sadly for the Germans, they don't get the spotlight in this book. The German edition, though, is for a German audience, so they figure that there will be more interest in a German city. We Americans already got Seattle.