Anyone else read Toxic Agendas?
I am going to try and not turn this into a book review, but wow is this the best they could find? The SR novels of the past at the very least left me with a want to play SR!! This book makes me want to file a complaint or ask for my money back. Did someone else read this before they decided to publish it? The villian says maybe 15 words (I mean total words spoken through out the entire book) There is no attempt at giving him a personality. The main character is bland. The only character in the book that left me thinking, "this guy is cool, I want to make a character like that", was the main characters mentor, Lothar.
Wow I am so flabergasted by this book that I cant even put coherent thoughts together about it. No one reading this book will look into playing SR, they will say, well that game is boring. Anyway I just needed to vent my dissapointment about this recent addition to a line of books that I felt, up until now, was respectable and worth reading.

Look up the thread about "Born To Run" elsewhere here. It should give you a variety of POVs.

I liked it. But then, I a touch biased. I liked about 95% of Stephen Kenson's stuff he wrote for SR, and I met him at this past ICON 25. Nice guy.

The fact that I liked his previous books is, admittedly, the largest source of my disappointment with the newer release. Hey I do not believe that an author needs to be good all the time, just most the time. I could see a good story being published as a poor novel if the author is rushed and/or made to write about this and that, when he wants the book to be about here and there.

I was not suggesting that this one book will keep me from continuing being a fan of the series, (I have purchased and read nearly every SR novel printed) I will continue to do so, if for nothing else, just to increase the chance that the book sales gets mentioned in some obscure book review which in turn lets another person grow some gamer wings and play SR. (maybe then I could find a &^%$ %$#^&#% shadowrun group in souther california) Anyway I'm rambling

I agree with Doc; these books were bad. I was planning to get the whole trilogy when I heard it was coming out, but after buying "Born to Run", I was sorely disappointed. How did this book ever get written? I've seen fanfics that were much better.

IMO, Kenson's work as been going down hill since "Technobabel" and the first Talon book(forgot the name). Those were his only good novels, the rest are bad.

I wish Nigel Findley was still alive because I want to hear more about Argent, Dirk Montegomery and Wolf. Those were characters I could sympathize with. At least Michael Stackpole is still alive, maybe he could write some SR...

Hopefully, the novels after Kenson's trilogy will be A) Better written and B) actually take place in 2070.

I've read ALL the novels, and some are OK, with others being actually great.

Kenson's Talon trilogy wasn't half bad, but to be honest, Tecnobabel did lack some punch. His latest SR trilogy just fulfilled a contract obligation, but it still carried well. He's more focused on Mutants & Masterminds now, so there will be some off-sides.

I'm about 1/2 way through Drops of Corruption, and it's reading good so far. I'll post a quick & dirty review when I'm done.

I admit, Poison Agendas reads somewhat like someone's transcribing a game session that was written over the weekend.

Drops Of Corruption is a good book, I enjoyed reading it very much. Can't find the thread to post my review (my search-fu is weak today)... I liked the master villain, Quinn, and some of the runners. The plot is nice and has a good described car chase.

I didn't have a problem with any of the new ones. I guess I don't expect a lot from my pulp fiction, except a little break from reality.

They were passible reading I guess. Not up to par with thier prior works IMHOP. Since they were issued to push the barbie doll game I really didn't expect much anyway. Just wished for the best. Poisened Agenda showed promise, but dragged on. It did however touch on the Burned Out Mage idea, wich was a nice twist. I just hope for better in the future. Also hope that the newer books are written with the 4th ed. world changes in mind.

They certaily should be, hopefully there will be some fiction that addresses the time between the crash and SR4's 2070

There is some old novels that are WAAYYY worst than those...

In fact, I enjoyed them ... Those are kind of great to support material such as New Seattle.

My own review of Drops of Corruption is elsewhere, but I just picked up the latest book, Aftershock today. It will be a few weeks until I go through it.

I think Aftershock isn't all that bad.