I picked up a Shadowrun book from the library for super cheap and liked what I read. I want to buy more, but don't know where to start. Any recommendations?

Most of the novels are pretty good with the notable exceptions of Shadowboxer and The Forever Drug. I'd have to say the best SR novels are (in order) are 2XS, Burning Bright, and Black Madonna. The Secrets of Power trilogy is also very good, as are Into the Shadows and Wolf & Raven.

My favorites are the two short story anthologies, Into the Shadows and Wolf and Raven. Into the Shadows is particularly good to get an idea of what a shadowrun is like and the effects a shadowrun can have. Tom Dowd's books, Burning Bright and Night's Pawn are also good, but they're about movers and shakers of the world. I also recommend Nigel Findley's books, 2XS, Shadowplay, House of the Sun, and Lone Wolf.

I really didn't like Black Madonna, when I first read it, and I like it even less now because of all the Dan Brown nonsense.

I havent read many but I hated books by Nyx Smith (Striper Assassin). Into the Shadows was cool and I dug Preying for Keeps. And some others, but those stood out.

Definitely 2XS and the Secrets to Power trilogy. The first was the opening trilogy to the world of SR novels and makes for an excellent introduction to the world. The second is only a vague haze in my hole-filled memory but I do remember comparing some of the other books I read to it later and finding them wanting.

2XS is one of the best SR novels ever released. I also liked Night's Pawn.

If I were you, I'd avoid Mel Odom ("Run Hard, Die Fast" and "Preying for Keeps"). IMO, he doesn't know how to make a book interesting.

I'd throw out a counter vote for Mel Odom's books; Preying for keeps and Head hunters. Those are a couple of good SR books. One of my other favs is Burning Bright.

Oh yeah, Night's Pawn was good.

I don't remember which book it was that had Leonardo in it (Black Madonna?) but if you're into immortal elves it's a good read. If you're one of the people that prefer to ignore that side of shadowrun then avoid it like the plague.

I'd also like to vote for "Into the Shadows." It's an anthology of short stories that serves as a great intro for the beginning SR reader.

Definately the 'Secrets of Power' trilogy (Never Deal with a Dragon/Choose Your Enemies Carefully/Find Your Own Truth), '2XS', and 'Into the Shadows'...Basically what everyone else is saying.

Avoid Lisa Smedman, Marc Gascogne(sp?), or Nyx Smith at all costs.

Actually, I did like Lisa Smedman's "Bloodsport" for the incredible detail she put into the descriptions without slowing things down. I swear, it felt like I was watching a movie in my head - I remember during some gory scenes, closing my eyes to shut the images off, only to realize that they were in my head and couldn't be shut off. THAT is the sign of some good writing, to me.

This will probably generate quite a bit of heat, but I really liked Dead Air. It's a really good example, in my opinion, of Shadowrun that does not involve the core concept, of the hard core cyberpunk runner crew.

Not shadowrun but cyberpunk, I'd HIGHLY recommend finding Dogfight, a short story and part of the Burning Chrome anthology. With a little looking you can find it online (or I can find it for you, if you ask nicely enough). Also, anything by Bruce Sterling.

Also not shadowrun, but Steve Perry's Matador novels are good examples of sci fi and have a shadowrunesque theme to them: a small group of well trained operatives against The Man.

These aren't Shadowrun but I recommend looking at:

Burn by Jonathan Lyons
Most of Neal Stephenson's books
The Transmetropolitan series by Warren Ellis
The Takeshi Kovacs novels by Richard K Morgan
The Marid Audran/Budayeen books by George Alec Effinger

Well, if we're going to open this to beyond the Shadowrun-branded novels, I have to second the late George Alec Effinger's Buyadeen books, When Gravity Fails, Fire in the Sun, The Exile Kiss, and Buyadeen Nights. They're among my favorite books and I'm sure that anyone who liked 2XS would like them too. The definitive book for riggers is Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired. It's excellent for other reasons too, but it's the best description of what it is like to have kerosene running through your veins. You can read a non-rigging excerpt online. The sequels, Voice of the Whirlwind and Angel Station, are still good, but are in a future past cyberpunk. To get an idea of rockers and simsense/BTL abuse, I would recommend Norman Spinrad's Little Heroes. There's also John Shirley's Eclipse Trilogy, Eclipse, Eclipse Corona, and Eclipse Penumbra.

Psychotrope is one of my favorite SR novel.

So are Burning Bright and Night's Pawn.

I completely forgot about Psychotrope. That's another good one - very trippy and out of the ordinary for SR, but good.

I recommend you pick up Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon instead of the SR novels. Licensed SR novels just can't compete to original fiction from a good author. I still enjoy reading SR novels though, but I wouldn't say any of them are must-reads. My absolute favourite is Findley. His books comes a bit closer than the others to having some value beyond the fan community.

The BEST Shadowrun Fanfiction you will ever read (IMHO) is Shapcano's series, URL below:

http://www.shapcano.com/

Find the three full novel length fanfics Inheritence, Demands and Debts and read them! They star the most fascinating and compelling Physical Adept ever: Owen Glendower AKA Grey AKA Glndwyr (I'll leave you to discover where the names originate) and in the latter books, his team the Lost Boys.

The plot is varied, exciting and unusual; the dialogue and character development insiring and the combat scenes refreshingly accurate, in both martial arts terminology (I swear the author must be a student of this subject and Japanese, or else his wiki-fu is just very strong and the sheer deadliness of real combat. No, 'oh look, I just took a Panther round at point blank in the left testicle, oh well'.

You will not regret reading this fanfic, I know I haven't, and then you can join the crowd in bugging Shapcano for a fourth book.

Another good, but unfortunately currently unfinished SR fanfic is 'Clever Hans' by S'Tar'Kan, URL below:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2559477/1/

check these out. all of you.

Hmm, was The Terminus Experiment the one with cybered vampires and lesbians? If so, I think you should read that one, because it has lesbians.

Yes, the Terminus Experiment had lesbians, one of them an elf, as well as a stripper, and a sex scene. However, I can't recall any brown nipples.

Into the Shadows was my actual introduction to the setting outside of the Genesis game, and I really loved it when I re-read it last month. I remember Burning Bright to be possibly the best piece of game-serial fiction I've ever read. Right now, I am reading Night's Pawn and having a real fun time with it.

I wasn't too fond of 2XS, though. I really dislike books that put TOO much effort into using setting-specific buzzwords, and this book is crammed with them, especially in the first couple of paragraphs. Plus, the game reads like a transcript of a tabletop game, and I just don't like the characters.

Dragon Heart trilogy

Run Fast Die Hard

All of them that you can find. Seriously. I have all of the novels (except for the excellent short story anthology, which to this day eludes me), and have read them all multiple times.

Unlike most of the responses, I actually LIKED Striper and Who Hunts the Hunter, but I kind of like were-tigers as a concept, so I'm biased.

BUT, that's my point. SR offers SO many different ideas and styles, it all depends on your take and YOUR preferences (often, at that particular time). So, try them all, see what you like. Hell, so many are available cheap on eBay and stiggy that you could probably get a whole slew of them for under $20, much cheaper-and better quality writing-than most of the trash that passes for reading material these days. (I know Anita Blake's big, but...)

PS-Anyone want to try to comprehensively describe the ShadowRun setting in as few words as possible? Including most, if not ALL options (punks through rockers to IEs, decker through rigger to mage, physads, shapeshifters, cyberzombies, etc. ...)?

R

I'm pretty sure my flgs has one in stock (into the shadows right?)

he does do mail order so ask for it...
click here for website

Let's not exclude the works of Michael J. Stackpole, people.

Oh, just saw this in the bookstore and did a little looking on Amazon.com. But this guy seems to write a lot about intrigue for corperate individuals.
One example is Killer Instinct. Some corp does not seem to have the killer instinct to move up in the ladder. He befriends a ex-special forces guy and gets him a job in the corp. The friend starts doing stuff to help the suit get promoted, though to his horror people start dying.

I was poking around the bookstores yesterday looking to pick u some copies of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality books because another board reminded me how much I liked reading them when they first came out. The books combine magic and technology in a modern setting, and could be useful for ideas. They are higher fantasy than SR, ad nowhere near as bleak, but are a fun read.

That's not the reason for this post though. What I saw that I had forgotten about was Steven Barnes's Gorgon Child. No magic, but it's an excellent representation of a street sam in a post modern dystopian world. I vaguely remember reading some other Barnes stuff, but don't remember enough to know if I should recommend them or not.

I bet that guy doesn't go around beating up a lot of women anymore. Or if he does he's very careful not to get caught or IDed.