I was wondering if anyone could recall the novel in which Leonardo blackmails the triple-A's. Is that Technobabel or Black Madonna? Can anyone give me the executive summary of that storyline? Thanks.

Black Madonna.

Basically, he hacked all matrix-relevant megacorps' core system, put an icon there that detailed his demands (vast amounts of money, lab equipment, blah) and left them to wonder what the hell happened. I think he also crashed their systems just because he could, but I might be mistaken.

Raku called in favours with Michael Sutherland und had him investigate this mystery matrix attack and in the end negotiated with Leo to fund his esotheric research in exchange for first dibs on his technology, which they then brilliantly used to create Deus and lose enormous amounts of money.

Is it any good? I don't recall ever reading it, but I'm not sure right now.

It's fairly good, as all the Sargent/Gascoige stuff is, if you don't mind the whole immortal elves plot arc. The end is fairly cheesy, though, and I personally am not the biggest fan of this whole templar knights/vatican child of christ persecution Dan Browne stuff. But that's personal preference,r eally. It's a solid work, surprising at times, and fun to read, nicely drawn characters.

Black Madonna is basically the davinchi code in Shadowrun Style *g*
But that's not the only book where it gets mentioned, i'm sure

Personally, I dislike the Immortal Elves, as well as the way magic is handled in Shadowrun, but I'm trying to find out more to get a complete picture of how the Renraku Arcology: Shutdown situation got started. It seems, partially, to start here. I vaguely remember that Leonardo had a tete-a-tete with Lofwyr near the end of the book. Any chance you can recall what that was about?

"Work for me or I'll eat you", maybe?

Did Streak appear in this novel?

either in this one, or in the one with the SR Jack the Ripper Clone . .
and the RAS got more or less kick-started with the dodger in the sam verner trilogie when he accidentally created morgana i think . .

For instance, in Walzer, Punks und Schwarzes Ice (The whole austrian new monarchy thing), for instance, and, moderated, in SoE (same story line), yes .... and Browne only stole a popular myth himself for that crappy book.


Uhm, that was at the end of Technobabel, wasn't it? And it was about Loffy being pissed at Leo for ... meddling with him or something.


Yes, he had his first appearance there.


Sort of. Deus was created in a later book though, but yes, that's another seed of that story line.

Streak is cool.

I didn't care for the Dan Brown-esque plot, but really disliked that Leonardo was so obvious an IE and didn't even change his name over the centuries. And hey, this is not Earthdawn! Renaming doesn't erase your pattern!

Me, I liked Streak, but liked Rani better.


Maybe someone ought tot ell him? Or he has this Geas (never change your name) or something, so he could work magic during the down cycle? whatever, really. Yes, he was a bit bluntly IE, but meh, I happen to kinda like the IE. Not much Leo, though, I'm more for the insane types like Aina, Alachia or Harley.

none of those are insane . . but they are all crazy!
aina has nightmares of her personal horror,
alachia is a power-freak and a sucker for politics . .
and har lea quinn ? . . yeah, he's crazy . . but at least he has a sense of humor like Streak *g*

Yes it's Da Vinci Code, only cooler because it has jesuits strike teams getting blown up by grenades and papal nuclear missiles. Other than that, as for many "Shadowrun" novel, it doesn't have much in common with Shadowrun, or at least my Shadowrun.

Also note that this novel went too far away for the line devs and a short story was written to destroy Leo's project and retcon the Vatican nuke story (and other elements).

A guy that accepts a quest to save the world from his memories of a dead and demented passion, which he once worshipped as it seems, is pure gold.

Aina used to have sex with horrors on a regular basis. She also has at least one child with a horror (with an unspellable name that starts with Y), whom she does love. And she practices self-mutiliating blood magic as a hobby.

Alachia had this really brilliant Blood Forest idea. Also, she's with Aina on blood magic.

Harley is what you get when you have someone run about with a bipolar disorder without proper treatment for some 20.000 years. Like the Joker, only with magic and less interest in gaining wealth. But yeah, he does have a sense of humor.

Edit: Aina for the first post, not Alachia. Stupid, distracted me.

Aina!

Hi there DV8. Long time, no see.

Hey Deev.

I feel so redundant.

Hey everyone.


Glad to see you're keeping up the self-loathing.

I still do not get how anyone can hack all the core systems of all the megas at the same time, and can't just steal the measly 20 billions he wanted to exort.

I guess that could be explained by his ego. He doesn't just want money, he also wants to show everyone how good he is.

Leo is a gloater. He could have gained the money without stealing it from anyone, I guess, but that would be just to simple. And no one would have known how great he is.

Damnit! Well, of course Aina. I shouldn't post when doing lots of other stuff un the side.

I knew that you knew. I was just making sure that everyone else knew too, and figured I'd inform you that I knew, even though, as I said, I knew that you knew.

Thanks for telling me, though you knew that I knew, and stuff.

Agreed on most points (still like Streak better).

IIRC, the "What's behind Door #-Such-And-What" in the Renraku Arcology was actually in reference to a back door in the Matrix host ACHE system (Trapdoor SAN down a V-Toilet) that went into a system that Leo hacked into the ACHE to monitor the possible creation of an AI. That was what Dunkie was hoping people would find sooner rather than later. Best laid plans of mice and dragons I guess...

I don't recall where I read that though.

I don't think Streak was in Black Madonna, but, I just picked up Streets of Blood as well as a few other SR novels (Streets, 2XS, Night'sPawn, [i]and Technobabel) at a used book store today. Never read Streets of Blood, and it's been quite a while on the others, so I'm quite happy. Oh, and Fortune, I didn't grab any Nyx Smith while I was there.

On a Tangent, is LoneWolf any good? It looked, well, dumb, but I was wondering if anyone else had read it and cared for it.

That's because your mind is closed.

Lone Wolf is alright. Half decent insights into the Cutters and Lone Star, IIRC.

I dunno, Smyth always had his runners act less subtle than would be survivable in my campaign (like Tikki and her minigun elevator assassination - and no, control emotions doesn't justify acting like an idiot) ... not my kinda style. Nice fluffed world, though, lots of named cyber and whatnot. Which is good, since I really, really hate unnamed cyber. Consequently, I always have my characters' cyber named, and Smyth was among the more decent sources there.

From the world's feel and story-wise, I always liked the Sargent,/Gascoigne books and Findley books best.

Streak definitly is in Black Madonna. I just looked it up. The streetsam in Streets is Rani, one of my top five my all-time favourite SR characters. Arguably, 2XS is my favourite novel, though. Good choices overall, fist.

I have never once claimed the Nyx Smith's books were the best, merely that good things can be gleamed from them. His Fistiness though, claims that absolutely nothing good can ever come from even looking at one of those books, let alone actually opening their covers.

As for named cyber ... I name every single piece of cyberware and bioware, and also every other piece of gear my characters have, or interact with. Everything! Both manufacturers and brand names of each item. Some might even say I am a little excessive in that regard.

Or... dedicated.

Maybe you just have too much free time.