Hey guys, just wanted to let folks know that my new Kincaid novel, follow-up to the e-novella Neat, is out now. The first in a planned trilogy, Shaken (No Job Too Small) is available as an e-book at DTRPG or Amazon, and physical copies should be available through your local Barnes and Noble or FLGS, with an e-book/dead-tree bundle available from BattleShop. So far reviews've been pretty positive, starting with a nice one from Diehard Game Fan; it's hard not to love it when your first novel's first review ends with


Hopefully the trend will keep up and new readers will like it just as much!

I hope folks enjoy it, and as always, feedback, questions, comments, (and reviews in particular!) are appreciated.

Thanks for the heads up.
I liked Neat a lot and I'll soon read it, once I'm done with all my Discworld novels. (18 to go )

I don't really give Diehard GF any credibility... All the more reason to read it myself

Wow, this. This is what a shadowrun novel should be like.

Shaken tells a story in the life of PI/vigilante/runner Jimmy Kinkaid, a near-burnout street mage with an attitude, the mentor to match, and the hots for his ally spirit. This alone all but guarantees I like this book. But it's narrated interestingly, the protagonist is appropriately biased, the book does give him is share of sucker-punches - and I really like the narrative flow, even if it may seem a little slow to some. It's not Michael Bay, it's Fargo. It's a voyage through the decrepit, broken world of Jimmy Kinkaid and damn, it's a nice ride.

The best part about this novel - and I'm saying this on top of excellent immersion, well-written characters, and similar world-building - is the fact it is very Noir, very hard-boiled, without neglecting typical tropes and elements of cyberpunk in general and Shadowrun in particular. Jimmy Kincaid is the archetypical Noir protagonist - an anti-hero, a broken, damaged man, struggling as best as he can to stem both the darkness of the world around and the darkness within himself. It also has a detective story, well-executed twists and turns, and a well fleshed out world that is a protagonist in itself (I'm such a sucker for off-hand brand drops), it has an unreachable femme fatale (with a twist that, haha, resonates fandom jokes, too, without being obnoxious about it - a feat to pull off in itself), well-scaled action scenes and a resolution that, while satisfying for the reader, may not entirely be for the protagonist. Classic.

Now, I've always felt Cyberpunk was more Noir in the digital age than Science Fiction. In Cyberpunk, for all that technology and exotic-hypermodern surface gloss, the heart of the story is deeply human - it's about alienation, about handling the invasion of life by technology, about losing one's self by replacing oneself with technology. It's made of tales of the human condition, much more in the tradition of American Gothic (which largely shares Cyberpunk's neophobia) and Romantic literature than classic Science Fiction with it's libertarian, modernist technophilia that sees technology as the salvation of mankind (Transhumanism would fit the same technological niche Cyberpunk occupies with a more traditional Science Fiction narrative). With its heavily Noir attitude, using most, if not all, classic tropes, and its adherence to classic Noir tales, Shaken (no Job too small) is all I could have asked from a Shadowrun novel, and much more - it could (and would deserve to) stand on its own as a work in Cyberpunk, rather than be considered 'just' a francise book. It's made of the best the world of Shadowrun has to offer, in a way that hasn't been around since Findley (in the same way Harebrained Schemes' writing does when at the top of their game). I imagine Dirk Montgomery's buddy from the Friends of Film Noir madly applauding and cheering this book.

Please, more novels like this.

Well. That's about as solid and generous a review as a fella could hope for. I'm glad you picked up the things I put down.

Thanks, Hermit. I mean it. I'd appreciate a similar sentiment being posted to Amazon, DTRPG, or where ever else you bought it from, if it's not too much to ask. Every little bit helps guarantee they'll keep lettin' me do this, y'know?

On it. But I'll have to vary it a bit, since it's not on a fan forum. Bought it on Barnes&Noble and DTRPG, but will see if Amazon lets me rate it anyway.

It's appreciated, man. Like I said, every review I can point to is helpful, when it comes time to pitch new stuff, or even -- someday -- talk contracts/payment a little more seriously, and stuff like that, to say nothing of the effect positive reviews have on sales in the shorter term.

They help in those ways, but it's also just kick-ass to see that folks appreciate the work and energy I put into this puppy. So, yeah. Just...thanks, man.

I just read Shaken this weekend. Best SR book I've read in a long time. Even better than a lot of the "classics".
I didn't have to forgive a lack of understanding of the game, or the world, or just bad writing. I could relax and soak in Puyalup.
I will definitely recommend both Kincaid stories to my friends.

What kind of daemonic creature designed Barnes&Noble's page. No, I am NOT a guest, you can see that in how I am LOGGED IN with my new account! Stupid page. Grrr to you.

Anyway, reviews on DTRPG and Amazon (Amazon says it wants to review my review, though).

Oh, and mad props for Gentry, Panther Modern Matrix Wizard. Forgot that in my review.

Awesome, Bear, I'm glad you enjoyed it (and thanks for the recommendations). "Lack of understanding of the game, or the world," is never a problem for me, I like to think.


I really don't know what happened at B&N, especially where this book is concerned. Neither I nor my kick-ass editor know where they even GOT the sell sheet they had posted, or why they don't have the artwork posted, or...anything. It's weird. I really don't know what's going on with them.


Fantastic, man. It's greatly appreciated (especially since I know you were planning to edit/rewrite part of it, making it double the work).


I thought the two -- a cheerful but low-Charisma elf wannabe, and a high-Charisma (but gruff) elf who couldn't care less -- would be fun to write, and I needed a hacker, and it just fell into place. I think it worked pretty well, and added some levity (which parts of the book certainly needed), too. The SR5 core crew will be showing up in a few more places (and all of 'em, not just Gentry), too, so I'm glad folks have been enjoying the guest appearances.

I've gushed about Neat in the past; glad to hear that lightning has struck twice.

I'll necro-post my review when I get a chance to read it; I've been trying to work through the SR5 novels in publication order, but it sounds like Hermit is making a really strong case for just sending this one to the head of the line.

All very good reads but Shaken is the best to date IMHO as well.

Whoa, I need to get on dumpshock more. I really enjoyed Neat, so adding this to the list for my next round of book buying. Hope to snag a physical copy of this one.

They're on sale at Barnes&Noble's online store.

Nice writing style and good references to to shadowrun world and gear.
But some glaring power level issues and plot holes. Too much style over substance for my taste.
Will recommend it to my friends, though, as some are more style over substance and less critical as I am and the writing style is good (although sometimes too repetitive).

I'm not sure how to get more detail or address your concerns in the thread (if that's even what you'd like me to do) without spoiling stuff, Serbitar, but if you'd like to shoot me a PM, I'd be glad to discuss it with you more, or explain a few of the choices I made.

Read about a zillion SR novels back in the day, but there was, to my mind, a sharp drop off in quality about 15 years ago and I hadn't read one since.

But saw this in my FLGS, and the back said it was about Puyallup, where my character's been spending a lot of time lately, so picked it up hoping for a better feel of the place.

Loved this book. Loved the style. Loved the main character. Loved what I bought it for - a thoughtful treatment of northern Puyallup.

Thanks!
I really felt like Shadowrun had stopped being authentically dirty/sweaty/gritty quite a while ago, but that was resurrected with this book.
That might be just my personal preference, but this was indeed my cup of tea, and will recommend to friends.

I have sort of limited patience for reading prose on the screen, but am going to check out the story about Rook I found over on Shadowgrid next.

Will buy more from this author.

Is there a way to find out what parts of what (if any) upcoming rulebooks he is writing?

depends. afaict, they generally don't talk about it in advance. speculatively, this may be due to a NDA that they almost definitely have to sign. not sure whether the NDA would mean they can't talk about what book they're writing (i've never signed a CGL NDA, nor seen one), so i don't really know that.

after the fact, many authors are fairly open about which parts of which books they wrote... though not necessarily before letting people comment on them a bit, possibly in an effort to get neutral feedback, though that is entirely speculation.

in any event, the most sure-fire way is likely to be asking the author directly. you may not be able to get anything from them (as mentioned above, they may have signed an NDA, and whether it covers the specific situation or not nobody wants to get into litigation over what is ultimately a hobby that they get paid slightly more than nothing for doing it).

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Adamu!

Just FYI, but my name is "Russell Zimmerman" in Shadowrun credits, so if you're looking for sourcebooks I contributed to, that should help narrow it down. I don't have a whole lot of crunch on my plate right now (what with the novels and all, I've spent the last few years mostly transitioning to fiction instead of rules), and I'm afraid my NDA means I can't give details of what I am planning to work on in the near future. I've enjoyed having the opportunity to flesh out Puyallup a little more, though (instead of always writing it off as Barrens), so it's awesome you're digging on that (and that you seem to have felt the same way, focusing on the north side of town a little).

Kincaid's dominating my Shadowrun schedule, though, and if you've enjoyed it so far, I think you'll like what's coming (also, be sure to check out Neat, Kincaid's original e-novella).

That sounds interesting!

On a side note, I've been working on and off on a very large map of Shadowrun Seattle based on google sattelite images, though it's kind of a bummer what they did with maps (it's total crap now), the maps being based on the SSB's original maps of Shadowrun seattle, wich detail all roads and hence, which parts of the Sprawl are built up and which aren't. It's a lot different to today's Seattle metro region.

On topic, I noticed that SR's Puyallup contains a HUGE built-up section - a section the size of modern Seattle - and that the place's population increased by a factor of 10 from current Puyallup county. The only canon reference I found to that huge slab of concrete where today there are mostly meadows and woods is a place called "Hope" in one of the ancient 1st Ed adventures - I think it was Total Eclipse, but I'd have to look it up again. Also, matching Lava flows to existing terrain is super tedious.

I wonder if you could fine maps with elevation lines somewhere? Presumably lava will tend to flow with gravity, so could probably make some assumptions about starting points, then figure where it is more likely to have flowed?

And back on topic: I've based my game around northern Puyalup, so while I've been avoiding gaming novels for the past twenty years, I might have to go make an exception for this one

Using a height map already, but getting the flows to look good with the photoshop bend tool isn't easy.

Loved it. Kincaid is the only elf protagonist in any fiction that I've really liked (hey, I'm pro Ork and anti-Elf as a general rule).

Though I am happy to have new Shadowrun fiction, $8.99 for a < 300 page ebook made me sad, and delayed my purchase. Totally worth it for Shaken, but it makes me a little leery of the other new novels.

Been following Shadowrun since SR1, read a lot of the novels, and frankly Neat and Shaken blow most of them away. Fantastic job and I love the characters. Kincaid really lives up to his literary spiritual forebears and Arianna is easily one of my favorite characters. She's a great foil for his personality. This book really reminded me just how much I love Shadowrun even though I haven't had a chance to game in years.

Glad to hear more is to come, you've already sold me on any other James Kincaid novels coming down the pike. Absolutely great work all around.

I a pleased to see you get some favorable reviews and hope to see lots more novels from you. Maybe you will write enough of them to start searching for dedications and I'll get a mention for my small part in getting you started.

Oooooo... sounds like that is a story in itself.

I used to sponsor SR fiction contests with prizes. Critias/Russell won one, he may have said it prompted him to start submitting material for publication, but I said I'd take credit for helping him get started. I think that was about 10 years ago, as he picked up his prize/book at GenCon in person.

Link in sig goes to contests

It mostly helped in that Jason Hardy knew who I was from those, and trusted me to be able to spin a story.

And I won more than one.

As far as dedications and plenty of books goes...well...gimme time. There's more on the way, I can tell you that much.

After reading the reviews here, I decided to give it a try. Let it be known that I'm a harsh critic.
For readability, I'll shorten the name to Shaken for the review.

Shaken is a Shadowrun Noir novel.
Similarly to Nigel Findley's books with Dirk Montgommery, it relies on a Shadowrunner/PI to get to something that's more like a classic Noir novel in the Shadowrun universe rather than a truly Shadowrunning story. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as Noir and Cyberpunk go really well together, but I can't help feeling that rather than try to force the classic Noir story (a PI working on a case) in Shadowrun, it might be interesting to try to have the Noir tone in the classic Shadowrunner story (a team of runners doing a run).

Writing good classic Noir is difficult. You've got to find the right tone, you've got to respect the tropes of the genre, etc. Writing outstanding classic Noir is even more difficult: with the constraints you have, being able to find something that makes a difference with other similar books while respecting the constraints is a huge task. Setting it in a different universe (medieval, fantasy, urban fantasy) is a nice twist, but one that has already seen many uses. An outstanding writing style could help, but while the style of Shaken is pretty good, I wouldn't go as far as to call it outstanding.

So consequently, as far as Noir novel go, Shaken is good, but not exceptional. As far as Shadowrun novels go, it's clearly one of the best, but the fact that it's not really about Shadowrunning feels like cheating (but that's pretty common with Shadowrun novels, many go for the usual single main protagonist instead of being about a team). As a bonus, it does nice explanations for first-comers (though I can't tell if they're working or not).

It's very close to the rules, giving the names of the implants, spells, powers, etc. and having them provide the effect they're supposed to give, which is both good and bad. Good because it maintains consistency with the game, bad because first it seems a bit artifical sometimes. Sure, you'd expect some people to use the official game terms for stuff, but some variations are to be expected: mages might have their own variants for spell names, implants can have product names that are distinct from the implant generic name, etc. The second reason why I'm not sure I like the direct inclusion of game terms is that it often feels like the writing is just a translation for "hopefully, my Reakt gave me +2 to Dodge". However, I have to admit that the portrayal of the effects of ware is pretty good and far above average for Shadowrun fiction.
Likewise, the knowledge of the Shadowrun universe (both rules and setting) clearly shows, which is appreciable. The author feels at ease with the world and its dynamic, which probably makes it a very good book to help first time players get to know the world. I appreciated the relationship between the protagonist and the mafia, a nuanced position of being outside of their grasp while still acknowledging their power, a line that players often have trouble finding.

I had some trouble with the main character. While not completely a Mary Sue, he still feels like he's always above it all. Even when the writer is trying to show him as weakened or desperate, it feels like he's a badass who'll manage. Sure, that's more or less expected from a hard-boiled PI in a Noir story, but here it doesn't feel right. I'm not sure exactly why but I could see a few explanations. The first is that there's a lot of self-analysis by the protagonist. You'll rarely have Marlowe's feelings written clearly. You'll have his reactions, but it won't go very deep in the analysis of what he feels and what he thinks, as is done here. The second is that the character has so many aces in the hole, between implants and magic that whatever bad stuff happens to him, it's pretty clear that he'll be able to shrug it off. This isn't made any easier by the fact that he rarely seems to be directly challenged on his weaknesses. When it happens, it's mostly as a way to show that this weakness is actually not that weak. The third is that the character is pretty smug, so he does more or less feels like he's having the upper hand even when everything goes badly for him.

But that leads to another problem I had, which is the melancholic tone that's so associated with Noir. It's a bit strange here, for example . Also .

So as far as Shadowrun books go, it's a good one, probably one of the best. As far as Noir or Cyberpunk books go, it's a bit standard. If I were to give it a score from 0 to 5, it would be a 4/5 Shadowrun book (I've yet to read a 5/5 Shadowrun book) and a 3/5 book in general. The style might be slightly above the average sci-fi book, the story is decent but I found a lack of challenge and a lack of emotion. It's a nice read, but probably something I'd forget soon, except maybe for its handling of the effects of ware and some other details of the Shadowrun world.

***edit***

Nevermind, I thought this was a new book. I wish there was a "delete post" button when someone like me has a brain fart.

I'm glad you (mostly) dug it, Blade. I know I'm not writing high literature or American classics or anything, so I'm content with being mostly compared to other SR novels, and stacking up against them favorably is fine with me. I appreciate the feedback.

Nice to see you take it this way, I was afraid I'd hurt your feelings. I'll keep an eye out for your next book.

Nah, man. It's all good. Honest criticism is always welcome.

I'll largely echo that. While I didn't think that Shaken compared favorably with Neat, it was still one of the best...if not the best...of the SR5 novels. I had the opportunity to read both World of Shadows and Deniable Assets while travelling this summer, and they both just reinforced my opinion that

1. Whatever CGL is paying novelists, it apparently isn't typically enough to get someone with bona fides in both fiction writing and the Shadowrun setting, and
2. John Helfers should not be allowed to put together any more Shadowrun anthologies*

In some ways, I actually hold Critias indirectly responsible for my ire. I had given up on Shadowrun fiction entirely, and finally bought Neat in a moment of weakness. It was fabulous. And so, like an idiot I've been buying the SR5 books ever since, and nothing else has remotely come close. Honestly, quite a bit of it has been downright bad. And to be clear, Shaken was nowhere near bad; it was actually good. Just not as good as Neat.

Anyhow, in the interest of being constructive, or at least clear, the biggest issue I had with Shaken was that it came off much more like the typical elf-mage-protagonist power fantasy, whereas Neat had gone to such great lengths to subvert those tropes. I'm running off of older memories here, but the novella read more like a story that could actually exist in the Shadowrun universe: once upon a time, Critias created a character named Kincaid, played him at a home game, had some terrible-no-good-very-bad dice rolls, and got royally messed up; this is the story of what happened next.

In Neat, the protagonist was an elf...but no one liked him except his ally spirit. He was a mage...but he burned out. He's actually a downtrodden loser, not a power player who's slumming it for kicks.

In Shaken, all of a sudden it seemed like we were reverting to type. Kincaid may be surly...but even so, he's still more charming than all y'all. Kincaid may be burned out...but even so, he's still able to lay a magical beatdown on initiates. That's just not as interesting, at least to me.

To be clear though, and to end on a positive, at this point you're really only competing with yourself in terms of Shadowrun fiction. So even with all those criticisms, you still wind up going first / second in my ranking of all the SR5-era fiction.

*To be fair, it was miles better than Spells & Chrome, which was arguably the worst fiction book of the SR4 era. World of Shadows was just very, very uneven.

Game Trade Magazine had Stirred as an August release a while back. Obviously, you never trust those dates, but I take it as a sign, that Stirred is ready to come out? And it's the missing book of a trilogy, right?

The story blurb floating around, if someone is interested (haven't read Neat or Shaken yet, so I can't tell if it has spoilers for those two books):

You are too late for Drawing Destiny. But third time's the charme, right?

Not quite, and not quite. Neat is more of a prequel, the trilogy ("No Job Too Small") kicks off with Shaken, Stirred is the second.