A long time ago, when people playing Shadowrun were still über-cool, and wrote kick ass reviews of new Shadowrun publications, there was this guy by the name of Mason, who made extensive notes of everything he found interesting in Shadowrun novels, cross referenced and everything.

Shitty thing comes now; I found out here that his website is offline, and nobody really knows how to get in touch with him. (If you, incidentally, do know, then by all means, let me know.) I managed to get downloads of almost all of his articles, in particular his annotated novel reviews, which rock eggs on toast. I changed the format a bit, and altered the really obvious mistakes in his writing - few and far between, don't worry - and I've put them online for people to enjoy.

Go here and be amazed. (Spoilers abound.)

Heh. I still have dl'd HTML and Word copies of these. You thinking of maybe continuing and reviewing/anaylsing some of the more recent books Deev?

Deev, did he only do reviews up to Worlds Without End, or have you not yet finished uploading all the reviews?

Oh, this'll be interesting. Right now, I'm reading Crossroads and this'll be a nice resource on deciding what to read next.

Rumor has it, Mason plucked his eyes from his head after reading WWE.

Oh I don't know, he managed to get through both of the Striper novels and carry on. Although maybe Worlds just pushed him over the edge/finished the job?

I always liked these reviews. Too bad Mason vamoosed. Thanks Deev.

No, as far as I know, Mason only took a break when he went into the Army/Navy. Considering all indications are that he did read most of the novels published after WWE, I just think he lacked the time to cross reference everything and write it up. Too bad, though.

I'm not planning on adding any such reviews to his, because, quite frankly, I really don't have the time for that. If I'm going to do a project that big, I don't think I'll do it in the form of book/novel reviews. This was just to salvage his work, really.

I just managed to salvage another of his book reviews, this time for Just Compensation, which was his last as far as I can determine. It seems a little unfinished, and he didn't seem to like it at all, but I added it for completeness' sake.

Mason is a gentleman and a scholar and an excellent role-player. He ran in my campaigns when I was in Pensacola, FL, for two years. I haven't heard from him since he left the Navy and moved back to Houston. Let me see if I can dig up his email and drop him a line.

That would be wonderful, grendel.

Did you try all the email adresses you can dig up with the Wayback Machine? There is the aol one, one to rice university and one to his job (in 2001 atleast) at Technomedia International. There are also phonenumbers and adresses.

contact page

BTW the reviews are great!

That's a good idea, lorg. I sent an email to his Rice account. Let's see if it'll actually reach him.

Try the Technomedia one to, Grendel said he moved back to Houston and that is in Houston so there is atleast some possibility that he is still at the same job. But perhaps not, they might have one of them pesky no personal emails policy .. but since he put it out there I doubt that.

Wow, this is a really good resource for those of us who don't want to suffer reading through some of the....less appealing novels (and to read cross referencing for the others, which is a really helpful resource, even though most of it I know by heart ). Good work!

Thanks to Grendel for alerting me about this thread.

I wrote the annotated novel reviews in 1999-2000 while stationed in Japan, my second and last tour of duty in the United States Navy. I left the Navy in August 2000 to finish my bachelor's degree at Rice University. I ultimately had to set the project aside because there were more pressing demands on my time and attention.

After graduating, freelance and contract writing kept me too busy. For the curious, I'm currently employed as a full-time copy editor and writer for an upscale design studio here in Houston. I can usually be reached at my Rice alumni address or my AOL address (laugh if you must; I've kept it since 1994).

Back on topic. The project was much, much larger than I imagined when I began. At the time, I had read every shadowrun novel and sourcebook, so my knowledge base was more or less complete. It was an entertaining diversion.

Although I may resume the project someday, the reviews will have to stand as written for the forseeable future. Unfortunately, I lack the time and resources to even maintain them, let alone continue. I'm very pleased and gratified that the reviews are so well-regarded. Many thanks to DV8 for retrieving and hosting them. It's good to know they still have a home and an audience.

Thanks for reading!

No mention of the eye plucking incident, so I guess it was only a rumor.

Would have made a good urban legend.