Full Version: Shadowrun Novels
Wondering what good novels the line has to offer... If you feel like it give me a top 10 or something... If possible mention those that are related to the metaplots.
TOugh choice, tough choice. I'd say:
1.Into the Shadows
2.2XS
3.Night's Pawn
4.House of the Sun
5.Streets of Blood
6.Worlds Without End
7.Praying for Keeps
8.Wolf and Raven
9.Preying for Keeps
10.The Lucifer Deck
Not in any particular order, but a fair cross-sampling in there, avoiding most of the dross and hitting most of the major characters. Some would bitch I left out the major metaplotters and some classic, and I included some of the more controversial ones, but screw 'em.
1.Into the Shadows
2.2XS
3.Night's Pawn
4.House of the Sun
5.Streets of Blood
6.Worlds Without End
7.Praying for Keeps
8.Wolf and Raven
9.Preying for Keeps
10.The Lucifer Deck
Not in any particular order, but a fair cross-sampling in there, avoiding most of the dross and hitting most of the major characters. Some would bitch I left out the major metaplotters and some classic, and I included some of the more controversial ones, but screw 'em.
| QUOTE (Ancient History @ Mar 31 2005, 11:20 AM) |
| 7.Praying for Keeps ... 9.Preying for Keeps |
Is #7 the sequel about the Cleric asking his god for a castle?
My favorite Shadowrun novel was Night's Pawn, even though it references some of the earlier (and now out-dated) magic rules.
The two obvious major metaplot series
Secrets of Power series by Robert N Charette
1. Never Deal with A Dragon
2. Choose Your Enemies Carefully
3. Find Your Own Truth
If you like immortal elves, cyberzombies, and other twink charachters the Dragon Heart Saga is probably the best. You get to met Nadja Davia, Thayla, Darke, Harlequin, Ryan Mercury, Talon, and ofcourse Burnout and Lethe. I hope this doesn't ruin the first book for you but Dunkelzahn dies.
Dragon Heart Saga by Jak Koke
1. Stranger Souls
2. Clockwork Asylum
3. Beyond the Pale
My favorite of all the shadowrun books so far is Burning Bright by Tom Dowd.
Other good ones in no particular order
1. Steel Rain about a physad Japanese Samurai
2. 2XS
3. Streets of Blood
4. Worlds Without End
Secrets of Power series by Robert N Charette
1. Never Deal with A Dragon
2. Choose Your Enemies Carefully
3. Find Your Own Truth
If you like immortal elves, cyberzombies, and other twink charachters the Dragon Heart Saga is probably the best. You get to met Nadja Davia, Thayla, Darke, Harlequin, Ryan Mercury, Talon, and ofcourse Burnout and Lethe. I hope this doesn't ruin the first book for you but Dunkelzahn dies.
Dragon Heart Saga by Jak Koke
1. Stranger Souls
2. Clockwork Asylum
3. Beyond the Pale
My favorite of all the shadowrun books so far is Burning Bright by Tom Dowd.
Other good ones in no particular order
1. Steel Rain about a physad Japanese Samurai
2. 2XS
3. Streets of Blood
4. Worlds Without End
Anything by Findley, but in particular, 2XS. Dirk Montgomery shows that one doesn't have to have enough chrome to set off the airport's cyberscanners from the next county over, or be awakened, or even have a team, in order to be effective in the world of Shadowrun.
I really like the Lisa Smedman books (Tails you Lose). They "feel" more like the type of Shadowrun game I run. They don't directly involve meta plot but I like the way she describes the 6th world.
Stay as far away from the Dragon Heart Trilogy (Jak Koke). They suck big time. Unless you are a Twinkie Munchkin from hell, you SHOULD hate that garbage.
Stay as far away from the Dragon Heart Trilogy (Jak Koke). They suck big time. Unless you are a Twinkie Munchkin from hell, you SHOULD hate that garbage.
Am I the only person that liked Dead Air, about the prettyboy combat biking rigger?
| QUOTE |
| Stay as far away from the Dragon Heart Trilogy (Jak Koke). They suck big time |
Hey, I LIKED finding out why D died. Maybe some of the drek wasn't cannon, but I enjoyed those books. Why do you say only a munchkin would like it? I didn't see anything about it munchkined, when you take into account who and WHAT was involved in it.
| QUOTE (TeOdio) |
| I really like the Lisa Smedman books (Tails you Lose). |
I don't like Smedman's heavy-handed attitude to foreshadowing. She whaps you round the head with things, and particularly in... Blood Sport, I think, the one about Aztlan and sacrificing the winning team in that old Aztec sport they play there, it seemed like every chapter ended on some dire comment foreboding the future horror that was to come. I just found it overdone was all.
Technobabel isn't a bad book and has some interesting Deus plotline stuff. Just whatever you do, do not look at the cover, especially at the tagline.
~J
~J
I like the Findley, Stackpole and Dowd books as even if they don't always jive with the common conceptions of the SR universe they are decent read in themselves.
Plenty of the books are appropriately hated by most people here but might be variously worth reading to see what not to do.
As hated as the Dragonheart books are they pretty much pale in comparison to the Leonardo book and the one with Aina Dupree (although if you want a better understanding of the IE plotline that one is pretty important).
Also the short Dowd pieces are also available on AH's site.
Plenty of the books are appropriately hated by most people here but might be variously worth reading to see what not to do.
As hated as the Dragonheart books are they pretty much pale in comparison to the Leonardo book and the one with Aina Dupree (although if you want a better understanding of the IE plotline that one is pretty important).
Also the short Dowd pieces are also available on AH's site.
| QUOTE (Mortax) | ||
Hey, I LIKED finding out why D died. Maybe some of the drek wasn't cannon, but I enjoyed those books. Why do you say only a munchkin would like it? I didn't see anything about it munchkined, when you take into account who and WHAT was involved in it. |
Dragonheart Trilogy, how I hate thee, let me count the ways.
1. They took a very cool villain like Sr. Oscuro / Mr Darke and made him a cheap 3rd rate mook.
2. Cyberzombie (Very Twink)
3. A very un-needed sex seen between the protagonist and the vice pres.
4. The protagonist turns out to be a Drake (Mega ultra Twink!)
5. Made T. Roxbourough into a pedophile. Jeesh, can't a guy be monstrous on the outside with out being monstrous on the inside?
6. Assets Inc... God I hate that name, bust out your old school Metallica with some Damage Inc.
I ain't sayin everyone that likes this stuff is Munchkin, but if you wanted to see that stuff in your game, it's gonna be a pretty twink game.
| QUOTE |
| if you wanted to see that stuff in your game, it's gonna be a pretty twink game. |
If you were running at the kind of level where you're dealing with Big D etc, you'd almost HAVE to be pretty munchy by the standards of normal play levels.
(Apropos of nothing, I know twink has come to mean mega-boosted courtesy of the MMORPG community, but it still amuses me to see it used like that; considering the, uh, how can I put this, more Usenet oriented usage of the word...)
I liked Dragonheart.
The presence of things that would be twinky in a Shadowrun game in a novel does not automatically make it twinky. Dragonheart was a major metaplot storyline (which abruptly got dropped, but anyway) and dealt with the fate of the world--of course they're going to be more powerful than the norm.
I mean, why is the presence of a cyberzombie in the service of Aztechnology horrible? They're one of the megas that can make them, after all. They don't just make them for the fun of it (though I imagine that has to be part of the reason)--they *use* them. Procuring a valuable artifact like the Dragon Heart seems like one of those situations important enough to send one out.
The fact that he was a drake only came up at the very end of the trilogy--it really had little impact on it up to that point. I can understand if you didn't like that twist, but I thought it was interesting--drakes are also a part of the plotline (as the IEs proved to be less than ideal dragon servants etc) and I find the idea of them rather interesting. Sure they're twinky in play, but really, I don't mind finding out one of the top runners in the world is one.
So yeah, I agree that seeing them in your game would be munchkinny, but the books are fine.
I'm pretty fond of the Talon books by Kenson--Crossroads and Ragnarok. I didn't really like The Burning time, though.
The presence of things that would be twinky in a Shadowrun game in a novel does not automatically make it twinky. Dragonheart was a major metaplot storyline (which abruptly got dropped, but anyway) and dealt with the fate of the world--of course they're going to be more powerful than the norm.
I mean, why is the presence of a cyberzombie in the service of Aztechnology horrible? They're one of the megas that can make them, after all. They don't just make them for the fun of it (though I imagine that has to be part of the reason)--they *use* them. Procuring a valuable artifact like the Dragon Heart seems like one of those situations important enough to send one out.
The fact that he was a drake only came up at the very end of the trilogy--it really had little impact on it up to that point. I can understand if you didn't like that twist, but I thought it was interesting--drakes are also a part of the plotline (as the IEs proved to be less than ideal dragon servants etc) and I find the idea of them rather interesting. Sure they're twinky in play, but really, I don't mind finding out one of the top runners in the world is one.
So yeah, I agree that seeing them in your game would be munchkinny, but the books are fine.
I'm pretty fond of the Talon books by Kenson--Crossroads and Ragnarok. I didn't really like The Burning time, though.
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