kyonshi reviewed Shadowrun. 2XS by Nigel Findley
Review of 'Shadowrun. 2XS.' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Meh.
It's not really that this is a bad book, but it is one of these franchised books that are entertaining but ultimately forgettable. In fact I had to look up the name of the main character for this review.
And so here we have a novel about one Dirk Montgomery, a private dick in Shadowrun's Seattle of the 2050s (meaning there is both cybertech and magic around) who is just good at what he does. A human norm without cybertech and magic, who generally survives on wits alone, despite being pretty much an idiot.
And who still survives attempts on his live at a rate of one per 10 pages or so while beings searched by the police.
Dirk is trying to get some work done when a girl comes up to him and tries to shoot him for killing her sister. After this is taken care off (hint: …
Meh.
It's not really that this is a bad book, but it is one of these franchised books that are entertaining but ultimately forgettable. In fact I had to look up the name of the main character for this review.
And so here we have a novel about one Dirk Montgomery, a private dick in Shadowrun's Seattle of the 2050s (meaning there is both cybertech and magic around) who is just good at what he does. A human norm without cybertech and magic, who generally survives on wits alone, despite being pretty much an idiot.
And who still survives attempts on his live at a rate of one per 10 pages or so while beings searched by the police.
Dirk is trying to get some work done when a girl comes up to him and tries to shoot him for killing her sister. After this is taken care off (hint: she doesn't shoot him) she hires him to find the person really responsible for it. His investigations make him uncover a rather unlikely mix of conspiracies involving a megacorporation, a new age religion, a new cybernetic drug, and parasitic insect spirits from another reality.
All in all rather standard Shadowrun fare.
And I guess that is kind of the problem by now, 25 years after this was published. Shadowrun was a setting that thrived on its trailblazing genre mash-ups that nobody thought possible. But 25 years later, and just judging the book by the strength of its story, its just not so great a story. I think it would make a killer rpg scenario, but that doesn't always translate well.
In fact I think that the constant mortal danger the main protagonist finds himself in gets old at around the 50pg mark. I just was not invested enough into the character to think that he might come away with anything more than a scratch from any of these situations. On the other hand his supporting cast (many of which were way more interesting characters) seemed to be rather poised to snuff it. From the agoraphobic dwarvish decker to the cheerful free spirit, they all seemed to be much more interesting characters than Dirk the dick.
That said, readable story, nice action scenes, might be good reference material for anyone who wants to GM Shadowrun.