Into The Shadows (Review)

First off, I would like to extend my sincerest apologies for the sub-par pictures. I will go back and fix them once I get my scanner back up and running. They aren’t the primary focus of the article anyway.

Today we’re going to be reviewing the unnumbered Shadowrun story anthology… which was reprinted as novel number 7 with one different story (which completely escaped my research when I was purchasing them, and only came up once I started working on this article). This one is the unaltered original (I will review the extra story in the Novel 7 version, assuming I can get ahold of it). I will state now, this book is now out of print, but if you look hard enough, you just might find a copy… Seriously, I got mine off Amazon.com.

I would first like to start with a time line, just to bring you to where we start. Unfortunately, a time line would be very very long. So I’m instead including a link to a post I’m putting up before this, with all the time line info that was included in the book.

Click Here

INTO THE SHADOWS
COLLECTED BY: Jordan K. Weisman

I would like to thank greatbuybooks for selling me this book through Amazon Marketplace.

Jordan K. Weisman is, at least according to the Contributors section: The creator of the Shadowrun universe, which already peaked my interest. This is kind of like Gene Roddenberry approving and editing together a collection of Star Trek fiction. It’s a pretty cool first outing. It also goes on to talk about how he was inspired by the Mayan belief that a “New World” is born every 5200 years.

First we have to look at this beautiful cover art which depicts a Dragon battling a heli by, as close as I can tell, Jeff Laubenstein. The first time I saw this picture I laughed at how ridiculous this notion was, but after finishing the book, I understand it quite well. What I still don’t understand though is what greets us on the next page.

What?! This makes no freaking sense if you’ve played Shadowrun at all in the past. It doesn’t even happen in the book (spoiler, I guess, but its less infuriating for Shadowrun vets to know that), so it’s just there… for some reason… mocking me. What the hell, Mark Nelson?

Anyway, I digress. Let’s get started on the book proper.

Into the Shadows by Robert Charrette

Robert N. Charrette has been in the business as a graphic artist, game designer, art director, commercial sculptor, and author of future books in this series. He co-wrote Bushido, Aftermath!, and Daredevils for Fantasy Games Unlimited. He has also done work on Battletech and Shadowrun for FASA.

The first thing we see when we go here is a quite detailed and grisly close-up of an Ork pointing a pistol off-page at some unseen foe by Jim Nelson. I’m not including any more pictures besides the cover and that confusing inside picture because I don’t want to be sued, and because seeing these for yourself is kind of a treat, in my opinion.

This story follows Sam Verner, an employee of the Renraku megacorp as he wakes up in a Renraku clinic with a headache and a newly installed Datajack in his temple. The master of the Renraku empire, Inazo Aneki is there personally, informing Sam that he has been transferred from Tokyo to the arcology project in Seattle. After they leave, Sam is informed by a nurse that his sister cannot go with him as she has begun to start Kawaru, the change, Goblinization. This plot thread is kind of left hanging, for now, but we return with Sam boarding a VTOL. Soon, the VTOL is attacked by a group and Sam and a few of the others are captured. Where it goes from here, I leave for you to read. This story is apparentally expanded in the first novel: Never Deal With a Dragon. I’m looking forward to it.

Graverobbers by Elizabeth T. Danford

Elizabeth Danford is a freelance illustrator, writer, editor, and computer game designer. She also did a few of the illustrations in this book.

Before the story starts proper, we’re greeted to another illustration. A collaboration between the story’s author and Jeff Laubenstein. The illustration depicts two men taking a freight elevator. One of them is very very large. Kind of like a rubber ball, stuffed into a jumpsuit, looking very nervous. Next to him, a smaller man grabs his shoulder, grinning in reassurance.

The story starts as the illustration shows, two men, Porky Pryne (the large one, a decker) and Will Grey (some sort of shaman) taking a freight elevator. Porky is nervous because he’s never been part of Will Grey’s and an unseen person named Meg’s graverobbing (cleaning out accounts from deceased salarymen by hacking into the network’s system). Will assures him he’ll do fine as he consults spirits, who show favorable results for this job. They take their place in the office, impersonating a paint crew as Porky works. It’s a rather short but nice story so I’ll leave it at this.

Tailchaser by Paul R. Hume

For Paul Hume, this appears to be his first work of fiction. He’s a trained actor, and has had experience in programming computers.

Before the story opens proper, we get an illustration of an Elf carrying a pistol, some sort of cybered commando, and a Troll carrying a lighter-looking human from a skyscraper bearing the name: UNIOIL. According to the credits, this piece is by Tom Baxa.

The story opens on a very badly botched run as someone identified as Mr. Cortez chews a group of runners out, carrying on about UniOil, Natural Vat, Mr. Yoshimura, and someone named Mirin. The scene changes as we next follow an Elf identified as Thorn (or Thom if you read it the way I did the first few times) who seems to be being chased around Redmond by a group calling itself The Night Hunters. He gets cornered and is almost shredded to ribbons when, out of nowhere he is saved by a heavily muscled man wielding an assault carbine. He awakes in a makeshift clinic as he’s being patched up and meets the team. The doctor who just patched him up, Iris, the mage, Neddy, the troll, Smedley… and some guy, who I don’t believe gets a name. They’ve found him to hire him for their second run against United Oil, which is a megacorp, at this point whose security was run by the Western Dragon, Haesslich. Thorn gets an idea. What idea you ask? You’ll have to grab yourself a copy to find out.

Striper by Nyx Smith

There is little to no information about Nyx Smith, even on the contributor page.

The story is preceded by an illustration by Elizabeth Danforth. In it, an androgynous youth with face paint sits perched on a stone block overlooking a nearby street. She wears leather and mesh, a cigar in her right hand. Almost overshadowing this image though, it the scene behind her where a Dwarf hits on a very skimpily-dressed prostitute.

Tikki is a shapeshifter. Tikki’s joyboy just tried to rat her out for a previously-unknown bounty. Now the joyboy rests in Tikki’s stomach. The rest of the story has to do with Tikki’s search for the source of the bounty and is actually quite exciting, though, not something I would have expected from Shadowrun. The character seems to return for the novel “Striper Assassin”, though, I have not aquired this book yet.

Whitechapel Rose by Lorelei Shannon

Lorelei Shannon. The contributor page doesn’t say much beyond multi-media artist, belly-dancer, and writer. Checking wikipedia though, it seems Lorelei has credits for Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra (One of my favorites, though, it says she only worked on Additional Written Material and some voice acting for that one), Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (as a video capture artist in the DOS version), and was the screenwriter of Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh (which makes me smile as Spoony blasted the hell out of that game for his website, but it seems more likely the acting was just terrible).

Before the story opens… guess. Another illustration! Another one by Mark Nelson (who brought us the confusing second posted image). This one is rather nice though. A man draped in Victorian garb and shadow alike, clutches his doctors bag as he glances back over his shoulder at a snarling hell-hound behind him.

The story is about Jack, a decker with an unusual Victorian aesthetic. He’s tall and lanky, forever mistaken as an Elf, but has friends in the Halloweener game. Yes, the gang is called the Halloweeners. Yes, they are canon. He gets a job to dig up the profile of someone named Nadia, and sits with his best girl, and his cat, as he engages his camera obscura and sets the Matrix to appear as Victorian London, and he, is Jack the Ripper. It reminds me a bit of The Ripper, a game Spoony talks about as being one of his favorites in the preamble leading up to his Johnny Mnemonic review. Having seen it all the way through, I have to agree. Though, the similarities end pretty much at Victorian London, and computers… I was just happily reminded of it as I read on.

Turtle in the Tower by Ken St. Andre

Ken St. Andre has done work for Tunnels & Trolls, Monsters! Monsters! and Stormbringer. Wasteland on the PC.

The illustration, by Jim Nelson, is of a man, walking down a grimy, steamy street, covered in light weaponry, wearing a trench coat. Behind him is a giant tarot card. The Tower to be exact, and the tower is on fire. Along two edges, a row of turtles border.

This one, is much more fun to read than it is to explain, so I’ll leave it at that.

Free Fall by Tom Dowd

No, not the baseball player. Tom Dowd is one of the co-designers of Shadowrun, and as such deserves quite a deal of respect. He has also worked on quite a number of other properties I’m too tired to mention.

We get another Tom Baxa illustration here. It shows a woman cradling a man in her arms rather sadly, as another man rips out some sort of jack on the man she is holding, while the computer screens around her show “Error”.

This story deals with a plan to steal Honey Brighton away from the megacorp that currently holds her in possession. I do believe there is a reason I’m getting more and more hush about the plots. One that has nothing to do with being up all night writing this.

Would It Help To Say I’m Sorry? by Michael A. Stackpole

Michael Stackpole has done quite a bit for FASA, and has written quite a few books for the Battletech series. He also worked design for the 1988 game, Neuromancer, 1990s A Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate, and of course, Wasteland.

This story’s illustration by Elizabeth Danforth and Jeff Laubenstein is such a jumble of images, it’s hard to describe. I suppose I could say it’s two people seated at a table, being waited on by a woman while insanity blooms in the background, but that’s a bit too abstract to imagine, and the reality isn’t quite as visually interesting as you’d think.

This story concerns Iron Mike Morrissey and Tiger Jackson as they take a job that seems easy enough, too easy for the pay. Oooo… seriously, most of these stories are about 20-30 pages long.

It’s All Done With Mirrors by Michael A. Stackpole

Imagine some sort of scene from Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star) and add in a robotic arm and you have your illustration. For being so corny it is quite fun. Jeff Laubenstein deserves praise for a work that evokes such hilarious imagery and spot-on accuracy.

This story takes place just after the last one, is longer, and ties up a few of the other stories loose ends, maybe adding a few new ones to tangle. It adds the characters Dr. Raven, Wolf and Stealth. That’s all I can say.

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Page 123

It is much like stalking prey in the wild, where a single misstep may snap a twig, disturb a stone, or upset some noisy little creature and thus alert the prey to the hunter’s approach. She must choose each step with care, be sure of her ground, remember it is better to wait, keep to a position of concealment, even retreat, only to try again some other night, rather than risk discovery. Do anything to avoid alerting Ohara to her interest. She gives herself until midnight to reach his residence. That gives her adequate time to withdraw, whether she confronts the man or not.

-Striper by Nyx Smith

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Overall impressions. It was a pretty fun read. There were numerous typos but it didn’t really detract too much from my experience. If you like cyberpunkish literature, you could do a lot worse than this book. For a Shadowrun newbie, it’s also probably very helpful to get in-touch with the setting’s backstory. How people act, how they dress, and just how cool their abilities can be are also probably helpful. Love it, hate it, you decide. For me though, it was a solid…

A-