Shadowrun 13: Fade to Black

Shadowrun Novels Germany #16

by Nyx Smith

Rico and his team sort through a complex maze of corruption and corporate intrigue in Newark, a city that has become an overcrowded urban horror in the year 2055. Original.

Genres: Cyberpunk, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Role Playing Games, Dystopia

Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

Reviews

[Max Z · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another disappointing Shadowrun novel by that author. Starts off with an excellent description of a proper shadowrun but then meanders around until the very end where some plot twists reveal everything was rather pointless. Except that the runners have died. Oh wait, no, they didn't, not all of them. Because vampires that only exist in enigmatic cameos scattered throughout the book. What's the point of the secondary storyline about vampires? There's none. What's the point of the initial shadowrun? There's literally none as revealed by the original schemer's superior in the end. The schemer hired a fixer that hired another fixer to do the job. Fixer two managed to get the fixer one mad because reasons (there's an explanation but it feels stupid). So fixer one just murders him in the end because whatever. By the way, that's all fixer one does in the story - some childish posturing. This whole book comes off as an overcomplicated and pretentious mess that would've worked much better if half of the twists were removed.

[Steven "Steve" · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tale of a shadowrunner with honor and his crew. Unfortunately for them, honor and biz are poor bedfellows. Another fine addition to the Shadowrun cannon, although the strange subplots that appear and disappear are somewhat confusing, but that’s just life in the plex, chummer.

[Nathan Woll · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a strange book to rate. On one hand, the world-building was amazing - so interesting and fascinating. Post-apocalyptic combined with urban fantasy! The plot itself was also very good with enjoyable characters. The problem was that the ending was horrible. There was also this weird subplot that never tied in or made any sense. (Vampires? Or something like that, zombies maybe?)
It shows its age a little in the treatment of female characters and the absence of any non-heterosexual characters.

It looks like there are other books in this universe that I might try out, written by other (hopefully better) authors.

[Anita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich habe das erste Mal seit Jahren mal wieder einen Shadowrun-Roman gelesen.
Schon mal was von Shadowrun gehört?
In erster Linie ist es ein Pen&Paper-Rollenspiel. Wem das nichts sagt, der hat aber vielleicht schon mal von DSA (Das Schwarze Auge) oder von Dungeons & Dragons gehört.
Jedenfalls habe ich früher relativ viel und gern Shadowrun gespielt und auch einige Romane dazu gelesen. Das hat die Spielwelt manchmal noch anschaulicher gemacht.
Shadowrun spielt dabei in nicht allzu ferner Zukunft. Allerdings haben Großkonzerne die Macht übernommen und die Magie ist in die Welt zurück gekehrt und es gibt neben Menschen auch Elfen, Orks etc. Shadowrunner sind dabei diejenigen, die von den Konzernen für die Drecksarbeit angeheuert werden.
So auch der Shadowrunner Rico, der den Wissenschaftler Surikov aus seiner Konzerngefangenschaft befreien soll. Alles scheint glatt zu laufen, aber ist wirklich alles so wie es scheint oder sind Rico und sein Team nur ein Spielball in einem ganz anderen Spiel?
Das in der Shadowrun-Welt eine Intrige die andere jagt und man nie weiß wer Freund und wer Feind ist, war ich schon gewohnt. In diesem Buch gab es aber Handlungsstränge, die ich bis zum Ende nicht verstanden habe. Wenn aus dem doppelten Spiel, das gespielt wird, ein drei- oder vierfaches wird, wird es einfach unübersichtlich. Bei einigen Parteien auf dem Spielfeld ist mir nicht klar geworden, für wen sie eigentlich gearbeitet haben. Deshalb gibt es von mir an dieser Stelle auch nur 2,5 von 5 ⭐.

[Rui Castro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one perhaps is one of the best to cover the Cyberpunk/Shadowrun atmosphere. It has it all. The ending could of been a bit better. But over all I very interesting run.

[Earl Tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a taste of the world of Shadowrun, this seemed like a good entry into it.
Interesting twists, but too many characters to keep track of, and sub-plots IMO.