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Shadowrun - CGL Novels #4
Shadowrun: Hell on Water
THE LONGEST JOURNEY Six shadowrunners. Three mysterious packages. And twelve kilometers of a dangerous, dilapidated bridge across one of the wildest sprawls of the Sixth World. It should be a simple job. Retrieve three sealed packages, then take them across the city of Lagos to their destination. All the runners’ skills will be tested—they’ll face ambushes, double-crosses, and more, and along the way they might be able to answer the question of just what’s in those packages, and why they’re so important. The team has a lot on their side, including a street samurai who’s a legend on the streets, a hotshot rigger with a lot of enemies, a young shaman seeking justice, a decker with a dark secret, and a pair of pros from Seattle trying to keep up with everything the unfamiliar sprawl throws at them. But the deadly streets and sinister neighborhoods of Lagos contain their own unique dangers, and it’ll take every trick the runners know to complete their mission and escape the city in one piece…
223 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
16 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
February 8, 2015
If you like Shadowrun novels, this one's definitely worth a read, and if you've never read one, this is would be a good place to start. For those who are used to Shadowrun novels being set in Seattle or other North American locales, don't let the non-North American setting of this book scare you off: a Shadowrun story set in an African sprawl is just as full of deadly intrigue, explosive magic, brilliant fight scenes, and flying bullets—maybe even more so—as any other.
One of my favorite things about Shadowrun fiction is the attitude and tone in which the stories are told, and this book is no exception. I won't delve into specifics, but Hell on Water KNOWS that it is a story, and the narration takes that idea and runs with it (no pun intended), and to great effect. I've seen at least one person complain about the narrative voice, but I think that negativity stems from the reviewer forgetting that Shadowrun has historically always had a somewhat winking, tongue-in-cheek nature at times (NERPS, anyone? McHugh's?), and this narrative presentation brings some of that flavor back. In fact, I think the narrative tone is one of the novel's greatest strengths.
Another aspect of this book that I really liked is that a considerable portion of it focuses on a single location where most of the action takes place: the Third Mainland Bridge. The whole novel isn't a "bottle story," per se, but the focus makes the bridge itself almost like its own character in the story.
If I had to pick nits, it would be that a few minor subplots don't feel like they get completely resolved, but I wonder if that's because we will see these characters again. If so, count me in.
One of my favorite things about Shadowrun fiction is the attitude and tone in which the stories are told, and this book is no exception. I won't delve into specifics, but Hell on Water KNOWS that it is a story, and the narration takes that idea and runs with it (no pun intended), and to great effect. I've seen at least one person complain about the narrative voice, but I think that negativity stems from the reviewer forgetting that Shadowrun has historically always had a somewhat winking, tongue-in-cheek nature at times (NERPS, anyone? McHugh's?), and this narrative presentation brings some of that flavor back. In fact, I think the narrative tone is one of the novel's greatest strengths.
Another aspect of this book that I really liked is that a considerable portion of it focuses on a single location where most of the action takes place: the Third Mainland Bridge. The whole novel isn't a "bottle story," per se, but the focus makes the bridge itself almost like its own character in the story.
If I had to pick nits, it would be that a few minor subplots don't feel like they get completely resolved, but I wonder if that's because we will see these characters again. If so, count me in.
February 15, 2017
I have read in the neighborhood of 15-20 Shadowrun novels and unfortunately this is the worst of the lot.
The first thing that will set most readers off will be the constant switching between present and past tense. It's hard to follow and what's worse is that it feels like it is being told by a 90 year old man trying to tell a story. It's not focused, it skips around a ton and in the end you actually feel like it was time wasted which rarely happens to me.
This book would have been better served as a 100-120 page novella told in the traditional sense. Even the ending is contrived and incomplete. I just feel like this book was some odd experiment that never succeeded. I mean there is a good story somewhere in these pages but it never gets there.
Please avoid, only for hardcore Shadowrunners willing to forgive such obvious mistakes.
The first thing that will set most readers off will be the constant switching between present and past tense. It's hard to follow and what's worse is that it feels like it is being told by a 90 year old man trying to tell a story. It's not focused, it skips around a ton and in the end you actually feel like it was time wasted which rarely happens to me.
This book would have been better served as a 100-120 page novella told in the traditional sense. Even the ending is contrived and incomplete. I just feel like this book was some odd experiment that never succeeded. I mean there is a good story somewhere in these pages but it never gets there.
Please avoid, only for hardcore Shadowrunners willing to forgive such obvious mistakes.
December 22, 2023
A fun little heist romp. I love the narrative framing of the story as an oral history, and at about 215 pages, this book doesn’t waste time or over stay its welcome. That being said, some of the characters and the underlying scheme of the heist feel a little half-baked. Also, there were a baffling number of typos that some basic editing could have fixed.
This is not an IP I have any previous experience with, but it was still a whole lot of fun.
This is not an IP I have any previous experience with, but it was still a whole lot of fun.
June 5, 2017
I liked the characters but found the story to be slow and not action packed enough for me.
October 6, 2022
The second-worst piece of fiction-based-on-an-RPG that I have ever read. I guess that the run-on sentences, diversionary soliloquys, and frequent flashbacks are intended to mimic oral storytelling? They sure broke the immersion and made the story harder to read. I'm not sure whose decision it was to move the Shadowrun focus to the developing world, but it turned what used to be a fantasy-cyberpunk setting into a dystopian one filled with a series of random henchmen and a cast of characters whose names and motivations I've already forgotten a few days after finishing the book. Wish I had passed on this one and not stuck with it to the end.
March 9, 2017
This is set in Lagos, which is an interesting expansion of the Shadowrun world.
The book is set as an oral history of recent events, with the narrator introducing certain chapters. The plot isn't helped much by various jumps forward and backward across the timeline.
The book is set as an oral history of recent events, with the narrator introducing certain chapters. The plot isn't helped much by various jumps forward and backward across the timeline.
January 17, 2015
Somebody's grandpa is rambling through a story
About a shadowrun someone told him about once. This story goes back and forth through time more than Doctor Who, Captain Kirk, and H.G. Wells meeting in the Time Tunnel. 4 local runners and two guys flown in from Seattle meet in the Sixth World's Third World hellhole of Lagos for their most important mission ever. Find three boxes and deliver them to....the other side of town. Yes, this is Shadowrun: The Fed Ex Chronicles. The story telling style made me want to pull out an Ares Predator IV and make him get to the fracking point!
About a shadowrun someone told him about once. This story goes back and forth through time more than Doctor Who, Captain Kirk, and H.G. Wells meeting in the Time Tunnel. 4 local runners and two guys flown in from Seattle meet in the Sixth World's Third World hellhole of Lagos for their most important mission ever. Find three boxes and deliver them to....the other side of town. Yes, this is Shadowrun: The Fed Ex Chronicles. The story telling style made me want to pull out an Ares Predator IV and make him get to the fracking point!
February 15, 2015
This is a Shadowrun novel. So if you do not know what that is, skip it. If you know what Shadowrun is, you might wish to skip it as well, as its style is patchy, with continuous jumps in time, scant information, more loose ends than a ball of yarn and an extremely simple plot that tries to be hidden by the mentioned time jumps and obnoxious omiscient narrator.
The main characters are nicely defined and developed, but that only highlights the cardboard nature of the city, the setting, the support cast, even the tools, an important part of the game.
The main characters are nicely defined and developed, but that only highlights the cardboard nature of the city, the setting, the support cast, even the tools, an important part of the game.
January 7, 2016
Hm. Ich glaub ich bin langsam zu alt für sowas. Die Handlung beschreibt einen einzelnen, turbulenten Run und besteht damit aus Action, Action und Action. Die Erzählstruktur springt Kapitelweise und ohne erkennbaren Grund quer nach vorne und hinten. Zudem wechselt der Erzähler irgendwann im letzten Drittel. Während anfangs scheinbar ein alter Runner die Geschichte erzählt, taucht er gefühlt später nicht mehr auf.
Ach Leute, was gäbe ich für einen Shadowrun Roman mit einem Plot wie Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall. Hab aber noch ein paar ungelesene neue vor mir.
Ach Leute, was gäbe ich für einen Shadowrun Roman mit einem Plot wie Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall. Hab aber noch ein paar ungelesene neue vor mir.
March 2, 2015
I truly enjoyed the unique approach the author took to telling this story. I will admit it took me about three chapters to get going but once I did I could not put it back down. The fact this story takes place outside of the typical Shadowrun setting was a plus to me as the world is huge and this shows a little more of the depth. I especially enjoyed the fact this story illustrated that not every one walks away clean. If you enjoy Shadowrun you really owe it to yourself to give this a read.
May 25, 2017
The writing style was disjointed. By jumping around as much as he did it kept pulling me out of the story. The writing was good. I just really didn't enjoy the jumping around it took so much away from the flow of the story I felt confused many times, and felt lost in the plot overall.
December 22, 2014
The inconsistent storyteller pov was distracting and kept pulling me out of the story. This was one of the least interesting of the Shadowrun books I've read.
May 21, 2015
I stalled out reading the book. The writing style and characters are great, but the PoV narrative is hard to follow and didn't hold my interest.
May 13, 2015
Not the greatest of Shadowrun books. I did not like the cadence of the book nor the way they used narration in parts of it.
October 26, 2015
This book sucked.
Horrible writing.
Waste of my time.
It counts toward my Challenge though.
Horrible writing.
Waste of my time.
It counts toward my Challenge though.
July 9, 2017
linear, long-winded story
Does not make good use of the Shadowrun universe
Does not make good use of the Shadowrun universe
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews