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Shadowrun (R.L. King only) #1
Borrowed Time
Out of Time, Out of Options
JackPointer mage Winterhawk left the shadows at the top of his game: these days he indulges his curiosity about all things mysterious and magical on his own terms. But he’s about to discover that the shadows are hard to leave behind, and old enemies have their ways of drawing him back in.
Dosed with an exotic arcane poison that will kill him in days unless he retrieves a powerful magical artifact, ‘Hawk has to assemble a team fast and think even faster, because he’s not the only one tracking down the prize. His team is hardly the well-oiled machine he’s accustomed to: an old friend with major trust issues, an old rival who hates everything ‘Hawk stands for, a decker who annoys everyone he meets, a samurai who’s only in it for the money, and a gunslinger who may have her own agenda.
With his life on the line and the clock ticking fast, ‘Hawk must survive the mean streets of Los Angeles and the magical hells cape of the Australian Outback while keeping his mismatched team from imploding before they finish the job. But when the artifact is revealed to be far more than it seems, Winterhawk is forced to make a choice that could affect the lives of millions—to say nothing of his own.
JackPointer mage Winterhawk left the shadows at the top of his game: these days he indulges his curiosity about all things mysterious and magical on his own terms. But he’s about to discover that the shadows are hard to leave behind, and old enemies have their ways of drawing him back in.
Dosed with an exotic arcane poison that will kill him in days unless he retrieves a powerful magical artifact, ‘Hawk has to assemble a team fast and think even faster, because he’s not the only one tracking down the prize. His team is hardly the well-oiled machine he’s accustomed to: an old friend with major trust issues, an old rival who hates everything ‘Hawk stands for, a decker who annoys everyone he meets, a samurai who’s only in it for the money, and a gunslinger who may have her own agenda.
With his life on the line and the clock ticking fast, ‘Hawk must survive the mean streets of Los Angeles and the magical hells cape of the Australian Outback while keeping his mismatched team from imploding before they finish the job. But when the artifact is revealed to be far more than it seems, Winterhawk is forced to make a choice that could affect the lives of millions—to say nothing of his own.
293 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2015
12 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
R.L. King
68 books332 followersR. L. King is the author of the Amazon-bestselling urban fantasy series The Alastair Stone Chronicles.
When not doing her best to make life difficult for her characters, she works as a software technical writer for a large Silicon Valley database company.
She also freelances for Catalyst Game Labs, publisher of the popular roleplaying game Shadowrun, where she's contributed fiction and game material to numerous sourcebooks and one full-length adventure, "On the Run," which was included as part of the 2012 Origins-Award-winning "Runners' Toolkit."
Her first novel in the Shadowrun universe, "Borrowed Time," was published in Spring 2015. She's working on her second Shadowrun novel, "Veiled Extraction," which will be released in late 2016 or early 2017.
When not writing or working, she enjoys hanging out with her very understanding spouse and her small herd of cats, and watching way too much Doctor Who.
When not doing her best to make life difficult for her characters, she works as a software technical writer for a large Silicon Valley database company.
She also freelances for Catalyst Game Labs, publisher of the popular roleplaying game Shadowrun, where she's contributed fiction and game material to numerous sourcebooks and one full-length adventure, "On the Run," which was included as part of the 2012 Origins-Award-winning "Runners' Toolkit."
Her first novel in the Shadowrun universe, "Borrowed Time," was published in Spring 2015. She's working on her second Shadowrun novel, "Veiled Extraction," which will be released in late 2016 or early 2017.
When not writing or working, she enjoys hanging out with her very understanding spouse and her small herd of cats, and watching way too much Doctor Who.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 20, 2018
I wasn't a huge fan of this book.
It might be because Fire and Frost is similar, but I read it first and thought it was an all around better book.
If you plan to read both read this one first so that you won't compare it to Fire and Frost
It might be because Fire and Frost is similar, but I read it first and thought it was an all around better book.
If you plan to read both read this one first so that you won't compare it to Fire and Frost
March 28, 2019
Well written run.
It was great to get a full winterhawk story after reading all his comments in various shadowrun books. Loved the monofliment whip, a classic and a favorite. Enjoyable easy read.
It was great to get a full winterhawk story after reading all his comments in various shadowrun books. Loved the monofliment whip, a classic and a favorite. Enjoyable easy read.
August 13, 2025
I found the ending a little weak, but I loved the rest. It didn’t help that the storyline seemed to reach two climaxes one about 50 pages before the other, leaving the actual climax a bit anticlimactic.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 27, 2024
Extremely well written and engaging. There are macro and micro conflicts which impact and interact with each other.
August 6, 2016
At some point they need to start writing books about shadowrunners that actually know what they're doing and not another fresh batch of shadowlosers. The dude is kidnapped by a woman and plot-poisoned by the Johnson leaving him a week to live. What's the first obvious thing to do? Exactly, check the woman out. But no, the woman is forgotten for literally half of the book, when his teammate asks him "So what about the woman?" "Meh", he answers. And they forget about her again until the very final page where they steal money from her and the dude says, "Eh, she probably didn't knew what she was doing, anyway".
The dude finds some old friends and they agree to put together the rest of the team without any of his involvement. The first combat chick they hire is magically . How did his best buddies manage to find this one chick in all of Seattle is beyond me and never explained. The decker they hire is so great that he finds everything the dude needs to know about the plot poison and the Johnson. Except that he starts looking into it on his own two days later than when it would be most useful. If the dude would've given him a task to check it out earlier, it would be a different book. But you see, he was afraid that checking stuff about the Johnson would, erm, would make him angry or something? The dude was afraid of something, that's for sure. Except that he didn't have anything to lose at this point.
Another huge issue I have with these books is that sometimes they have utterly unconvincing scenes of conflict resolution. For example, there's a scene near the end where team B is screwed over by the bad guys during the handover. They are shot with sleep darts from the back and it's over. Team B consists of combat specialists that just slaughtered their way through the whole village of aborigines that are tough enough to live in The Outback (oooh, scary!). And yet, a couple of sleep darts and they're all down. Bullshit like this seriously detriments from the reading. Sure, I get it, the plot requires for them to screwed over by the bad guys, I'm fine with that. What I'm not fine with is that it's written so badly. At least one of the four should have suspected something, fought or tried to run away or hid nearby as a backup. You know, DO something proactive.
Fun fact: 65.3% of the handovers end up in screwovers. That means that if you want to be a successful shadowrunner, you must have backup, contingency plans, multiple tricks up your sleeve, etc. And you don't do the handover at the place the Johnson chooses. You just don't. You politely say goodbye and walk away during the meet if he is not agreeable to that.
The dude finds some old friends and they agree to put together the rest of the team without any of his involvement. The first combat chick they hire is magically . How did his best buddies manage to find this one chick in all of Seattle is beyond me and never explained. The decker they hire is so great that he finds everything the dude needs to know about the plot poison and the Johnson. Except that he starts looking into it on his own two days later than when it would be most useful. If the dude would've given him a task to check it out earlier, it would be a different book. But you see, he was afraid that checking stuff about the Johnson would, erm, would make him angry or something? The dude was afraid of something, that's for sure. Except that he didn't have anything to lose at this point.
Another huge issue I have with these books is that sometimes they have utterly unconvincing scenes of conflict resolution. For example, there's a scene near the end where team B is screwed over by the bad guys during the handover. They are shot with sleep darts from the back and it's over. Team B consists of combat specialists that just slaughtered their way through the whole village of aborigines that are tough enough to live in The Outback (oooh, scary!). And yet, a couple of sleep darts and they're all down. Bullshit like this seriously detriments from the reading. Sure, I get it, the plot requires for them to screwed over by the bad guys, I'm fine with that. What I'm not fine with is that it's written so badly. At least one of the four should have suspected something, fought or tried to run away or hid nearby as a backup. You know, DO something proactive.
Fun fact: 65.3% of the handovers end up in screwovers. That means that if you want to be a successful shadowrunner, you must have backup, contingency plans, multiple tricks up your sleeve, etc. And you don't do the handover at the place the Johnson chooses. You just don't. You politely say goodbye and walk away during the meet if he is not agreeable to that.
August 2, 2016
Good shadowrun novel, has a bit of decking, and metaplanes action for those interested in that.
Slow to start in my opinion, starts with the action around page 70. Prior to that is pretty solid plot setup.
Slow to start in my opinion, starts with the action around page 70. Prior to that is pretty solid plot setup.
September 4, 2015
A decent Shadowrun novel.
January 7, 2016
Eine kleine Perle unter den aktuellen Shadowrun Romanen. Unterhaltsam, packende Story, starkes Setting.
June 22, 2016
This is my favorite Shadowrun book so far, and I have read a few! Awesome characters, fun plot, double crossing, everything that makes Shadowrun great!
April 24, 2017
Excellent Shadowrun experience. This one had plenty of life (and death in some cases) and represented a white knuckle experience right up until near the end. The characters were well thought out and grew throughout the story and I would enjoy another story with the three mains in place. (Winterhawk, Ocelot and Dreja...and oh what the heck Scuzzy too) The length felt appropriate and never overstayed its welcome. My only complaint (and a very minor one) is that they would not have cleaned it up so tidy, but I often find myself liking the dirtier side of the Shadowrun world. Great book, and great effort.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews