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Shadowrun FASA #7
Shadowrun: Into the Shadows: An Anthology
As supercorporations rule the world, engaging in corporate wars, power games, and espionage missions, the shadowrunners, beings who deliver goods for the leaders, survive by their wits and their greed.
286 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 5, 2023
so incredibly horrible that it made me a little angry near the end. dont know what i expected, why i finished this, and if what these authors did can even be considered writing.
October 5, 2021
A braided anthology where the short stories refer to each other. The first book published for Shadowrun really sets up the world well - not a big fan of the big climax, but the stories prior to the end are surprisingly solid. Extra star for nostalgia.
October 4, 2009
This anthology of multiple short stories set in the world of Shadowrun is a good compilation of stories. The way the various authors weaved each other's tales into their one was very well done. The setting really comes alive.
April 24, 2019
An uneven set of interconnected short stories and a novella. I like the flavor of the world they introduce through these stories, and I hope that in novel form they become more coherent and the characters easier to separate in my mind.
March 3, 2008
This is the Matrix well before that movie came out. They wrote it based on this book and this book is even better than that movie.
February 12, 2025
This books status as a braided short story collection verges on nominal. The closing novella references all earlier stories, but often only barely. Earlier stories can easily be skipped if desired; there is little other cross referencing.
The collection is mixed in quality. This in itself is probably a fair introduction to Shadowrun novels (or any franchise fiction). Ratings and reviews are relative to expectations given a presumption you are interested in reading franchise, shadowrun fiction.
A Plague of Demons- This is a pretty good noir flavoured story that evokes shadowrun well. However, I have to wonder if the final sequences will make any sense to people who don't already have some setting knowledge.
Graverobbers -This is a slight piece yet still feels drawn out for what it delivers. However, a couple of the moments of fast talking are well done.
Tailchaser- A straightforward Shadowrun. Evocative of the setting and a well delivered and paced outing.
Stripper- Stripper is a recurring character in the fiction. Unfortunately, I don't like Nyx Smiths prose style so it doesn't work for me. It is better in the short story format, where the unsympathetic cast is tolerable.
Whitechapel Rose- Lorelei Shannon went on to work for Sierra, writing the cult classic Phantasmagoria. This is her first work of fiction. It shows. Attempts to shoehorn gothic horror in. It doesn't work at all. The low point.
Turtle in the Tower- Theres a lack of versimilitude to this one, but this sort of thing is often how crews are supposed to end up together. The relationships don't quite work but its not bad.
Free Fall- Well written story of a Shadowrun that also introduces the settings interesting simsense technology. This is pretty good, I'd say this and the next are the best of the collection.
Would it help to say I'm sorry? - This and the next are written by Stackpole. Stackpole is best known for Star Wars, but he started his writing career for FASA, which published Shadowrun and Battletech (the latter of which he mostly wrote for). This is a solid story of a run gone wrong. Its really the prologue for the final part but works well alone.
Its all done with Mirrors - This is actually a novella. It references all the other stories to bring together the collection, but mostly in passing. This is probably for the best as being too ambitious can often weigh these things down. The protagonist is very "Stackpole" in terms of being cool (and the man likes wolves), but the plot works well, introduces more core Shadowrun concepts and the action scenes are well executed.
Overall, this is an enjoyable read if you want some Shadowruns but I would skip Stripper and Whitechapel Rose, possibly Turtle and Graverobbers as well.
The collection is mixed in quality. This in itself is probably a fair introduction to Shadowrun novels (or any franchise fiction). Ratings and reviews are relative to expectations given a presumption you are interested in reading franchise, shadowrun fiction.
A Plague of Demons- This is a pretty good noir flavoured story that evokes shadowrun well. However, I have to wonder if the final sequences will make any sense to people who don't already have some setting knowledge.
Graverobbers -This is a slight piece yet still feels drawn out for what it delivers. However, a couple of the moments of fast talking are well done.
Tailchaser- A straightforward Shadowrun. Evocative of the setting and a well delivered and paced outing.
Stripper- Stripper is a recurring character in the fiction. Unfortunately, I don't like Nyx Smiths prose style so it doesn't work for me. It is better in the short story format, where the unsympathetic cast is tolerable.
Whitechapel Rose- Lorelei Shannon went on to work for Sierra, writing the cult classic Phantasmagoria. This is her first work of fiction. It shows. Attempts to shoehorn gothic horror in. It doesn't work at all. The low point.
Turtle in the Tower- Theres a lack of versimilitude to this one, but this sort of thing is often how crews are supposed to end up together. The relationships don't quite work but its not bad.
Free Fall- Well written story of a Shadowrun that also introduces the settings interesting simsense technology. This is pretty good, I'd say this and the next are the best of the collection.
Would it help to say I'm sorry? - This and the next are written by Stackpole. Stackpole is best known for Star Wars, but he started his writing career for FASA, which published Shadowrun and Battletech (the latter of which he mostly wrote for). This is a solid story of a run gone wrong. Its really the prologue for the final part but works well alone.
Its all done with Mirrors - This is actually a novella. It references all the other stories to bring together the collection, but mostly in passing. This is probably for the best as being too ambitious can often weigh these things down. The protagonist is very "Stackpole" in terms of being cool (and the man likes wolves), but the plot works well, introduces more core Shadowrun concepts and the action scenes are well executed.
Overall, this is an enjoyable read if you want some Shadowruns but I would skip Stripper and Whitechapel Rose, possibly Turtle and Graverobbers as well.
December 5, 2025
One of the obvious things to mention about this book is that it's become pretty dated. The setting doesn't so much as tackle racism as it does kind of point out that it exists, and it does it in the extremely clumsy way you might expect a bunch of white nerds in the late 80's to. It's not mean-spirited at its heart, but it's very uncomfortable to read from a modern viewpoint.
In addition, most of the stories aren't really very well-written. It's hobbyist fiction, so if that's what you're here for you were always going to be disappointed. The only one of the stories that stood out to me was Striper, which seemed obviously more competent than the others, but unfortunately I can't give kudos to the author because it was written under what's pretty clearly a pen name.
Each story touches on points of a larger plot that's only able to be pieced together at the end, but the last story kind of ruins the otherwise subtle way it all weaves together by introducing a new character who pieced it all together off screen and then spends a couple of pages spouting uninspired and handwavey exposition as to how and why they did. I hate the last story for a lot of reasons, but this part was so unbelievably lazy it retroactively shaped how I'd looked at all the earlier stories.
I think it would have been cool to leave the reader to try and puzzle things out as the situation came to a head, and it even could have made a fun point about the tabletop setting. An opportunity to drill home how no runner team gets the full picture, that the workings of the internal and external politics of the megacorps and gangs in Seattle form a kind of dance nobody is really fully privy to. Even 11th-hour villain monologuing would somehow be less offensive than what they gave us.
Instead, either the editor of the book or the author of the last story wanted to prop up these totally super cool characters please guys they're so cool and we got what we got, instead. As the first Shadowrun book I think it's interesting to see what kinds of characters and plots get showcased and what the creators of the game wanted to serve as examples for the player base. I've always thought short stories are a better way to show off established universes rather than longer books that feel the need to display a bunch of different aspects of the setting on their own, and I do feel like that rings true, here. I just wish it was less racist and less bad.
In addition, most of the stories aren't really very well-written. It's hobbyist fiction, so if that's what you're here for you were always going to be disappointed. The only one of the stories that stood out to me was Striper, which seemed obviously more competent than the others, but unfortunately I can't give kudos to the author because it was written under what's pretty clearly a pen name.
Each story touches on points of a larger plot that's only able to be pieced together at the end, but the last story kind of ruins the otherwise subtle way it all weaves together by introducing a new character who pieced it all together off screen and then spends a couple of pages spouting uninspired and handwavey exposition as to how and why they did. I hate the last story for a lot of reasons, but this part was so unbelievably lazy it retroactively shaped how I'd looked at all the earlier stories.
I think it would have been cool to leave the reader to try and puzzle things out as the situation came to a head, and it even could have made a fun point about the tabletop setting. An opportunity to drill home how no runner team gets the full picture, that the workings of the internal and external politics of the megacorps and gangs in Seattle form a kind of dance nobody is really fully privy to. Even 11th-hour villain monologuing would somehow be less offensive than what they gave us.
Instead, either the editor of the book or the author of the last story wanted to prop up these totally super cool characters please guys they're so cool and we got what we got, instead. As the first Shadowrun book I think it's interesting to see what kinds of characters and plots get showcased and what the creators of the game wanted to serve as examples for the player base. I've always thought short stories are a better way to show off established universes rather than longer books that feel the need to display a bunch of different aspects of the setting on their own, and I do feel like that rings true, here. I just wish it was less racist and less bad.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 21, 2022
This is an anthology of short stories set in the cyberpunk-fantasy world of the Shadowrun tabletop roleplaying game. The stories turn out to be interconnected.
The quality and tone is uneven. Some stories effectively convey cyberpunk dystopia subtly, through the lifestyle the characters live (viz. disposable working poor in a hyper-capitalist corporate hellscape). Others layer a thin veneer of stylized slang dialogue and future tech references on top of unremarkable gangster stories. In particular I've had my fill of "chummer."
We don't develop much of an attachment to any of the characters, which saps tension. This is always a challenge for short stories. But there is an unforced error of introducing too many characters and giving few of them any sympathetic qualities.
At times the verbiage is backwards. There are some racially insensitive terms. Some of the authors objectify all of the women characters. In a world of elves, dwarves, orcs, and unlimited cybernetic body modification, beauty standards ought've become more open-minded.
The quality and tone is uneven. Some stories effectively convey cyberpunk dystopia subtly, through the lifestyle the characters live (viz. disposable working poor in a hyper-capitalist corporate hellscape). Others layer a thin veneer of stylized slang dialogue and future tech references on top of unremarkable gangster stories. In particular I've had my fill of "chummer."
We don't develop much of an attachment to any of the characters, which saps tension. This is always a challenge for short stories. But there is an unforced error of introducing too many characters and giving few of them any sympathetic qualities.
At times the verbiage is backwards. There are some racially insensitive terms. Some of the authors objectify all of the women characters. In a world of elves, dwarves, orcs, and unlimited cybernetic body modification, beauty standards ought've become more open-minded.
October 10, 2022
Into the Shadows is series of short stories that help flesh out much of a future Seattle landscape that provides a partial backdrop for Shadowrun and many major players that occupy its decrepit streets and luxurious corridors. Each story follows a unique group as they are tasked with completing a task before them and how they deal with it when their caper inevitably goes wrong. The tone for each story varies per author giving them a unique flavor and viewpoint. As you dive deeper into the anthology you begin to realize that all these individual stories and the characters within are actually connected.
I thoroughly enjoyed these stories and loved how they worked together to tell pieces of the whole story. I didn't feel lost throughout though some of the more technical jargon I allowed to slip through the cracks. None of this diminished my understanding of what was going on. I do wish I could spend more time with the characters to fill them out a bit more, but all the authors did a tremendous job with the pages they had.
I thoroughly enjoyed these stories and loved how they worked together to tell pieces of the whole story. I didn't feel lost throughout though some of the more technical jargon I allowed to slip through the cracks. None of this diminished my understanding of what was going on. I do wish I could spend more time with the characters to fill them out a bit more, but all the authors did a tremendous job with the pages they had.
August 12, 2022
This is a collection of 8 Shadowrun short stories plus one novella at the end. Unlike most short story collections, the stories actually all tie together at the end so that might be something to look forward to if, like me, you tend to prefer novels to short stories. Other than that, the stories themselves all have the usual fast pace style for this setting.
March 19, 2019
Great flow with developing characters and technology in futuristic sci-fi.
July 25, 2019
It's ok, too many explosions.
May 28, 2021
Finally got around to finishing this one after losing it on my kindle. Better than expected!
November 16, 2023
Not bad. Got a bit confusing at the end. Also not sure how the first story fits.
November 22, 2012
Short stories of very different quality, seemingly random in the beginning but then are tied together (kind of) in the end.
September 4, 2015
The short stories were rather varying in quality, as stories in collections tend to be. An adequate introductory resource to the Shadowrun universe.
December 20, 2009
Shadowrun: Into the Shadows: An Anthology by Jordan K. Weisman (1990)
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews