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Shadowrun Novels #62
Shadowrun: Undershadows
DARK RUINS, DARKER SECRETS...
Vaquita has had a rough go of it lately. She was doing all right, building a career as a London-based rigger, when something went wrong inside her head. Suddenly the mental space she used to have all to herself was shared as a foreign personality carved out a section of brain for herself. It wasn’t exactly madness, but it sure felt like it.
It also made for some tough going for a time, and several lost jobs, but lately Vaquita’s gotten her swagger back. Her life may be a little trickier than the average runner’s, but she’s also got some skills she didn’t have before, not to mention new ways of bringing in the danger. And she has the perfect testing ground for her new abilities—the hulking, abandoned Angel Towers Arcology. Filled with squatters, gangs, vicious critters, and certain areas people only talk about in whispers, Angel Towers has enough danger and hidden caches of tech to keep a dozen teams of shadowrunners busy. But with her small, new team, Vaquita’s going to use it to not only rebuild her rep, but take it to the next level.
But the arcology’s secrets and dangers go far deeper than Vaquita realizes, and she’ll have to deal with the perils at every turn—as well as the people who put them there.
Vaquita has had a rough go of it lately. She was doing all right, building a career as a London-based rigger, when something went wrong inside her head. Suddenly the mental space she used to have all to herself was shared as a foreign personality carved out a section of brain for herself. It wasn’t exactly madness, but it sure felt like it.
It also made for some tough going for a time, and several lost jobs, but lately Vaquita’s gotten her swagger back. Her life may be a little trickier than the average runner’s, but she’s also got some skills she didn’t have before, not to mention new ways of bringing in the danger. And she has the perfect testing ground for her new abilities—the hulking, abandoned Angel Towers Arcology. Filled with squatters, gangs, vicious critters, and certain areas people only talk about in whispers, Angel Towers has enough danger and hidden caches of tech to keep a dozen teams of shadowrunners busy. But with her small, new team, Vaquita’s going to use it to not only rebuild her rep, but take it to the next level.
But the arcology’s secrets and dangers go far deeper than Vaquita realizes, and she’ll have to deal with the perils at every turn—as well as the people who put them there.
- GenresScience FictionFantasy
237 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 15, 2018
8 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 11, 2018
After Hardy's last book (Hell on Water), I was more than slightly concerned that this new Shadowrun story would be not good (and that's putting it mildly). But that was not the case, here was a really good story with an excellent character that I would like to see again. A good chunk of the book was Die Hard in a shopping mall meets Shadowrun and then the last 1/4 of the book deviates from that slightly in order to set up the climax. Only negatives would be some unresolved issues at the end as I thought it could have highly benefited from about 20-30 more pages. I won't give anything else away as I would recommend this to others (and to ignore Hell on Water if that's your only Hardy reference to this point). It's worth seeking out (currently on Amazon if you don't mind about a month wait).
September 14, 2025
I wish I could rate this higher.
If you are new to Shadowrun, don't bother with this.
Subjectively: oh, wait, insects are push overs. A team with one person on muscle and one mage can easily handle an insect incursion. //// NO
There are several other problems with this.
Localization is crap - you could drop this in any urban area with a 'refuse' area.
Oh, and the plot changed 3 times.
//
Objectively - If this is your first foray into sci-fi / fantasy, I would respectfully recommend you select something else.
This isn't a great book. Please, start with another novel, novella, or at least the quick hits.
If you are new to Shadowrun, don't bother with this.
Subjectively: oh, wait, insects are push overs. A team with one person on muscle and one mage can easily handle an insect incursion. //// NO
There are several other problems with this.
Localization is crap - you could drop this in any urban area with a 'refuse' area.
Oh, and the plot changed 3 times.
//
Objectively - If this is your first foray into sci-fi / fantasy, I would respectfully recommend you select something else.
This isn't a great book. Please, start with another novel, novella, or at least the quick hits.
November 27, 2018
New Location New Affliction
Come on into the book to enjoy London. A haunted arcology. A small team with detailed, friendly, and layered character development. Not too much detail in the settings and action. Not too little. The balance serves up the action hot and kinetic. The consistency of the main characters perspective let’s you get to know her well and makes her a memory of someone you might have known by the end. Twists and turns through an affliction I have not seen addressed to this level in the novels. Thank you to the author.
Come on into the book to enjoy London. A haunted arcology. A small team with detailed, friendly, and layered character development. Not too much detail in the settings and action. Not too little. The balance serves up the action hot and kinetic. The consistency of the main characters perspective let’s you get to know her well and makes her a memory of someone you might have known by the end. Twists and turns through an affliction I have not seen addressed to this level in the novels. Thank you to the author.
November 25, 2020
I wasnt sure about what this book is so I'm going to lay it out.
Vaquita is a Rigger who has CFD and her AI/partner does a good job of sharing her body and working together with her.
They do most their work in an Arcology and almost everyone they interact with has some type of mental disorder.
It also does a great job of showing someone way over head continually faking it. Coaching herself and self talking up to whatever takes it conversation that is about to happen.
I believe the best parts are intern struggles.
Vaquita is a Rigger who has CFD and her AI/partner does a good job of sharing her body and working together with her.
They do most their work in an Arcology and almost everyone they interact with has some type of mental disorder.
It also does a great job of showing someone way over head continually faking it. Coaching herself and self talking up to whatever takes it conversation that is about to happen.
I believe the best parts are intern struggles.
September 29, 2021
Noting that 3 stars is an average story, Undershadows was primarily a character(s) study(s) of someone dealing with a major mental disorder. It was almost as if the author was given a list of new Shadowrun sourcebooks and told to novelize something from it. The story was fine. The character development was rapid but actually good for a single character. All in all, after a few chapters, I felt like I was in the Shadowrun universe. The story was [almost] entirely predictable but also ended well
September 4, 2018
I really disliked Hardy's Hell on Water, but this one was decent. Characters came close to me.
August 11, 2020
Not the best book I read this year, but it's alright.
October 29, 2016
An okay, story combined the newer threat of CFD with a classic Shadowrun threat .
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews