This was my very first into to Shadow run books. And I have to admit, they are very interesting. While the main conflict was solved in the last 2 chapters, and I thought some things could have been a bit better, I enjoyed it. It was Baily a detective novel set in a disputan future, where one detective discovered a bigger conspiracy than he first thought of. Recommended. ( )

Drugs of the Cyberpunk World (8 Feb 2012)
Finally, a change in direction for the Shadowrun novels. We are no longer dealing with Verner and his co-horts and are now back in the streets of Seattle following the detective Dick Montgomery. Well, I have now found a pre-cursor to the Harry Dresden novels, though Montgomery is a non-magical detective in a magical world. As with most Shadowrun novels, magic is involved, and that is probably because if there were no magic, then it would simply be a cyberpunk novel. Instead, they need to keep the feeling of the Shadowrun world by at least having some magic available.
This novel is sort of about drugs, or more so about escaping into a fantasy reality and being so addicted to this reality that one becomes trapped within it, to the point of death. I should explain that in the Shadowrun world technology has advanced to the point where we are able to link our brains directly to a computer, and the computer is able to plant images directly into the brain. Medicine has advanced to a point where not only are fully functioning artificial limbs available, but one is able to modify their body with technological enhancements. The ability to stimulate the sense areas of the brain is only one aspect of this, one aspect that this particular story focuses on.
While the world of Shadowrun still have television (more like the 3D movies that we experience today), the main form of entertainment is known as simsense. This is where a movie is recorded using all five senses, and when the simsense is uploaded into one's brain, one does not just watch the movie but is fully immersed into it. However, as can be understood, such full immersion can be very addictive to the point that one will simply refuse to return to the real world. However, the legal versions of this technology has inbuilt inhibitors to prevent people from being caught up in the fantasy world.
This is where this book comes in because there are 'movies' (for want of a better word) that have these inhibitors removed, thus creating a much more sensual and stimulating experience. However without the inhibitors, these movies are far more addictive. Shadowrun calls these movies BTL (for Better than Life), and they are pretty much illegal. The drug in this book goes even further than these BTL movies in that the experience is so intense that once you are caught up in this realm, you never want to leave, so in the end your starved corpse will be found in a gutter somewhere - but at least you will have died with a smile on your face.
These ideas do relate back to drugs in our world, but in a way this technology is far more escapism than most drugs that we know of. While there are mind altering drugs around, and people use drugs to escape reality (or at least to bend their view of the world so that it is more acceptable to them), the concept of BTL, and even 2XS, would be more like a fully immersed movie or video game. The scary thing is that we tend to hear of people that so desire to escape their world that they will immerse themselves into these video games (and remember video games are based on only two senses) and never come out. There are sadly stories of people starving to death because they have not wanted to pull away from their imaginary world.
We tend to try to escape the monotony of our lives in too many ways, however our technology has not reached the stage yet where it is full immersion, and sometimes I think that to have such technology could be quite dangerous. However we all escape in one way or another, whether it into a movie, a video game, or even into some fantasy world of our own creation. In the book it turns out that some really nasty creatures are using 2XS to distract people in preparation for an invasion. In some ways it could be like our society in that we horde our possessions and personal belongings and create a sense of luxury around us, and as a result we become fat, lazy, and pretty much unable to defend ourselves if something bad were to really happen. It is not surprising that the ancients had big problems with excessive luxury. ( )

I like Shadowrun - fantasy meets cyperpunk is cool.
This book was pretty decent, really a detective novel set in the Shadowrun world. The plot was reasonable, although there are a few holes that could have been better. The characterization was a little cliche at times, and some of the dialogue was just a little too suave. But overall, I liked it. ( )

Another good Shadowrun book. I really enjoyed the first person old gumshoe style of writing in a futuristic magical world. Got a little fuzzy towards the end but a good read nonetheless. Looking forward to more of Findley's books. ( )