Shadowboxer

Shadowrun Novels #25

by Nicholas Pollotta

TOO HOT TO HANDLE

For Two Bears, a dwarf mercenary accustomed to running the shadows, the job sounded like an easy way to make a huge stack of cash: track down and discover the meaning of the world "IronHell." But when the decker he approaches for help gets her brain fried on the Matrix, Two Bears knows he's up to his stout little shoulders in drek.

TOO COOL TO GIVE UP

Realizing that IronHell must be the title of something - or somebody - very powerful, Two Bears looks for some backup to make sure he gets through this job alive. He lines up a street troll called Thumbs, a slick decker named Silver, a suit-wearing samurai called Delphia, and Moonfeather, a magic-wielding disciple of the Cat totem. Together they blast their way through a stream of megacorp operatives, giant meta-beasts, and high-tech pirates, desperate to unravel the incredible secret of IronHell - before it unravels the world...

Genres: Cyberpunk, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Dystopia, Urban Fantasy, Role Playing Games

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

See Nick Pollotta.

Reviews

[Hyann · Rating 2 out of 5]

First half of the book is decent, typical Shadowrun quality.

But after that, they introduce a new cast of characters and they're just too much, the author uses 'resourceful' to explain why they succeed everything starting from the street of Miami to end as bodyguards for a big corp.

Look like to me the author got enough stuff for a trilogy but they cut the story to fit in one book. The background for the characters is really thin you don't really care for them.

Can't recommend it.

[Gretchen Fatouros · Rating 3 out of 5]

In true Shadowrun / adventure style, just because the character is given a name, doesn’t mean they will live. That part was a nice surprise... And there are A LOT of named characters.

Typos bothered me the most. Overall, good read. 3.5 Stars

[Wally Tomlinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of shadowrunners was hired to find out what Ironhell was and where it was located, which took them to the Caribbean Sea where they encountered pirates and sea monsters.

[Ed Nemo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was pretty good...except I did not care for the ending. That being said, I don't think there was a real understanding of the Shadowrun universe. For example, while Orks and Trolls changed from human Elfs and Dwarves were born that way. One of the characters in the book is a Dwarf who changed from human. Not exactly correct, and maybe not a big deal, but irritating to me because I know how things are supposed to work. Still a good book overall.

I get the feeling that this book was edited heavily, so what I don't like is most likely attributed to the editor and not the author.

[Simon Forsyth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oddly disappointed. The prologue was excellent and sold me on the book long before I could get a copy. Unfortunately all of the potential implied by the prologue and first couple chapters is subsequently ignored. For that matter, the summary of the book also isn't what it's about. The characters with backstories are either not the focus of the book or have their motivations ignored and it becomes a generic team in ever more exotic locations, with a denouement that leaves wondering what the point of it was.

[dAn Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

The very first ShadowRun book i found/bought for 50p from a second-hand book shop in Lincoln. I loved it, it was the first time i had ever read a cohesive merging of magic and future technology. Set in a distopian future (which seemed certain after Thatcher introduced Capitalism by stealing and selling off the British people's national utilities amd infrastructure) where runners take on high-tech and combat drug fueled raids against the evil corps/multi-national conglomerates.

[Seth Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun romp through the Miami of Shadowrun. Taking you from the mean streets and corporate towers of Miami, we go onto a merchant ship, a pirate submarine, and a secret program that no corp wants people to know about. Following the rag tag team of hastily assembled experts, we get to see what perils await those in the Awakened World. Glimpses at metabeasts like devil rats, meta-crabs and sea serpents was just a bit of the fun in this volume.