Shadowrun Novels? Any Good?

[Deceitfulelf]

My group and I are going to start a Shadowrun campaign in the near future, and to get into the mood of Shadowrun I was going to try to hunt down some Shadowrun novels. I'm never read any so I was wondering if anyone here has and if they were any good. Your thoughts would be much appreciated. Also if you know where I can find a good list of the novels that were published that would also help.

 

[Umbran]

Some of the novels are okay, some are drek.

 

[IronWolf]

I have not read any of the Shadowrun novel, though my brother seemed to be a fan for awhile. If you are looking for books to get you in the mood you may want to consider books by William Gibson, the author of 'Neuromancer' - the book that kicked off the cyberpunk genre and winner of the Hugo and Nebula award. From there you may want to try some of the Neal Stephenson books 'Snow Crash', 'Cryptonomicon' and etc.

 

[Aris Dragonborn]

I would recommend "Preying For Keeps" and "Headhunters" by Mel Odom, "Steel Rain" by Nyx Smith, and the Dragon Heart Trilogy: "Stranger Souls", "Clockwork Asylum", and "Beyond The Pale" by Jak Koke, and, if you can find it, "Wolf and Raven" an anthology/braided novel by Michael Stackpole.

Don't let the corporators get you down, chummer!

 

[Darthjaye]

I got em all except the Nyx Smith written ones. They just sounded bad. Nigel Findley wrote two and they were great. Burning Bright was the best by far. The ones written By Mel Odom and Tom Dowd were also very good. Charrette's Secrets of Power trilogy is okay and walks you into the world as a good starting point. Honestly there are a good dozen books in this genre worth collecting and reading. It's unfortunate that with licensing there haven't been any new ones in a few years and don't seem to be any in the works for quite a few more. Would love to see em, but no joy thus far. If anyone knows differently and links that might let us know of anymore on the horizon please post this news.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Shadowrun novels overall are okay, but opinions are very mixed.
IMO, Nyx Smith is the most abysmall, horrid writer ever to see print. The writing is the only thing worse than his plots.

Otherwise, you find a lot of diversity, some people like the Dragonheart trilogy, other people don't like the characterizations.

I think everyone liked Findley's novels. (passed away long ago) I liked Kenson's novels as well. (he now writes for Green Ronin)

Lisa Smedman's stuff was usually good, but with glaring plot holes or some element of each novel that detracts greatly from them, but I still found them enjoyable.

The Mark Gascoigne novels weren't bad, but each one escalated. Black Maddonna is just... bad. I don't want to spoil anything, but it's the height of the craziness (along with Worlds Without End) that led to a rebound in SR3, getting away from the Immortal Elf overuse and returning to the roots. (then going even further and just burying any semblance of the old world into the dirt and ruining the entire world for me, but that's neither here nor there.

Really though, I doubt any of the novels would help set the world for you. Most are so out of date at this point that you're better off reading the events in a sourcebook, since they're probably all retconned on some level anyhow. Plus the current tripe coming from FanPro makes any of the old novels a totally different feel, comparing the old novels to the current SR Incarnation.

At least IMO.

 

[trancejeremy]

I would agree with the above poster, but I liked the over the top stuff in the Mark Gascoigne and Carl Sargent novels, especially Black Madonna. Less goofy than the DaVinci code (but largely the same premise).