Customer Reviews

Shadowrun 22: Dead Air

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shadowrun novels started with some great works by Findley and Charrette, but then it started to go down hill. The writing became long winded, and the plots ... well .. lets just say they were uninteresting at best. Koke has put the Shadow back into Shadowrun. This is what Shadowrun was meant to be! Dark, gritty, and very few people alive at the end!

My Thoughts about this novel is that this is one of the top 5 Shadowrun books.Jak Koke is a great author and FASA knows it.

When Jonathan's closest friend gets greased in a combat bikematch and it becomes clear it wasn't excactly an accident things gethot. Jonathan has to run the shadows and dodge the bullets while figuring out who got who in their pockets and why. Koke makes an fluid and enjoyable novel with all the Shadowrun elements neatly in place. Hi-tech, shadowrunners and sinister megacorps all come into play making a punch-proof novel. It all gets crowned by an unexpectedly great ending. Throughoutly enjoyable book for the fans of Shadowrun and Sci-fi.

Although the Shadowrun universe is definitely one of fantasy, I've found some of the novels to be a little far fetched, even within the liberal boundaries of Shadowrun. This one however, is pure delightful entertainment! The writing is excellent, the story is fun and exciting and there aren't any corny elements that have plagued some other Shadowrun novels. If you're a fan of Shadowrun, you'll be a fan of Dead Air.

Dead Air is Jak Koke's first Shadowrun novel. The setting centers around Combat Biking; a ruthless, weapon filled, fighting enhanced form of Football/Soccer on motorcycles. The main character of the books is Jonathan Winger, a elven Rigger who is the star combat biker for the LA Sabers. On the other side of the spectrum is his great rival, the elf Dougan Rose of the New Orleans Buzz. Both teams are having a best of five series to determine who will be the champions of Combat Biking in the year 2052.......

Or so we think this is what the novel is about. The book turns into a political game of corporate backstabbing motivated by technological research and of course money. Jonathan's best friend, and fellow linebiker of the Sabers is an elf named Tamara Ny. Tamara and her boyfriend Grids Desmond manage to capture unsettling and immoral footage of a Saeder Krupp Corporate Shark and are planning to use this information to blackmail him. While the Corporate Business Man is sleeping, Tamara rummages through his files and discovers a secret that should have been left alone...

Jak Koke was the best original writer produced by the Shadowrun novel line. The tone and mood of his stories are incredibly dark and somewhat disturbing. He touches upon Sex in this novel, and uses it as a tool to drive and motivate the story. This book is by no means a pornography. It is a book of multi-layers and many characters. Koke uses a lot of characters to tell the story and does a good job with the development and usage of most of them. Koke also uses emotion in Dead Air, which is a driving force for the majority of the characters. Suprising, because Shadowrun has always been a game which promotes Michael's Mann's "Heat" reference..."Don't get attactched to something you can't walk away from."

The story is told from multiple perspectives, and what is interesting is that none of the main characters are 'professional Shadowrunners.' The characters in the book are passionate.

There is not much else to say about Dead Air. Jak Koke's writing style is unique and requires a particular taste. In my opinion, Koke was given free reign to scribe this novel. Sadly, he does not write professionally anymore. Dead Air, thumbs up for those readers who are looking for a darker Shadowrun novel that was not written by one of the creators for the world.