SHADOWRUNNING

In my never ending quest to find new books in the Cyberpunk Genre I have stumbled upon the book WWW: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer. I have not read anything from this offer before so I will let you know what I think. Interestingly there seems to be a string of books that are in the same vein as this book - and I am not sure that they fall directly in the Cyberpunk Genre. The other book was “This is Not a Game” by Walter Jon Williams. Both books happen in the present to near future and make use of current technology  - in fact you see veterans of Cyberpunk doing similiar things with their latest book ( ie Spook Country by William Gibson ). The concept is that the “future” is now…

I know I have read something by Ballard - though I can’t remember what.. I will need to check out some of his books - he passed this week from prostrate cancer.

I cannot believe another D&D creator has failed his savings throw. Having just started Dungeon Mastering for my sons and his friends - I cannot help but think that the time may have finally ended for pencil and paper games for me. Just 3 hours of play with them leaves me exhausted. I am guessing that perhaps there time has come and our time is gone. I am so tired I can only muster strength for WoW.

I just finished (demolished/devoured) reading the latest book from Walter Jon Williams - THIS IS NOT A GAME (TINAG) and I enjoyed sufficiently that after a long hiatus from Shadowrunning I had to make a post to reccomend this book. For those of you who don’t know Walter Jon Williams - his book Hardwired (1986) is considered one of the gateway books for modern Cyberpunk novels (along with Neuromancer and The Artificial Kid ).

Hardwired was a great book but I was not able to get into his one of his other SF books Voice of the Whirlwind, so I was not sure what TINAG would be like or if I would enjoy it. TINAG falls into the category of a cyber thriller- taking place in either the present or near future. None of the technology described in this books seems outside of the what could be used or created today. So though not technically a cyberpunk book it still is something that I feel most people reading this blog would enjoy.

The book focuses on a group of four college gaming friends (pencil and paper gaming - Dungeons and Dragons) and how there relationships have evolved from those innocent times in college to the here and now world of big business and entrepreneurship with its backstabbing and greediness. The backdrop is ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) where the heroine, Dagmar, is the Puppetmaster and how the realworld leaks into the ARG that she is creating.

The book moves is fast moving and will keep your attention and a real page turner. I guarantee it will be a quick enjoyable read.

ENJOY!

Enoc

I vaguely recall the 90s effort of plopping Marvel superheroes into a cyberpunk future … looks like they’re at it again.