What makes Shadowrun different is magic has returned to the world, dragons run for the President of the USA, and gangs of undead roam the seedy night streets. Weapons can range from monofilament whips and forearm snap-blades to manabolts and death touch spells. Characters form a team of shadowrunners, essentially a small felonious business. With the nuyens they earn from contracts, they can buy lifestyles, or even pool earnings to purchase a grander lifestyle for the team, a swank office on Fifth Avenue hoping to attract more lucrative contracts. Sir Darren Toogood is replaced by a wiseguy elf knocking on a warehouse door and asking to speak to the Don.
Nefarious capitalism comes to fantasy.
Technobabel A review by Don Bassingthwaite Don't let the giant ant on the cover of this book throw you. This is not a book about the insect shamans that seem to be the ubiquitous magical villains in Shadowrun novels and products. Talon is a shadowrunner in the cybermagical Awakened world of 2060. He's a streetmage, a rough and tumble wizard who came into his power in the damp concrete and rusty steel of the toughest parts of Boston. He's got a magical dagger and a penchant for conjuring fire elementals.