Shadowrun was conceived and developed by the FASA Corporation (USA) as a role-playing game set in a near-future fictional universe in which cybernetics, magic, and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy, and crime, with occasional elements of conspiracy fiction, horror, and detective fiction. Among the merchandise spawned by the game have been a card game, two miniature-based wargames, multiple video games, music, and a series of novels.
FASA released forty Shadowrun novels in collaboration with Roc Publishing between 1991 and its corporate demise in 2001. In 2005, WizKids began publishing new Shadowrun novels, again through the Roc imprint of the New American Library. Six novels were released in the new series, including one by Australian author Stephen Dedman.
In 2010, a book of short stories set in the Shadowrun universe was published, called Spells and Chrome. A new novel, Dark Resonance, was announced at the end of the book. Its release date is expected to be in 2011.
Several additional novels were published in foreign languages only. More than thirty novels have been written in German, by German and Austrian authors published by Heyne (since 1991) and FanPro (since 1997).
The 2005-2006 series comprised 1. Born to Run (by Stephen Kenson); 2. Poison Agendas (Stephen Kenson); 3. Fallen Angels (Stephen Kenson); 4. Drops of Corruption (Jason M. Hardy); 5. Aftershock (Jean Rabe); 6. A Fistful of Data (Stephen Dedman).
In 2008, Catalyst Game Labs LLC (a division of InMediaRes Productions) announced the return of novels for Classic BattleTech, MechWarrior, and Shadowrun. Although the Shadowrun series was given a release date of 2009, no novels have yet been released.
FASA Corporation: FASA was an American publisher of role-playing games, war games, and board games between 1980 and 2001. The name FASA is an acronym for 'Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration', which is itself an allusion to an organisation in the Marx Brothers' film Duck Soup.
WizKids: Founded in 2000 by Jordan Weisman, formerly with the game company FASA, WizKids, Inc. is an New Jersey-based company that first made its mark in the game industry producing collectible miniatures wargames. It was purchased by sports-card manufacturer Topps, Inc. in 2003. Topps was in turn bought out by Michael Eisner's Tornante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners in 2007. The year after shutting down WizKids' operation in November 2008 (announced as a response to the economic downturn), the Eisner and Madison Dearborn company re-sold Topps (and the WizKids brand) to the National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA).
A Fistful of Data
Shadowrun: A Fistful of Data
New York (City)
:
Roc Books
,
2006
Z1798177
2006
single work
novel
science fiction
The abandoned factory known as the Crypt is the home to society's cast-offs-as well as a coven for some of the most successful shadowrunners in town. But it is also the home to a long-buried secret that has caught the eye of a corporate mover who's willing to wage war against the Crypt to uncover it.
New York (City)
:
Roc Books
,
2006
Shadows Down Under
United States of America (USA)
:
Catalyst Game Labs
,
2016
11577873
2016
single work
novel
science fiction
fantasy
'Someone – or something – is killing nightclub entertainers in Kings Cross, Australia. Striking from the shadows, methodical and heinous, the murderer has wrapped the bawdy, colorful neighborhood in a suffocating blanket of terror.
'Ninniniru “Ninn” Tossinn, a troubled private investigator on the run from her past, joins forces with Barega, an elderly Aborigine shaman [sic], to uncover the truth behind the malevolent force – and put themselves on the Cross Slayer’s list. But can they defeat the darkness, survive Sydney’s powerful mana storm, and reach the true heart of the evil threatening the city? Their search takes them from gritty alleys filled with gang symbols and worse to beneath the squatter-filled harbor bridge over shark-infested waters.
'As their investigation deepens, soon the Cross Slayer isn’t the only foe stalking them. Ninn and Barega have to put all their trust in each other if they’re going to bring the slayer to justice, uncover the conspiracy behind the murders, and stay alive long enough to do both.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
United States of America (USA) : Catalyst Game Labs , 2016
