all I can say is about this book is..."it's about time". Shadowrun has been going down hill, especially with the launch failure of their collaborative effort with cliffhanger's over shadowrun chronicles as well as the whole, shall we say the less than popular CDF concept. It nice to see that their is some quality left in this game and this book is one of them. An old school "dic" with a modern twist..nice. Overall, its a novel that won't disappoint.

where to start..to much fluff, no chapter directory, to much fluff, some use able material SOME not much, to much fluff, its poor handling of mental health issues, to much fluff. All in all this product no ready for prime time and should be avoided like the CDF....writers please emp that idea or do a dream sequence like it never existed..like a bad acid trip and get back the game at hand. Mental health is a real and serious issue..trying to be retards and making light of it in this way is such bad karma. Avoid this product!!!

Ok, first let me set this up by pointing out that 1. The one reviewer who first reviewed this book is a paid reviewer. $$$$ equals "5 star" review where I am not a "paid reviewer". I do not get "$$$" for my review of this product. Overall, I give this product 2 stars.

With that said, lets cover what this book is and what it is not. What this book is not is an upgrade for deckers/technomancers/rigggers. If this is what you want, get "unwired" from either the 4th edition shadowrun section of this site or your friend, GM., ect.. This book was written with the clear assumption that we are using "unwired" 4th edition and the game desingners are going from there. What this book is is a set up for technomancers that will be covers in a follow up book, more pay to pay naturally, its worse than "free to play" but you must understand that this is all suppose to support the questionable "shadowrun chronicles", much in the same way the failed "Defiance" mmo was to follow the tv series and parallel each other, these books are to do the same and this book is the into much like ""shattered souls" which introduced CDF, "gag", into the game world. So this book questionable tries to introduce an answer to the question of what is resonance/dissonance? So to the reader I say yes this book is actually more for technomancer and tries to reintroduce the roles of decker and rigger as defined in the video game "shadowrun chronicles". However, one must realize video games rarely if ever translate cleanly into print game mechanics, it just doesn't work.

So as a bridge, this book serves a purpose as a set piece crossover to a reintroduction to the matrix -ONLY-, not to playing a decker/rigger/technomancer. For that reader, one must continue you wait, and of course pay as well, the writers do not provide the material out of the goodness of their hearts, they have bills to pay as well. My suggestion is if you want to play a decker or rigger, get "unwired" or "rigger black book" form previous editions and save your money from the rehash. If you play a technomancer, stay tuned and keep your wallets handy, they are only starting to milk this cow, thus the 2 star MOO!

Finally to the writers, the book suffers from the same poor proof reading that has plagues this entire series, and to I suggest the following; 1. get a proof reader or for god sake..hire an intern to proof read!! 2 stars..nothing more!!!!

I must admit that this story was better than I thought it would be. While being shorter in length than many other shadowrun books. It does not diminish the fact that it is a good story. The plot was well thought out, compelling and engaging. While the author well detailed his/her story, I could only give it 4 stars because they forgot to put in at the end to add it "I would have gotten away with it if it was not for those mettling kids!!" An old scooby doo reference. Read he story and you will understand. Humor aside, final review; good, well detailed, but short and in too much of a hurry to end it. So the final tally 4 stars, definetly worth the $3.99 compared to other $8.99 shadowrun books of lesser quality!

Finally catalyst games seems to be getting with the program. An other good an actually useful book that has information both players and gm's alike that can be used without unnecessary fluff filler material. The spells are solid and the game mechanics are useable for gm's to use in their campaign..and what gm does not have house rules..ain't met a gm yet that was worth anything that did not have house rules. However 2 points of interest that stops this one from getting a 5 rating and first is a big one. 1 proof reading in this book is terrible..if i am paying 25 dollars for this non dead tree version..I expect proof reading of the material for correct spelling and word useage..come on ppl its a free function of your word processor...USE IT! 2. a lil less fluff filler material and perhaps a few same characters from season 5 campaign contacts upgraded with new material from the street grimoire relavant to the character/contact would be nice but definitely not a deal breaker at this point. Overall a good book worth the purchase despite its lack of proof reading and after that debacle with the book "shattered soul", just say no to c.d.f.s., it's nice to see things back on track and YouTube has a posted videos on how to use a spelling checker and how to proof read, look them up.

Compared to the previous underachievers released from Catalyst Game Labs i.e." Stolen Souls"..what we have here is a good basic and solid book that covers a somewhat forgotten area of shadowrun..getting shot. It usually you take damage and bring out the nebulous medkit or stimpatch and voila your back in the game. I like having information that covers this part of the game and speaking as a real life medical lab technician, I kinda like to have this sort of information at hand not to mention it complements well doing the whole extraction deal so now we can actually do something this aspect of the game. I am usually hard and rightfully so for catalyst game labs for there fluff fill and maybe a little useful information at the end of the book, but on this one catalyst finally got it right and I would recommend this e-book even thou be warned the information in this book is considered unofficial where the game conventions are concerned,,none the less I would recommend this e-book for the price as a buy for any player or gm alike for 4th or 5th edition shadowrun

overall its not a bad product that is rich in idea but thin, very thin any actually useful material to player and gm alike. The layout for new york was not bad but with only 1 map, it can not be considered a worthwhile source, its lack of source material on utilizing the cfd nanovirus is ridiculously thin and makes many veiled references back to the augmented book in 4th edition without providing any relevant material on nanotech in this book its not worth the money to purchase, just stick with 4th edition shadowrun augmented book and transpose as necessary an save your money. The book is 3/4 filler material that belong in a novelette and some source material for new york without any maps to make it useful and only 2 pages out of 202 pages of the that actually refer to the cfd nanovirus in any sort of way. End result is this product is not ready for prime time. Save your money and DO NOT BUY!!

This product was a ripoff-if you want a better version, just download the "bride of portable hole" which has all the same material in it and save your money. only one spell and 2 prestige classes.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: good idea-nothing titilating about it however<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: all the good stuff was already printed in "bride of portable hole" and it is a free download<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Ripped Off<br>