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The Terminus Experiment | Rating | |
| C | |||
| Jonathan E. Bond and Jak Koke | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Shadowrun | Never Deal with a Dragon, Choose Your Enemies Carefully, Find Your Own Truth, 2XS, Changeling, Never Trust an Elf, Into the Shadows, Streets of Blood, Shadowplay, Night's Pawn, Striper Assassin, Lone Wolf, Fade to Black, Nosferatu, Burning Bright, Who Hunts the Hunter, House of the Sun, Worlds Without End, Just Compensation, Black Madonna, Preying for Keeps, Dead Air, The Lucifer Deck, Steel Rain, Shadowboxer, Headhunters, Stranger Souls, Clockwork Assylum, Beyond the Pale, Blood Sport, Technobabel, Wolf and Raven, Psychotrope, The Terminus Experiment, Run Hard, Die Fast, Crossroads, The Forever Drug, Ragnarock, Tails You Lose, The Burning Time, Born to Run, Poison Agendas, Fallen Angels, Drops of Corruption, Aftershock, A Fistful of Data | ||
Dr. Oslo Wake is on a mission. He's out to engineer the perfect vampire. All the strength and speed and other abilities, without the bloodlust or vulnerability to sunlight. He's made some progress towards that in Marco D'imato, ruthless CEO of a small but growing security company, and now it is his nephew Warren's turn to undergo the process - whether he wants to or not. Warren's father is assembling a force from the company to rescue his son. His girlfriend is contacting shadowrunner to get her lover back. And Martin de Vries, vampire and vampire hunter, is perfectly willing to help save an innocent, so long as the facility is taken care of in the process. But Dr. Wake has a few surprises in store for such as them.
This is easily the most straightforward Shadowrun book of the lot, so much so that the word simple arguably applies. There is no search for Warren, for de Vries knows from the start where he is being held. There is no casting about for the perpetrator, either, for the same reason. There are no twists to steer through, no mystery to solve, no lies to uncover, not even a Johnson to betray them. The book is essentially a gigantic firefight, with a large lead-in as they prepare to invade and a small intermission in the middle.
But it is a darn good firefight. I never felt really close to any of the charcters, even Rachel, Warren's girlfriend, who is perhaps the most fleshed out of the white hats. But I knew which side I was rooting for, and the dangers they faced made it exhillarating. Meanwhile, a good portion of the book shows what the villains are up to, making them deeper characters than the protagonists. When the pages weren't filled with gunplay, then, the book was still at least interesting.
Still, The Terminus Experiment has a rather narrow focus and appeal. Readers who enjoy the more typically intricate plots of Shadowrun are likely to be very disappointed in this one. Not only does it pretty much ignore any dealings with the Matrix, the only magic involved is that used in battle. It's just another weapon. Shadowrun is more than guns, or at least it's supposed to be. This book is thrilling in its own way, true, but there is no sublety to it, and in the end it feels like something essential is missing.
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