I was recently recommended Jennifer Brozek's work and I picked this up on a Bundle of Holding a while back. So I figured I'd finally get around to reading it.

This novella is told from the perspective as YOU, the Viewer of a popular Trideo show. It quite literally describes camera transitions and what imagery the reporter is able to capture using her cybernetic eye drone, smart glasses, also some footage from a third party VTOL aircraft, and studio cameras. And it even has commercials. Honestly, a tiny bit off putting reading a story like a TV show, but you know what; it grew on me. I really enjoyed the narrative presentation, and thought to myself, without some behind the scenes exposition for us to see behind the curtain, would this work? To put it simply, it does. There are a few questions left unanswered, but overall it wraps up pretty satisfactorily.

So, YOU, viewer, are watching Stories with Hart, starring Simone Hart as she does an investigative report on DocWagon High Threat Response Team 19. We learn about the team, which is honestly a pretty standard and well balanced SR team, see them navigate some corporate politics, save clients, save clients in hostile situations (which is why you'd call in an HTR Team in the first place), and get caught up in an elaborate conspiracy. Surprisingly, it really has everything that makes SR great and told in a very condensed format.

Brozek get's what makes Shadowrun an interesting setting and I'm looking forward to reading her other works.

This is actually one of my favorite Shadowrun sourcebooks.

So this is a Deep Shadow book, which is a book that covers a run type on some strategies and gear, and a location. This book covers wetwork and Havana, Cuba. And it's real fun.

In SR, Havana is the capital of the Caribbean League. A loose federation of Caribbean pirates and neo communism. I am all about SR lore and this was a wonderful read and a great update to the Caribbean League.

On top of which, this also has a lot of fun weapons for murdering. Some things, like depleted uranium rounds is obviously not how it works in the real world, but my suspention of disbelief can be stretched pretty far when rule of cool is being applied.

Anyway, this is a wonderful book. 10/10. Would highly recommend if you like making things dead and Cubans.

This book is pretty fun. It does a great job at capturing the Sixth World and it was just a straight up fun read.

What makes this book so fun to read is our nameless narrator. Whom kind of reminds me of Marcus from Borderlands. A very strange use of metaphors which really helps flavor the book. It also uses a very interesting jumping around narrative style to make it like you're piecing together the story as you read. Something akin to a Catch-22 or Pulp Fiction, where the story isn't told in a linear fashion. I honestly liked it, but it might not be for everyone.

The story itself follows a team of runners as they make it through the gauntlet known as the south bridge to Lagos Island. They have to deal with tribal disputes, the undead, magical organizations, and organ leggers while attempting to deliver 3 mysterious packages. That basically captures everything that makes Shadowrun such a great setting. It's not about one thing, but instead about many moving parts that make the world feel real. And the narrative does a great job at making all these conflicting goals come together.

With that said. there are things that could have made it better. A character dies pretty anticlimacticly. I realize not everyone needs a heroic death, but it feels out of place. The narrator also looses his voice towards the end, as if maybe the writer was getting tired of writing this book and just wanted to get this book over with.

Anyway, it's still a pretty fun read and does a good job at capturing the feel of Shadowrun.

This is a terrible product. You literally get more information from any other Seattle source book, and on top of that compared to something like the old Denver Boxset, this product is laughable.

The map is not only useless because it has no legend, its inaccurate. Things like the Renraku Arcology and Aztechnology Pyrimad are just in the wrong place or missing. Thankfully the German publishers have released their map on drivethru so you can pick that one up and it's in English, so you'll be able to actually use it.

There is just such a lack of detail on Seattle. It doesn't update on any of the movers and shakers. Like I'd like to know what the mafia, triads, or any organized crime are up to. Or even the location of mega corporate headquarters. But if you want those kinds of details, just look up literally any other Seattle sourcebook.

The only thing this product does half decently, is it advances the metaplot and allows players to be a part of Governor Brackhaven's downfall, which they've been setting up earlier in campain books like Splintered State. So if that's something you care about, it might be worth it for that. Else never, EVER touch this product.

This book is actually pretty good.

Its content is honestly almost everything I'd want from a book like this. New cyberware, new bioware, new genetech, new nanotech, and the return of many classics. Some amazing new qualities and life modules. It has advance medicine rules and the return of "brain hacking." But strangely no rules for severe trauma, which was one of my favorite optional rules from SR4's Augmentation. There are also expanded rules for drugs. Not just new drugs but custom made drugs too.

It starts off with some great fluff about an elf that became a Street Samurai, and the danger of watching your close friend turn into a meat sack housing a psychotic AI. A lot of people complain about fluff in the core rule supplements, but screw them. Fluff is awesome and helps set the world. With that said, there might be a bit too much fluff. The first 50 pages are pretty much pure fluff, and that's just a lot to take in when I want to start seeing the meat and potatoes of the book.

There are however many downsides to the book. The threat section talks about a lot of awesome classical threats, like the advancements made in cyber zombies, but there are no rules for them! And it's true that the SR4 rules for them are still entirely applicable to SR5, but still seeing the rules updated for SR5 would be nice. The Table of Content is also total garbage and is pretty much unusable.

Over all, the content is what I want to see, and if you're playing anyone that might want some ware installed into their meat body, you should pick this up. It's well worth it.

I love the Matrix. And I really like SR5. I think they've done a lot to really improve the game from SR4.

The Matrix resolves faster and its rules are more consistent with the rest of the game.

With that said, Data Trails is terrible. Its the lightest core supplement book released so far. Not just on page count, but also on crunch. A lot of this book is fluff, and don't get me wrong, I love the fluff in SR. But the Matrix doesn't need fluff, it needs more options. There are only 2 really new things, Deep Dives, where you go into the Foundation of a Host and can control it but where the rules get weird and dangerous and a lot more abstract, and playable AIs. There is also one new Matrix action and the ability to modify electronics, which are cool but I don't feel drastically add to the rules.

There is some pretty damn good fluff in here too. The short story, Body Hunt, is an amazing read and even brings back the classic character Wolf from Michael A. Stackpole's Wolf and Raven novel. But, while the story was a great read, the rules to do what is done in the story are not explained. Though it is kind of implied how to possibly handle it. And another other short story, Corporate Sponsorship has a decker data spike a camera then mark it with sleaze, which makes no sense by the rules. Anyway, this isn't actually important, because I don't think fluff and crunch need to match, but it sure is nice when it does.

The problem is there isn't enough content in this book. It has a lot of sample hosts and NPCs, which I don't care about, because I'd rather buy an adventure book for that content. For a core supplement I'd rather have more options for deckers and TMs for players, which can also give more ideas and options for NPCs.

The worst part is that there are rules for NPCs but not for PCs. No prices for wireless-negating-paint or faraday cages. No rules for writing software. Nothing for how much it costs to have a host. This means that NPCs can have these things, while PCs can not. One of the things that helps GMs and players is the ability to theorycraft and steal ideas from each other. Anything the PCs can come up with, the GM can use and visa versa. But that is not the case in Data Trails as the GM and PCs are playing with slightly different tools. Its disappointing.

There is also a lot of word count dedicated on clarifying core. Which honestly, is lame. I didn't pay $25 to get the same content in core just explained to me again. I want new stuff. Exciting stuff. Cool stuff. I just want pointless part of the rules that really slow down gameplay, like hacking cameras or opening doors to resolve faster while having epic things like data steals be even more epic and amazing. I want the Matrix to be so insanely invasive to the setting that a hacker isn't there just to loop cameras and open doors, but is there to mess people up with hacking, like a mage can with a fireball or a street sam with a big gun. I just want the Matrix to matter. This book doesn't help with that.