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The Tir Tairngire sourcebook came out the year after this novel, which gets a nod on page 144: ">>>>>[Talk to Kham the ork about the Tir, then see if you still believe nothing weird's going on between elves and dragons.]<<<<< --Jervis (21:42:34/3-21-54)"
Page 1: "weedeater" is a racial epithet for elf.
Kham lives in the Carbonado district of Puyallup (New Seattle, p.70). Some low-level local gangs include the Hotbloods, Ironmongers (dwarf), and Black Swords (ork). Many Carbonado orks live together in communal "halls", after the fashion of early Viking longhouses (p. 36).
Page 84: "The cyberboys stepped away from the group, each plugging one end of a double-ended datacord into a jack on his temple, linking for a private conference." With a datajack and a transducer, anyone can do this (Man & Machine, p.19).
Page 96: Being immortal doesn't make one invulnerable. The attack on Kham's hall takes Laverty by surprise. Even assuming he was using a Detect Enemies spell, it wouldn't have worked because the attack was not directed at him, but at the orks in the building. It takes four assault rifles on full automatic to overwhelm his magical defenses. Laverty was only injured in the attack, but he might easily have been killed.
Why would Sean Laverty deliver a warning in person when it would have been easier, safer, and more efficient to send someone else? It served no practical purpose. He didn't need or want anything from Kham. He asked no questions, made no offers of assistance or employement. Basically, he just delivered a warning, fielded some stupid questions, and got shot at.
People who are born human but goblinize into an ork or troll still live out a normal human lifespan (average 75 years). People who are born ork or troll live the lifespan allotted to that metatype (average 50 years for a troll, 35-40 years for an ork). Kham's grandfather, Harry, was born before the turn of the century and "went ork" on Goblinization Day (30 April 2021). In his sixities, he's still reasonably vigorous. His daughter Sarah (Kham's mother), born ork, is decrepit and senile at thirty-five.
Page 142: Neko pays a decker to assemble a sparse file on Dodger. He barely has time to read it before the file crashes. Morgan (the AI from the Secrets of Power trilogy) routinely destroys all reference to Dodger or Sam Verner in the Matrix, either personally or through some form of AI metavirus.
Page 149: The Xavier Foundation was founded in the late twentieth century by Sean Laverty as an orphanage/boarding school for "special children". These were, in fact, "spike baby" elves, born before the Awakening (Tir Tairngire, p.50).
Page 151: Dodger himselfs blocks Jenny and Neko's investigation into Laverty's files, saying, "Sorry, Jenny, even your boss' connections don't get you in here." Dodger is probably referring to Jenny's old employer, Katherine Hart, and Hart's romantic involvement with Dodger's friend Sam Verner.
Page 152: Jenny says, "The Dodger used to be good. Now he's special." Otaku won't be introduced to shadowrun for a few years yet (Denver, 1994), but Dodger seems to fit the profile. Technobabel and Psychotrope imply that an Artificial Intelligence can create otaku.
Page 153: Andalusian Light Industries is in fact owned by the Oakforest family (Tir Tairngire, p. 81).
Page 161: Dodger is confronted with names from his past: "Major William Randall and his tragic wife Agelica. Beverly Park. Zip and the Hooligans. The fire at Everett Community College. Ice Eyes Estios. Teresa." Where Neko obtained this information is never explained. Given Morgan's protection, it should be impossible. Dodger admits to being a spike baby. He claims to remember the broadcast about the fall of the Empire State Building in the New York City earthquake (12 August 2005, according to the Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America, p.119), which makes him at least fifty years old.
Page 168: "A sleek black Euro Westwind stretch limousine waited for them at the curb." Either this is a slip, or the Westwind is both a limousine and a sportscar.
Page 170: Laverty explains, "There are and always have been places that are foci of magical energy. Even when the mana is strong, it is stronger in such places. At the places, special magics can sometimes be worked. Urdli is Australian, and Australia has many of these focal points. There are only a few left in Europe, places like Stonehenge and an old crypt in Aachen, but the Pacific Northwest has many, which is why Tir Tairngire is situated where it is."
The "old crypt in Aachen" is probably the tomb of Charlemagne, though why that should be a place of power on the level of Stonehenge is beyond me.
Page 174: Kham pays to have analyzed a splinter from the frame that held the crystal artifact. Radiocarbon dating is inconclusive because all of the measurable carbon-14 in the splinter has decayed to nitrogen-14, implying that the frame is over fifty thousand years old.
It's never explained how Kham learned where Glasgian was keeping the artifact.
Enterich's "hellions" are ludicrously exposed during their shadowrun against Andalusian Light Industries. No magical support, no matrix overwatch, no standby rigger. If they were garden-variety shadowrunners this might be excused, but they're full-bore Saeder-Krupp cyborgs and should have all the covert resources of the megacorp backing them up.
Page 242: Kham and the others speak to Enterich and Lofwyr on a video screen. This would seem to indicate that Enterich is not Lofwyr in human form, but that the two are separate individuals -- unless it is a ruse designed to promote that very idea. Also, Lofwyr speaks telepathically into the minds of his audience, which wouldn't be possible over a telecom. If not actually in the room, he would have to be nearby.
Page 246: Lofwyr quotes a favorite proverb: Crown the wise, harness the talented, cherish the lucky. It might explain why he appears to go out of his way to indulge the shadowrunners.
Page 253: "The new order was coming. Glasgian's order. He would be a new Lojan, bestriding the world like a victorious colossus." Later, page 265: "With my magic and your spirit, we will surely conquer. We shall be as Lojan and Yasmundr, mage and indomitable warrior. They will sing our praises forever." So who are Lojan and Yasmunder? Is this an Earthdawn thing?
Glasgian Oakforest admits to being born in the current era (p.8). Public data puts Glasgian's birthday in 2034 (p.143). For an eighteen-year old, Glasgian's pretty full of his "immortal bloodline," and does a good impersonation of a self-absorbed, self-important, paranoid little twit. He literally considers Urdli, a millenia-old immortal elf and phenomenally powerful magician, to be a crusty Australian fossil. He had hopes of using the power of the crystal artifact to "blast away the shadow of his father and to take his rightful place among the rulers of the new order" (p.158). His father would be Aithne Oakforst, yet another millenia-old immortal elf and phenomenally powerful magician. In short, Glasgian is stupid and fairly unstable. Further evidence: after bonding the crystal, in spite of his ambitions and for no tangible benefit whatsoever, he goes out into the woods and digs up a dragon nest so he can break the eggs.
Urdli drops out of the book about halfway through. Where did he go? Hard to credit the idea that he would just leave the artifact in Glasgian's dubious care.
Kham, Dodger, Sally Tsung, and Ghost-Who-Walks are all "Prime Runner" cards in Shadowrun: The Trading Card Game.
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