THE CHIPPER
                                 Reviews of things you have to pay for.


THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS
                              Stanislaw Lem
   translated from Polish by Michael Kandel
          Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1985
     1250 Sixth Avenue, San Diego, CA 29101
      111 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10003

In the world of Shadowrun, altered reality is a way of life. People jack 
in and chip in, using drugs, simsense, BTL, 2XS, and decks. What effects 
will there be when people can control their lives to the extent that 
chips can be controlled?

Stanislaw Lem wrote The Futurological Congress before the advent of 
virtual reality technology, but the drugs that play a major part in this 
work are uncannily similar to chips in 2050 AD. Lem shows us what is 
possible with simsense.

In a society where governments can no longer take care of their 
citizens, they use drugs to create an artificial world. Artists drop out 
of the real world and create their masterpieces in their own private 
world, for their own private pleasure. Companies spring up that create 
custom drugs which allow customers to vent their anger against 
individuals in a non-violent, socially acceptable way.

Lem's writing, as usual, is superb, and he deftly explores the 
ramifications and possibilities of a world where reality is both fixed 
(nature) and fluid (simulated). The Futurological Congress is highly 
recommended to any Shadowrun referee.

                                              reviewed by Jerry Stratton

SHADOWRUN 4: 2XS
                             Nigel Findley
             Penguin Books, USA Inc., 1992
     375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014

The writing in 2XS is awkward, and typos abound. Simply as fiction, I 
cannot recommend this book. It does, however, provide a good look at the 
world of Shadowrun. While general editing was lacking, continuity 
editing seems to have been tight -- everything conforms almost exactly 
to Shadowrun terminology and effects. You can almost see the game behind 
the story.

But only almost. Dirk (the hero) just isn't on the ball. It's surprising 
he's survived this long without getting fragged. We, as readers, can 
tell what's happening to Dirk and his friends before he figures it out, 
even though we're only told what Dirk sees. Are we more pre-disposed to 
strangeness than Dirk would be? Unlikely. Dirk lives in the awakened 
world. The traffic report he listens to warns of octopi climbing onto 
the highway and chomping cars.

If you're a Shadowrun gamer, I do recommend reading this. You get a 
description of simsense (the 2XS of the title) from the user's 
experience. You see a mage/free spirit relationship. And you get a 
nicely described Shadow-mission towards the end. The virtual reality 
descriptions in this book are better, and more useful from a gaming 
standpoint, than those from the story in the Virtual Realities 
supplement.

SPOILER WARNING: This book contains spoilers for the Universal 
Brotherhood.

                                             reviewed by Jerry Stratton