The Earth has become a dystopian world where most heavy industry and the social elite are in orbit, the Orbital Corporations control the world, and the United States has balkanized into a myriad of regions. This supplement is set in the year 2151 using the background of the Walter Jon Williams novel Hardwired. Talsorian Games in 1989 for the dystopian near-future science fiction role-playing game Cyberpunk. '(Williams) is a master of the intricate yet fast-paced plot-the essence of thrillers and novels of political intrigue.Hardwired: The Sourcebook is a supplement published by R. 'A combination of fast action, gritty realism, and high-tech polytechnics that is certain to be popular with Williams' growing audience.' –Booklist. 'Walter Jon Williams proves that he is a master of action, character and galaxy-spanning plots.' –Fantasy Review

a stirring and heartening performance.' –Kirkus Reviews 'Fast-moving, hard-driving, with a robust well-handled plot. An alien race has arrived and become the center of a complex and deadly intrigue. Most of his comrades died in a useless battle on a world called Sheol, and those who survived are irrevocably scarred. His wife has divorced him, along with the second wife that he can't even remember. and in those fifteen years, everything has changed.Īn interstellar war destroyed the company that held his allegiance. In his memories, he's an elite commando for an orbital policorp-but because his Alpha never did a brain-scan update, Steward's memories are fifteen years out of date. The Thirtieth Anniversary Edition of this cyberpunk classic includes essays by the author devoted to the origin of the novel, the unexpected source of the term “panzerboy,” and an amused guide through some of the oddities of the first German edition. It has all of my favorite things- blood, love, fire, hate and a high ideal or two. Below the zone of Orbital control, buttonheads, panzerjocks, dirtgirls, and hustlers scramble for their ticket out of the gravity well.īut now, if the criminal underworld and the guerrilla underground can join forces, there is a chance to shift the balance of power- in a war fought on the ground by hardwired commandos, in the air by high-flying deltajocks, and by genius hackers in the neural interface.Īs Roger Zelazny said, ' Hardwired is a tough, sleek juggernaut of a story, punctuated by strobe light movements, coursing to the wail of jets and the twang of steel guitars- glittering, nasty, and noble- and told in a style perfectly suiting its content. For its thirtieth anniversary, Hardwired is now available in a deluxe new edition, with new content by the author.Įarth lies prostrate beneath the lash of the Orbital powers, and Earth’s Balkanized nations have no choice but to let the Orbitals plunder their remaining wealth.

Hardwired jon williams