Extremely well written campaign setting, as stated mostly exposition of setting materials with few actual rules additions (it is a campaign setting book after all).

Richly detailed, excellent take on many of the standars of the genre.

An amazingly well written campaign setting. The book is mostly fluff, but the crunch is very well written, evocative, and balanced, while the fluff draws on some of the best fantasy concepts and giving them a fresh spin. I definitely recommend this title.

This book describes the major races, cultures, and countries of the world of Golarion (where the Pathfinder Adventure Paths and Modules take place) and does an excellent job of painting a picture of what the world is like. I especially liked the write ups of the various human races and the exotic weapons.

Also included is a very nice poster map of the world detailed in the campaign book (the Inner Sea Region).

I have a 18 year experience with role playing games and i must say that this campaign setting is the best i have ever read...
The possibilities are endless, everything has a really good background and in my opinion pathfinder chronicles is what forgotten realms should have been...
Don't miss this...!!!!!!

Negatives: 1) As with any rpg company, this book will have typos, but, I, personally, ignore them. I always consider the resources, labor, and deadlines for this industry, and they never bother me. I'm proud in my own skills as a reader, and rpg fan to spot and correct typos automatically. However, this may be an issue to others, so I mention this nonetheless.
2) There are minor loose-ends, both intentional and not, meant as seeds, or overlooked, and there are minor flavor inconsistancies such as the use of the term "Chelish" etc. For the most part, this is mostly unimportant, but may be for others.
3) Some may not relish changes when the book is revised and reprinted once the new Beta rules become official in a year or so.
4) Only the Inner Sea Region is detailed, with other areas left for later.

Positives 1) With such attention to detail as name choices and language attributes for races, it feels both friendly to old die hards who demand live roleplaying in native speak as well as newbies wanting to know how to fit in and otherwise find it difficult to choose their PC's name.
2) The extraordinary choices that are fleshed out for races, nationalities, regions, classes, countries, technology, and philosophy are brilliantly dynamic and engaging. I feel like a group would be hard pressed not to find "something" of interest to set their game in. There are so many choices, that I feel there will be group tension just on selecting where to start.

Here are my personal pleasures.
1) I adore the appendices, which include sample encounter charts for certain areas.
2) The flags of each country really add to the sense of just how much love went into this book. It's a small detail, but to me it's a wonderful little pleasure.
3) The setting has taken a bold plunge to include guns and psionics.
More Psionics, please!!!

This is by far the best campaign world book I have purchased in years. Some comparisons have been made to the “old gray box” Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting; that comparison is not undeserved. I believe this book blows away the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guides for D&D Fourth Edition and perhaps even Third Edition. It has to offer a lot of diversity, which appeals to me greatly. It even has a place for us Ravenloft fans: Ustalav. Paizo shows that large font type and large full-color pictures on every page are not what is needed to create a quality product (though they have plenty of beautiful illustrations, maps and heraldry). What is needed is detail and polish, and this book has plenty of both.

Outside of Dungeons & Dragons/Pathfinder, I have read campaign books for a variety of fantasy games and worlds. Some of these include Legend of the Five Rings, Talislanta, Earthdawn, and Exalted. I would say that the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting has all the richness of a complex setting like Talislanta, but it does not overwhelm the newcomer with information overload. It is well organized, beautifully illustrated, and edited very well.

Indeed, I will go out on a limb and say this is indeed the best campaign book I have ever purchased. I plan on putting this campaign world any many of the Pathfinder adventures to use in my current D&D 4E game and any future D&D 3.x/Pathfinder games.

Overall this is a good solid offering, the biggest disappointment for me was in the value department. Much of this book seriously overlaps what is in the Gazetteer and almost all of the mechanical 'crunchy' bits do overlap. I expected a little bit more here.

I do recommend this product but suggest people choose whether they want the abridged version or the full version and buy either this or the Gazetteer.

This book is fantastic. Buy it. Now. If you regret it, well, sure, feeding your kids was more important, but aside from that, there's NO WAY you can regret this purchase. This is a true masterpiece, akin to Ed Greenwood's Old Grey Box Forgotten Realms set, and you will cherish this purchase for the years to come.

Now, when can we have Pathfinder novels by Ed Greenwood or Elaine Cunningham? Paizo high ups? are you paying attention here? :)

This book is fantastic. Buy it. Now. If you regret it, well, sure, feeding your kids was more important, but aside from that, there's NO WAY you can regret this purchase. This is a true masterpiece, akin to Ed Greenwood's Old Grey Box Forgotten Realms set, and you will cherish this purchase for the years to come.

Now, when can we have Pathfinder novels by Ed Greenwood or Elaine Cunningham? Paizo high ups? are you paying attention here? :)

Great lay-flat binding. Beautiful book on the outside. Iconics for classes are stunning. A couple of the ethnic portraits were below what I expect from Paizo.

I thought this book was a very sincere effort to honor the best of what has come before. It included tributes to what came first.

Next, the heart of many long-running games is in the heart and soul that the DMs have put into their own settings. This was also a worthy inclusion, although it understandably made a couple of regions seemed sort of Ravenloft pockets.

Also, I thought the product was well-timed. I am a new arrival and do not have the products mentioned by another reviewer.

Finally, as far as the accusation about being thin on material, I can't help but remember the paper stapled booklets from Lake Geneva -- just like those brown books that my mom thought were a rip-off price, this is a good start even at the premium price.