W. Kristoph Nolen's page

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I can't even begin to rave enough about this book!
It has everything that I could've hoped for, especially the revision of the Living Monolith PrC from the earlier book. Though I'm not overly fond of the art for that particular class, because it's got a serious perspective issue with the LM's khopesh (sword) ... it looks like he's holding it sideways and backwards. <shrug> It's still incredibly beautifully illustrated, just a strange pose.And the PrC is entirely to my liking, since I've played one for several years in the Pathfinder Society.
And then, there's the center two-page map. It's simply *stunning*. It looks like an ancient Age of Exploration map - it's gorgeous. The compass rose, especially, is *very* well done, with hieroglyphics on it and such. It's all earth tones and stained-looking. And it's not just a beautiful piece of artwork, it's actually got gaming-related overlays on it with names and labels, and roads that have MILEAGE labels on them!!
I really liked that eac hracial group has a two-page spread. They were very informative, and helped me distinguish between Garundi and Keleshite. The sections on the Pahmet, and Other Races was particularly fascinating, and the section on Rahadoum was especially interesting, as I knew next to nothing about any of them.

Overall, Shaun Hocking, Rob McCreary, and Jason Nelson did a marvelous job on this one - and I was thrilled to see Jason back on the newest Osirion book again!

Look below at the other reviews. "One of these things is not like the others."
This book is truly one of the best resources in the line. Granted, it came out before some of the newer stuff where they have really defined what makes the line a good one. But, it contains plenty of goodies to make any normal gamer more than happy enough. The writeup on the Ruby Prince is marvelous, the rich background material and a slew of enumerated sites make for great PC histories, and my absolute favorite part - the Living Monolith prestige class. It has at its heart the core mythology behind this psuedo-mythical-Egyptian setting. It is precisely the reason that I love the writers and editors at Paizo ... they never fail to deliver.
If you have overly high, unreasonable expections of a product, and insist that it should be something that it was never designed to be, you might not be happy (see the review below with one star). But, if you're pleased with a book that expands the world, provides interesting NPCs, plenty of crunch, and a plethora of fluff ... then you'll be perfectly happy with this great book.