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In general, this book is good. It has decent amounts of fluff (though I wish there were a bit more), and plenty of crunch. I think there are a few options I will definitely use in the future and a few aspects that got the gears turning in my head. I'll break this down into smaller reviews on each chapter, so enjoy.

Chapter 1: The Gathlain are a small flying fairy-like race. They get some decent options, some good spell-like abilities, and plenty of languages. But, as will be a common theme with this book, it was poorly edited, and the Racial Traits box does not list what creature type they are. The adjective "fey" is used in their fluff, but it's better to keep it plain and simple. Ghorans are a reprint but with more fluff than before, and a few new alternate racial traits. Their "Spelleater" racial trait is super powerful, with Dispel Magic once per day as a Spell-like ability. The Vine Leshys are a new race, near as I can tell, and have some interesting backstory. They have some fun looking alternate racial traits and archetypes.

The Shifter looks like a fun, full-bab, good fortitude and reflex, d10 hit-die class. It gets some cookie-cutter abilities from other classes, like Track, Unarmored Defense (called Defensive Instinct), Scaling Claw Damage, Woodland Stride, and Wild Empathy. The Shifter Aspects and Wild-Shape interactions look interesting, but limiting in versatility. They get a few specific animal forms to turn into (though they somehow skipped over the lion), and for the most part, they look interesting (on a personal note, the Stag is lacking, and gets a size buff without a Strength buff). The bull, bear, and tiger get their respective enhancements to ability scores, and the major forms scale with level. I can't wait to play a Vanara Monkey-Shifter. It only has one ability that scales off of Wisdom. I want to say that Paizo took lessons from the video game industry though, because you can take a feat that add Wisdom-modifier-scaling instead of just giving it from the start. More on the feats later though. A small note to add is that like druids, the Shifters are required to be any of the five neutrals. Lastly, Shifters are one of two martial full-bab classes to get no bonus feats, the other being the Paladin.

Overall, I'd say the book is off to a decent start, with a few minor editing issues.

Chapter 2: The Archetypes look good overall. There are some cool looking Barbarian options, including the Spring Rage rage-power, which allows an older character rage with the vigor of their younger years. On the other hand, the fact that an archetype was made specifically for functioning in swamps is kinda disappointing.

The Thundercaller bard archetype looks really fun, basically an "I PLAY LOUD AND THUNDEROUSLY" archetype. The Feral Striker brawler is an interesting take on the brawler that can use Feral Aspects from the Shifter instead of combat feats from martial flexibility. It adds a nature themed versatility pack to an already great chassis. The Green Knight Cavalier archetype is built off of the Order of the Green, and is an interesting improvement on the Cavalier kit. The Saurian Champion is a dinosaur riding knight that I can't wait to play, and it looks strong.

Interesting goof by Paizo, but the pdf has links to each class subsection that has archetypes in this chapter, except, for some reason, the Fighter archetype. It's mistakes like this that bring down the value of this book for me, because it shows that they didn't take care in editing the book, which shows they didn't care enough about the customers in general. Speaking of mistakes,the Hunter archetype "Treestrider" gets a new take on the Animal Companion ability. It turns out that "as a free action, a treestrider must select an ape as her animal companion." I didn't know that you needed an action for that, but such is life.

Aside from that little typo, the Hunter archetypes are all well made. The Kineticist gets an expansion on its Wood Element. The rest of the classes look like their archetypes range from way-too-niche to pretty dang amazing. I like the variety, and I'm sure Paizo does too, they seem to have a real "take the good with the bad" attitude toward their game.

This brings me to a subsection of the Shifter archetypes. Starting from the top is a strong archetype called the Elementalist Shifter which is well built but less animalistic. The Fiendflesh must be evil, so don't expect this to be at your table unless you've got an evil campaign. They take on the aspects of three types of fiends; the Daemon, Demon, and Devil. One gripe I have with the wording of this archetype is that the capstone you get at level 20 says "she also gains... spell resistance equal to 15 + her Shifter level", but given that this is a level 20 ability and Pathfinder hasn't branched out to epic levels, it's kinda pointless to use that wording instead of just "spell resistance of 35". But that's a really minor thing.

The Oozemorph is unique, but also has the weird inability to talk for most of the day due to being unable to maintain its humanoid form for more than an hour a day at level 1. It lifts the "Morphic Weapons" ability from the old 3.5 Warshaper PrC, with changes to how many natural attacks it can make, and it changed the name to "Weaponry". Looks like an intriguing archetype to play.

The Rageshaper is a wreck though. A poorly designed Barbarian-Shifter that can become a Gargantuan creature at level 20. It gets Rage That Grows at level 1, but only for 1 round a day. It takes a full-round action to start the rage, provokes attacks of opportunity, and gets minimal benefits from growing to Large. I'm sure it was a good idea when it came to the table originally, but it was watered down into a pile of garbage. It gives up every ability from the Shifter and only keeps the Track and Wild Empathy abilities, and if you wanted that, you could just go Ranger. And to make the horrible archetype worse, it trades away the decent "Defensive Instinct" ability for a pathetic, static, un-scaling +2 Natural Armor and DR 2/- (at all levels, even 20). What makes it worse is that this applies in the Rage only. Overall, it's a bad archetype that never deserved to leave the cutting room floor.

The Verdant Shifter is a cool archetype, I don't really have anything to say about it. The Weretouched gets only one animal to turn into instead of the four that the normal Shifter gets, but they get the Hybrid and Animal forms, so it's still not the worst trade-off.

The rest of the classes that get archetypes are all reasonable except for a couple exceptions. The Avalancher Slayer archetype is basically "I fall on people, and they die." It's kinda like the runt of the litter that tries to be a Slayer but falls flat on its face. The other exception is the Feral Champion Warpriest archetype. It gets better Claws than the Shifter does by scaling like Sacred Weapon does instead of the meager Claws scaling. They also get animal-only Wild Shape with an effective druid level equal to the Warpriest level minus three. Bummer they only get one blessing and even then its only the Animal one, but it's a sacrifice I'll make gladly.

Chapter 3 is the Feats chapter, and it's a doozy. Clinging Climber is cool. It basically allows any character with enough strength to access the Tree Hanger feat that is a Vanara exclusive. I guess that's alright though, since the latter gives a couple goodies the former feat does not. Command Animals gives Charm Monster to a cleric as early as level 1. The Eagle-Eyed feat really helps the Aerokineticist with their 960 foot range attacks. Exotic Heritage is a feat that allows you to take a mutated bloodline and functions as Skill Focus for Eldritch Heritage. Really cool so far as feats go.

Extended Animal Focus and Extended Aspects allow you to add your Wisdom bonus to the number of minutes per day you can use Animal Focus and Aspects (for minor form). It's a shame though, that what should have been a part of the base Shifter class is locked behind a feat tax. Way to go Pathfinder, as I said earlier, you took a lesson from the video game industry, and it was one of the worst ones you could take. This alone shifted my score for this book one star down. I pray you don't do this any more than this Paizo.

Flinging Charge looks like a fun feat. If you have a Blinkback Belt and a Spear, you can throw the spear at the start of the charge, then draw it during the charge, then attack with the spear at the end of the charge as a melee attack. Bummer you can't use Pounce and this feat, but I guess it'd be a fun feat to use in a game. They also buffed the Spring Attack feat line by giving an Improved and Greater form. It's basically just Bounding Assault and Rapid Blitz from 3.5, but renamed more intelligently.

The Greater and Improved Hunter's Bond feat allows you to play a Ranger with the Teamwork Hunter's Bond more efficiently, albeit at a feat cost. Moontouched is a feat that makes your saving throws better at night (except for Will). Mutated Shape gives you an additional natural attack appendage when Wild Shaping, like the Morphic Weapons ability from 3.5's Warshaper. Shifter's Edge is especially strong so far as feats go. It builds off of Weapon Finesse for a Shifter's Claws, but instead of merely granting Dexterity to Damage, it gives a much better "Shifter level to damage" effect, which is probably stronger after level 6 than just straight Dex-to-Damage. There are other interesting feats, but I think I've gone on enough. There are some pathetic feats in addition to great feats. Overall, I like this chapter.

Chapter 4 is interesting and gives tools for a GM to create a better overland area, which at least in my games is a dwindling art. Looking through my dad's old AD&D notes and conversations online, it used to be that wilderness travel was common. I don't GM much, but looking through it, most of the wilderness stuff is at least partially realistic. Having forded chest deep rivers though, I feel like it's not really a Strength Check, it's more of an Acrobatics check. But I guess Pathfinder wanted to find a use for Strength.

The Herbalism bits are pretty interesting. Bone Reed aids natural healing, which could be really useful before Restoration is available to the party. Angelstep helps prevent death, which can be really useful. There's a section giving advice on what kinds of spells are useful in the wilderness, so I like that. It kind of redeems the book in a way. There's rules for trophies and weather as well, consolidating the rules of the latter into a single book.

Chapter 5 is good, and I absolutely enjoy the options for animal companions and familiars. Much of it seems like it's a padded chapter because a lot of the options are reprints, but it's always nice to consolidate lists. There's cool new Animal Companion Archetypes as well, and the familiar archetypes are cool too. There's also new Companion tricks, and they look good, for the most part.

Chapter 6 is lost on me for the most part. I don't play spellcasters, and I dislike GMing for them. But the spells I looked through looked pretty good, and the one everyone is talking about, Snowball, is a change for the better I feel.

Chapter 7 brings some cool items into the game, though I feel like the Trekking Poles add the wrong benefit. From personal experience, they don't add distance to a day's travel. The value of a trekking pole is in taking weight off of your back. It should add more of an Endurance type benefit to forced marches. But I guess I'm not a game designer.

Overall, the book is pretty good, but suffers from a lack of decent editing and the Shifter seems like it was either poorly playtested or Paizo willingly let it come out with its flaws in place. I would expect more respect for the customer. There are some great player and GM options, and I can't wait to use this in a fitting campaign. That was a tad long-winded. If you've read this far, thanks.