Pathfinder Lost Omens: Impossible Lands

Although a welcome addition to the lore of Golarion, this book too often reads like a college textbook. Although a college educated gamer of almost 50 years, I find myself frequently having to refer to a dictionary in order to understand the intent of the sentences, as written, in this book. Unless the target audience is solely the erudite, it is my contention that many younger, less experienced, players will find this book difficult to understand.
Whereas D&D 5th edition is trying to make their products available and understandable to even new players, Pathfinder appears to be going the opposite direction.
Please, continue to put out wonderful books about the world and cultures of Golarion. They are greatly desired. But, remember not everyone in your audience is a college professor.

Edit:
Having read more of this book, I must admit that not all of the various sections are as difficult to comprehend as the section dedicated to Alkenstar, which section inspired my rant above. Many of the other sections are more comprehendible. However, I do get the feeling that the various writers are more interested in sounding erudite than being easily understood. The sentence tend to the complex.
I will be changing my rating from 2 stars to 3.

Had a big review that was lost when I clicked on Save Changes -_-

I find myself getting sucked into the lore in this book in what I intend to be a brief glance. Definitely recommend if you like Golarion Lore.
Geb's lore here is a great compliment to Book of the Dead, and has my favorite art from the book.
Alkenstar and Oenepion as well.

The new ancestries are fun and have interesting niches, even though Ghorans are mostly just a hodgepodge of abilities from other ancestries.

I really love Aakriti in this book, but the lack of inclusion for Nalinivati is strange.

Triggerbrand is a fun Way with a unique theming, but it unfortunately shares the name with a weapon in the same book, which has made talking about it pretty confusing.The Wind Them Up ability is pretty incongruous with how combat in this game goes, turning off reactions due to Move or Ranged attacks with a MANIPULATE action [Steal], on an ability that might be only allowed in melee mode, makes it so it doesn't seem to have the effect it wants.

It was always going to be tough following up the incredible called shot that was Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse, but in continuing 2e's admirable decision of looking beyond faux-Europe for adventuring locales, the Impossible Lands delivers a lot of delicious flavor - marred by a few disorienting hiccups.

I want to be clear: this book has a TON to love. The art is consistently gorgeous, perhaps the best yet in the Lost Omens line, really underscoring the bizarre supernatural and vibrant cultural influences on the regions featured. People consistently look great, even when those people are gnolls, mutants, and bright blue giants. The lore is endlessly evocative, and in a variety you can't find anywhere but Golarion: fleshwarped activists forge solidarity with a living lake of ooze, snake-headed monks seek the counsel of wandering judges and openly-acting fiends, liches work as affable foreign diplomats, massive crystals forge a magical oasis in a blasted wasteland... Tolkien, this certainly isn't, and I'm grateful for it. You can do noir in these settings, or tense Cold War espionage, or Mad Max wasteland gonzo, or a high-flying martial arts fantasy, or a dozen other wild concepts, and it all works! Even Dwarves and Halflings get to be interesting, with unique local ethnicities that have some killer hooks (renegade dwarven necromancer-spies!!) for PCs.

But there's a sense of disunity in places that proves a little frustrating. Nagaji are noted as "overwhelmingly" following Nalinivati, while the Nagaji detailed in Prada Hanam are non-traditional and follow Obari; neither deity makes it into the Religion section, while Ravithra (who the Nagaji section notes they largely believe is above mortal adherents) gets a full-page profile. The Vudrani peoples and their traditional castes are never clearly profiled despite their prominence in Jalmeray, and the Sunghari, their ancient colonial victims, likewise aren't given the tools they need to really be represented as characters. Alkenstar's surrounded by faux-African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian aesthetics, yet everyone's dressed like Victorian attire, and the Mana Wastes host wizard gangs with inexplicably Spanish names. Abraxas, a demon lord who openly operates in Nex, goes surprisingly under-detailed, as does the famous Conservatory (a school for psychic spies in Jalmeray long hinted at across 1e). Shisks and Wyvarans, both noted to live in the Shattered Range in prior books, aren't mentioned. Ysoki are promoted to being a common Ancestry, yet get almost no detail - and the Ancestry Guide doesn't detail the Ysoki of the Impossible Lands! The Introduction mentions connections to other planets, an idea never again touched in the book.

Where the Mwangi book felt deeply cohesive and intentional, this book slightly feels like parts of it were made in isolation. It feels like a clever note when it presents the Rakshasa castes and says they're meant to delegitimize Vudrani castes, except those castes aren't described here. We're told of the apparent hypocrisy of the Curse Shepherds, and the organized resistance that seeks to root out their true nature - the Shepherds themselves don't get enough wordcount, and their alleged true nature goes unsaid, the motivation for their fervent fear of curses unexplained.

I'm very happy to have this book; it's a gorgeous work, full of lore and mechanical options I want! Nagaji have instantly shot to the top 5 of my favorite Ancestries in the game, and I have friends who adore the other options given here. Garund continues to shine as an example of how much more non-European fantasy can be than tired, hateful stereotypes, and only makes me even more eager to see places further afield get their time in the sun. Don't let my nitpicks hold you back from a buy here - blame the standard of incredible work the PF2 team has set for themselves, and know that even their 4/5 work blows the competition's best out of the water.