Even though the Book of Shadows was designed to work on 1st Edition rules, the book is still of a great help for 2nd Edition players too (I can't say for Revised, as I still haven't read that one). The book has a whole bunch of goodies for players and storytellers alike, up to the point that I'd almost say that without it your chronicle could suffer a lot.
As we've become used to, the book's prelude is one more chapter in the Amanda Jansen stories, nicely written by Kathy Ryan. I've always thought that these Preludes were great, and that together they should be a whole book, but I'm digressing a little bit here, so... on to the review!
The book starts with a section common in all World of Darkness books (although in the other books is not always the first chapter), with a huge list of new Talents, Skills and Knowledges to flavor your characters a lor further; and to keep with that style of "character flavoring", the second part of the chapter describes the Merits and Flaws that can be included in a Mage chronicle (For those of you who don't know what these are, Merits are good things for your character that cost you freebie points and Flaws are bad things that give you some extra freebies). Although it's clear that players and storytellers can make up their own Abilities, Merits and Flaws, the ones listed are often enough to make a character detailed enough (if you're talking about a "normal" character; a Technocrat, Marauder, Nephandus, Consor, Familiar or others' specific extra Abilities are not explained here). I've got nothing to complain about in this section, as each and every of the items is clear enough and ultimately useful.
In chapter two, though, the book starts showing its age. The first section consists on some further explanations about the Traditions' philosophies, styles and such. All of them are presented in the form of a short story with some "OOC" quotes explaining the story. Although I really liked the style, the Traditions are described as they were conceived in 1993, the year the book was published, so each and every one of them has a newer information source, namely it's Tradition book, making some of the information outdated, and in some cases even misleading. This is especially notorious with Traditions such as the Cult of Ecstasy (all of them are not hippies, believe me, and even those who are have a really deep philosophy not explained here), the Dreamspeakers (who look like Verbena with a spirit touch) and the Sons of Ether (depicting a mad scientist who would be in the great minority of the Etherites). The following section in the chapter depicts the Technocracy, which is a good thing having in mind that they weren't much explained in the core book (at least in 2nd Edition), but they suffer from the same problem that the Traditions: a whole bunch of outdated information. Of course, if you're not planning a chronicle involving Techie PCs, you won't need much in-depth information and you can conform yourself with the faceless drones presented here, but don't expect to depict them correctly if you're basing yourself just in this section. The Nephandi and Marauder sections are a little bit better, but still if you want to really know about them, get the Book of Madness. The Orphans section is completely worthless, but then, you couldn't make a good Orphan section in just 3 pages. Orphans couldn't be depicted at all because each of them can be as different, or even more, than all the "known" factions in the Ascension war; and the Hollow Ones section is weird but ultimately not much informative either. What really shines in this chapter is the last section, depicting the Ahl-i-Batin; if not for anything else because it's the only source for information on Batini in all Mage books, excluding only Sorcerers Crusade, but that one depicts Renaissance Batini only. This section is, though a bit old, really good, and you could aspire to play a Batini in your chronicle with it (of course, if your ST allows for it).
Chapter three is a mixed bag of useful and outdated information. You could already expect that in a chapter named "The Book of Rules" whan these rules are 1st edition ones, but nevertheless it's got some really cool info. Some parts of the chapter (like "Simplyfying and Clarifying the Magick Rules", "Abilities and Magick" or "The Umbra") are just updates to 1st edition rules, and you'll already be aware of these changes if you read 2nd edition and others are completely outdated to be useful (like "Computers" or "Talismans"). Still others are really useful, clarifying issues from both 1st and 2nd editions rules, and fortunatelly they make for more than half this section. Especially the second part of the chapter (new rules) make for the good parts, and the sections on child mages, do, certamen and especially familiars make this chapter worth reading.
The next chapter is a nice collection of Rotes and Talismans, and for the most part they are still useful now. Each of them is greatly described, and in some cases they even have a "history" behind them, which makes reading them much more enjoyable.
Ah! How I love the next chapter! Although not useful for game mechanics or for character creation, as are all the preceding chapters, "Parables" is a great read and it can really help you imagine how a Mage universe is really like. In this chapter you can find short stories about each aspect of a Mage life, and each and every of these stories is great by itself.
The last chapter is good for stopping players and storytellers from doing things that could harm the chronicle; it's a collection of "wise words" regarding diverse topics to help you have a really enjoyable experience playing Mage.
All in all, and although the book is a bit outdated, it makes for a good and enjoyable read, and some of the goodies in it are really useful. I, for instance, couldn't have my players depicting so interesting characters if it wasn't for the Merits/Flaws system. Maybe "The Bitter Road" will make a great update of this book, but in the meanwhile, this book is necessary for players and storytellers alike.
Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
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