The Rock of Bral was first mentioned in the Spelljammer: AD&D Adventures in Space boxed set, way back in 1989. Three years later, it got a nice fat 96-page book packaged with a truly amazing poster map.
This is a great book.
Rock of Bral is divided into four parts. The first part, The Crossroads of Wildspace, describes the history of this asteroid city (from its ancient existence as an illithid - and later beholder - colony to its rebirth as a pirate haven to its modern state as a center of free trade), the details of life on the Rock, and the affairs of the government and military. This section alone might make the book worth it - the information contained herein is fascinating, and really sets the tone for the rest of the book.
Part Two: A House Divided describes the prominent people and organizations found in the city, from Prince Andru himself to the various nobles, ambassadors and crime lords. It also details a number of fascinating guilds and societies which might give a home to any number of PCs or villains. The more prominent businesses are also described. Over there is the Fireball Alliance, a society of mages dedicated to defending the rock. Here we have the Sindiath Line, a company that operates a number of passenger liners. This part is also quite remarkable - and if nothing else, the companies and organizations can be easily transplanted to another setting, even one based on solid ground rather than outer space.
Part Three: The City Among the Stars is perhaps the book's main course. The poster map included with the accessory mentions over a hundred locations. This section details all of them. Every. Last. One. Every location gets at least one or two paragraphs describing the place and often the people found there. The more prominent locations get even more detail, including maps with room descriptions. The city is so complete, so huge, that even DMs who don't run Spelljammer might very well find a use for it. The author suggests that enterprising DMs can drop the Rock of Bral even into ground-based settings with a few changes; he's quite right. Most of the locations described in this setting are quite interesting; I was particularly amused by the tavern run by a rogue beholder who's decided that the purpose of his species is to teach younger races.
The fourth and final section provides advice on running adventures and campaigns set on the Rock. This too is quite a good section, covering everything from bringing in PCs to starting a Rock campaign (or moving the campaign there) to ideas for adventures based in the city. It is, all in all, remarkably useful.
All in all, this is an incredible book. I was a little annoyed with one bit in particular - the Rock is supposed to be a generic setting which can be placed in any crystal sphere, but there's a great deal of setting-specific information. Sure, I can change it, but I often found myself wishing the author would just make up his mind.
One more good thing, however: this book doesn't use sidebars. There are, to be sure, sections at the bottom of each page which contain interesting and occasionally important information, but these sections don't keep going from page to page. You can glance down at them and then continue to read the main section without having to backtrack. Sometimes these sections just repeat information found elsewhere, but most provide additional info. Quite good indeed.
So, in short, if you can find this book for a reasonable price - BUY IT. This is, in my opinion, one of the best works TSR ever released, and should prove useful to any Dungeon Master.
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