Disclaimer II: The majority of this review is opinion; your actual enjoyment of this product should vary accordingly.

Engel is a world rife with intrigue and monstrosities. None viler then the dreamseed creatures spawned out in the Infernos and the Brandland. Born of the dreams of the Lord of the Flies, dreamseed creatures are insectoid (mostly), deadly (mostly) and numerous (definitely).

Creatures of the Dreamseed is presented mainly as a journal, with a pestering first-person perspective and an annoying sidebar font (which is hard to read at times). The book can be broken into three main sections: narrative journal, storytelling hints and creature statistics.

The story part is broken into three books, each detailing a separate leg of Fra Domenico's journey. These journals cover his survey trip around Europe to track and identify dreamseed creatures. In the years of his journey, he encounters a decent amount of creatures and intrigue. The producers saw fit to include a map showing detail from his trip, but it is dark and hard to see where exactly Fra Domenico has gone.

While interesting in the use of subjective perspective, Creatures of the Dreamseed relies too heavily on the Engel storyteller wanting to use Fra Domenico's voice and descriptions to present their encounters with the dreamseed. If the storyteller isn't big on the first-person narrative, some of the dreamseed creatures may simply not appear in their games because of wading through the at-times confused voice of Fra Domenico.

The monster section forms the last part of the book and delivers a smattering of creatures (plus a few animals) to those storytellers that have desired them since reading the main Engel book (the two appearing there are also reprinted in this book). As mentioned, the drawback to the entries are that instead of being able to just open to the back and use the creatures, storytellers will have to read through the narrative text to gleam the creature's description.

While the number of dreamseed creatures is good, one fault to them is that there seems to be no adequate challenge for lower power levels of play. Of the creatures in the text (not counting the animals), six are rated CR 2 or less. It's difficult to challenge the Engel, for example, with the small dreamseed changelings (CR1 demons infesting infant skins and wrecking havoc). With an average of six hit points, a single good sword blow ends the challenge and earns the hatred of the parents (if they didn't know) or their trust in God's workers (if they did, but couldn't defeat the changeling themselves).

The problem with most of the dreamseed is the number that they can appear in, usual number range between two and twenty, depending on the actual dreamseed (for example, pseudo-Engel can appear up to five while tainter-dragonflies can appear in the fifties). I know that the storyteller is responsible for making an adequate challenge for their fellowship of Engel, but a single dreamseed of the lower six doesn't carry the fear factor that dreamseed creatures should present to the players.

The most redeeming feature of the text is the small storytelling dreamseed section. It gives a point of view on how to use the dreamseed to terrifying ends. And if the players don't fear flies (the standard dreamseed creature stock), use spiders or other creepy-crawlers to make the story more poignant to them in fighting Satan's hordes.

Overall, Creatures of the Dreamseed is a decent book. Though it has faults in presenting its creatures, as the page turning for description is mildly annoying, downright irritating if the storyteller is prone to rushing at the last minute. It continues the narrative feel for the Engel setting, though it is more limited in its presentation.