I REALLY like this book. Do you know why? It manages to satisfy both of my urges.
It has the sweet kiss of setting, with a panapoly of mages and shamans of all types (wanna play an Chinese mage? Here ya go!). It oozes story, filling in all my missing knowledge of the Shadowrun world.
Then, it spends 150 pages filled with the salty tang of mechanics. Not, I'll admit, as overwhelming as Maximum Tech (the book o' Battletech Level 3 rules), but it bursts with every piece of magical knowledge you would need to run a Shadowrun game.
There's some truly beautiful stuff in here, too. Initiation is no longer the power trip it used to be. Now, Initiates must hack their way up the ladder of knowledge. Instead of getting this huge panapoly of meta-magical powers, you start off with two, and build your character as you progress.
It's got all the magic goodies from the previous editions of Shadowrun (the Grimoires, Awakenings, etc) and new geegaws.
Stuff on Metaplanes, building spells, Threats (Bugs! Ahhh!) and Spirits. There's new totems (I still wanna play a Wyrm shaman), new adept powers, and new spells.
Of course, it's not perfect. Shadowrun continues the mildly annoying habit of repeating artwork. I geuss when you have a CCG that doesn't do so well, you'll have a lot of art lying around. But the sheer volume of the recycled stuff makes me wonder how much new art there is in this book. And do we NEED to see Mr. Darke 3 times? If you know who he is, that's just a mean thing to put in a book about magic.
The one flaw I found with it game-wise is it seems to ignore the Shadowrun Companion; There's no new merits or flaws for building magically adept character. Of course, that's a minor quibble. Magic in the Shadows is the be all and end all of Shadowrun magic books.
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
