Reviewer: Blake Hutchins from Eugene, Oregon, USA

Expanding the Role of Shamanism,
As a storyguide beginning his third MAGE chronicle and as a player starting in a separate chronicle, I found this book very useful in further detailing the ways in which true shamans work in the World of Darkness. In some ways, the book continues the themes expounded in the Dreamspeaker tradition book, but it goes further and is not limited to Dreamspeakers alone.

That said, this book does focus on shamanic methods and viewpoints, and has a heavy emphasis on interaction with spirits. It's not a spirit compendium, unlike Werewolf's Axis Mundi, and though it touches on shamanic possibilities for all Traditions, it seems far less useful for non-shamanic groups like the Celestial Chorus and the Order of Hermes.

Outstanding features involve blessings and curses of being a shaman, new merits and flaws, the potential "catch-all" nature of Spirit magick, discussion of totems and the World Tree aspect of the Umbra, and finally a new collection of spirit-related rotes. It's all well-written and presents minimal rules-related content. The story is illustrative without being intrusive.

Bottom line was that this gave me a greatly expanded perspective on what it means to be a shaman, the responsibilities as well as the benefits. The only drawback for me was that the authors chose not to explore alternative visions of shamanism, such as technomancer or Hermetic possibilities. Consequently, the book will be primarily useful to chronicles featuring Dreamspeakers, Verbena, or Cultists.