Hi all. I recently picked up Shadows of Europe, SotA64, and Mr Johnson's Little Black Book.

I read SotA64 first, and am currently reading SOE.

So I figured I'd work through the book, reviewing it chapter by chapter.

General stuff - OK, this didn't feel too bad. The NEEC, in light of recent RL events, makes me giggle uncontrollably. The perspective on OC was useful. Magic was less than useful, but SotA64 made up for that.

AGS - Um, OK. One can see the scars of the original Germany SB. It's a perfectly useful setting, but...Ugh. It would take a lot of work not to have players kill me, because it just makes no sense. Now, a specific gripe: Bavaria. The Eugenics Project. As soon as I saw that (in 2042, no less! For SHAME! For SHAME!), I wanted to kill whoever wrote that, even in the brief summary fashion. Eww, people. Ewww. That was a (relatively) minor thing, though I still want to hurt whoever wrote that, which really does seem like a "let's pee on genocide" bit. Otherwise, the AGS looks decent. Barely.

Austria - I dunno. I couldn't really find a use for this country. Seems OK.

Czech Republic - I'm sorry. Can I have whoever wrote this. I want to kill you.

It felt like this country just had to be special. Happy happy bright light Care Bear Stare. Nothing bad could possibly happen to the Czech Republic, apparently, because it's just special.

Grating as hell. A useless setting as a consequence. Damn. And Prague coulda been so cool, too.

France - Urk. So much promise, but the reality is that I can't see France, portrayed as per the book, being at all a useful setting if the runner team is from outside France. Or the players, for that matter. Which is likely to be the case. Entirely too much is left unsaid. I can't put my finger on it, but it feels...incomplete.

More to come later.

Oh, and a side note. I've only had these books for a few days, but thus far, they've held up well to my abuse.

That is a good sign, compared to earlier books, which hardly lasted very long.

Okay, I'll just use this opportunity to post my own reviews too. Using Penta's sceme.

History section
Notrhing new here, really. It's basically a compilation of what was already laid down in various other books (Target: Wastelands, Target: Smuggler Havens, Germany Yuckbook, Deutschland in den Schatten II, Walzer & Punks, Chrom & Dioxin, London SB, Tir na nÓg, some Tom Dowd novels and all the others I have forgotten about). What I liked was how the events were tied in to form somethingt cogherent, even though some things in previous canon were slightly altered (as this mainly concerns German canon, I could care less, though).
What the omniously referred to Restoration actually was about finally was explained. Thanks. Now, if only someone could retro-fix the bad grammar and ridiculous use of German in Tom Dowd's early books ... >_< "Der Nachtmachen" ... >_<

NEEC
A fairly nice way of retro-introducing the economically integrated (and politically semi-integrating) Europe of today. Penta, countrary to how American media present it, the EU's political dimension isn't dead (yet), though Bush's little lapdog certainly tries to make sure it will be. All in all, fairly nice idea. I like how corps come into it, too. Not quite realistic, but hey, it's Shadowrun, not a futorologist's view of 2050's Europe.

AGS
Okay, my first thought was: "But sir, look at what I am forced to work with!" (Tim Burton's Batman, street surgeon, to Joker). It's still the old beast. I still hate the setting. Not as much as I ate the original Germany SB, though. At least, they *tried* tidying it up. They couldn't quite remake it, as Germany SB is canon, but meh ... see above quote.
The material is, basically, the best parts of DidS2, cut down to a few thousand words. Leaves enough open for enterprising GMs, but gives you the basics. A shame they never published Loffy vs. Nachtmeister, though. It would have been a GREAT addition to DotSW.
Too bad that the Troll kingdom and Pomorya weren't destroyed, Saxony not overthrown and Westphalia returned to a somewhat believable fascist dictatorship. But I guess they're waiting for the German people to come to terms with reality and cutt down on the dope they smoke when writing sourcebooks. Well, I can wait, all campaigns I play in avoid Germany like hell anyway.

Austria
Same stuff as in Walzer & Punks. Translated into English, and the worst stupidities were edited (Danube Union instead of New Habsburg Empire, Carinthian wastelands and negamagic galore left out entirely). Well done, but I agree with Penta, noone who isn't familiar with Germany, Austria and German stereotyping of Austrians will be able to make much of this chapter. Too many subtleties will go unnoticed (Arbeitsamt, Strizzis, Stahlmänner, Proporz that is hinted to, the Empress Sissi II ...). Also, the annoying German canon Anarchos were left in. Shame on you. P

Czech Republic
Now, I wholly disagree with Penta here. Firstly, it's not all a shiny precious little care bear state. But it's not obligatory that al Sr nations ahve to be half toxic waste drenched mudlands, and half gargantuan anarchist slums, either, right? It's a bit more on the bright side, yes. But it DOES have it's shadows, too. Besides, Prague has to be a magical city. Everyone who's ever been there will tell you that. And, apart from with Germans after the war, the Czech have always been reputed as open-minded and tolerant. And with America (!!) being sexually liberal (!!!!), I doupt the Czech Rep being not violently anti-Meta and even open to other intelligent awakened ... things ... is unrealistic or stands out sorely.

France
Now, my first thought when glancing over it was, "shit, nobles houses, aristocracy. This is Sargent/Gascoigne bullshit American French stereotyping again!"
Then I read into it, and found the chapter surprisingly well written. I still maintain that, if anything, France would go for socialism, even communsm, rather than church-backed aristocracy and all the old, 17th century cliches. I'm also thoroughly fed up with new nobles springing up everywhere, and pseudo-ADD fairytale metahuman kingdoms and fae realms abounding, Germany SB made sure of that.
However, neither Bretagne and the Mist, nor the new nobles, really were as awful as I feared. Additionally, as France is presented as a place where subtlety is more important than brute force, it's a perfect setting for an espionage campaign. Yeah, more background would have been nice, especially for those not familiar with France and going there at least once a year because they have access to a flat in Paris. But meh, it's a book that's to provide an overview, not one to provide every last detail.

The Art
The artwork in this book is quite good, actually. I like the cover a lot (I know that part of Paris fairly well, though the flat in question is in Montparnasse, and it captures the feel surprisingly well. I'm also glad someone paved these architectural sins on the other side of the Seine for some cool looking cyberpunk skyscrapers. Interior art is partially stuff I know from various German publications, but meh, it's still rather well selected. There could have been more, though.

Ah, so you went by the mention in London SB? Not sure about the Unspeakable Book, but it also stated that there's a Kurdish state and that all muslims are radicals ...

Anyway, I agree with you, you had to work with canon. Just like in the German chapter. But ... well, it's juts my personal preference, as well as my experience from (rather frequent) visits to France.

Ragnarok ...?

And yeah, I heared stories about the France book. They were like how Germany SB was a work of literary genius compared to that.

Ragnarok - A Talon novel by Steve Kenson. There's a scene in an auction where there's some french nobles (in tights and feathered caps IIRC).

Good thing I stopped reading the US paperbacks with the first Dragonheart book.

And I thought Kenson was one of the better authors. At least, the two Kellan Colt triology books were fairly nice. I guess that shows 'better' is a relative term, eh?