By the way, DriveThru has a pdf preview (roughly 1 megabyte). It has the back cover, full table of contents and the introduction. You might want to take a peek at it to see what's in.

Does anyone know who did the picture, of what I'm assuming is a Brahmin, on page fifty one?

Okay...I got my PDF. What follows is Zen Shooter's review of Shadows of Asia.

It definitely lives up to the So line that has preceded it. There is enough material here for any gamemaster to run for years without getting bored. Just like with SoNA and SoE, I regretted that there was so much source material and so little time to play SR.

Like with the previous books in the series, I like the way that the country entries include information on government, major languages, major religions, major economic powers, just packing a lot of info into a small space.

However, in a perfect world I would have broken this book into two volumes. Covering everything from Israel to Russia to Japan (which could have easily been a sourcebook in itself) to the Kingdom of frigging Hawai'i, it necessarily spreads itself pretty thin. Perhaps the city sourcebooks that were refered to in the "What's Up With FanPro?" podcast will help correct that.

Frankly, I dont understand why FanPro ever scheduled this book to come out on top of SoLA, a plan which has gone by the wayside now. I think most players would have picked one or the other, because there's more than enough material in one book to support a campaign for a very long time.

Please, for the love of god I hope Turkestan isn't all of the Stans.

Turkestan's central government is weak, but the corporations are in there with both feet, because of the New Silk Road, a railway & highway system that runs across central Asia, linking St. Petersburg, Russia, and Qingdao, in one of the Chinese splinter states. Sunni Islam is the major religion.

The other real power are the Hordes, nomad tribes that theoretically all obey the one Khan. Their situation is similar to the Anasazi of California and the PCC.

There's also Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Kalistan.

Oh, swell.

Random queries from someone without SoA...

1. In the Bollywood section, do people randomly break out into song?

2. Neo-Tokyo? Uh, what happened to Tokyo?

I have no idea what always happens to Tokyo (or why nobody rebuilds the damn thing without renaming it like they do every other city everywhere).

Hmm... New Monaco anyone?

1. In 2059 the Indian government makes it a law that all conflicts need to be resolved through song (particularly if they involve star-crossed lovers), also all students need to take choreography and singing lessons starting by the age of 9. Just kidding, actually they do mention Bollywood and it’s essentially the same as today, actually a lot of SR India is the same as today (if you ignore the magic stuff).

2. Tokyo (and most of Japan) was leveled in an earthquake as detailed in YotC. Neo-Tokyo covers a larger area and is built largely by spirits/kamis to avoid the megas taint. I guess these reasons are why they felt they needed to give it a new name (I think it’s a bit odd, but no big deal).

Right now I’m reading the Russian chapter.

One quick Question: Have Hong Kong and Shenzen been merged too? And does the inner city airport still serve as an airport?

It's the former free trade zone opposite the city. Click here for a map. And a Map of the district is available in that link. Careful, it's quite hi-res.

Yeah, Kai Tak was a frightening airport. Pilots don't tend to like to approach like this.

Hong Kong will be one of the core settings, yes.

And no, Manchuria is its own nation. It gets a section in Shadows of Asia. It's a pretty interesting place.

Could the airport be open for use with VTOL vehicles? With helicopters, t-birds, and blimps being at least somewhat common, I could see that airport being open for such vehicles and possibly STOL vehicles.

That's always a possibility, yah.

<scribble> One wishes he could delete...