Beautifully presented, the artwork and layout is well done, but the system itself lacks meat compared to previous versions. The book does a good job of presenting the material for play in an earlier era of Talislantan history, and as a source book it works well. It appears to follow along with Talislanta's 4th edition characters in that race and class are combined. If you are familiar with both 4th and 5th edition, then whether this delights or annoys is a matter of preference. If you are familiar with the new breed of "semi-narrative" roleplaying games, you will be able to fill in the blanks where the mechanics are not well explained. If you want a more crunchy experience, I'd recommend using the setting with some of the more tactical options presented in earlier editions. (Which are still free to download).
In conclusion, I think this is a worthwhile source book, but it might prove difficult to run for new players due to the terseness of the system explanations.
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