Mysteries of Magic came out early last fall, and for all that it was much hyped (Mark Hall has been talking about it on various forums since 2001, and reportedly turned in a draft in 2002, and other in 2006) and hyped (the previous Palladium Fantasy book was Wolfen Empire, and it came out in early 2003), it seems slender and muddled. The introduction by Kevin Siembieda states that this is the first in a series of books, but Palladium can be somewhat slow in releasing complete series (q.v. Land of the Damned Three, the years-long "Megaverse in Flames" series).

First, to art. While Palladium art is usually quite good, this book shows a fascination with the art of Kent Burles, which is truly unfortunate. While his work in Earthdawn supplements in the 90s felt appropriate, his seeming allergy to straight lines and love of organic ornateness tends to make everything grotesque. This look CAN work; the Death-figure on page 12 looks intimidating (despite his paired sickles), but the "old man" on page 37 looks positively cancerous, rather than wizened. The bulk of the remaining art is some very fine "portraits" by Amy Ashbaugh (who won a "best black and white" art award at Gencon Indy 2009), and "action poses" from Mike Mumah. The other artists credited seem to have only one or two pieces in the book, though Mark Dudley's shout-out to Dragonlance on page 43 made me laugh when I turned to it; I recognized the scene, and was glad to see it.

The book opens with a brief discussion of terminology, followed by a history of the Palladium world, with an eye towards its magical development. The history, however, does help to convey the sense of a living world; older eras make explicit references to now-dead deities having been alive at that time, as well as technological advancements, and some slightly plausible reasons why such advancements had not taken place earlier in the world's long history. There's also some very good bits on how different races view magic, and how users of magic fit into the world at large. It's this kind of world information that makes Palladium books wonderful; it paints a picture of a post-Lovecraftian world, with the races of Tolkien interacting with a Howard or Lieber-like grittiness... a world where human sacrifice is sometimes acceptable in polite society and even simple knowledge is tightly controlled, but the lesser magicians of the modern day still having to make a living.

This is followed by a discussion of what magic is, how it is learned, where it comes from, and how it fits into the world. This may be regarded as several sections; the only real denotation of section is changes in font size. After discussing the interaction between P.P.E. and I.S.P., there is a brief note from Kevin Siembieda that Chi is not going to be discussed. Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, and isn't mentioned afterward, the reason for this non-sequitur is unclear. Since Kevin signed it, it would seem to be an addition to the text, but unless there was an expurgated section about Chi in the original text, why it would come up is a mystery... as is why it would be mentioned if the section was expurgated.


In discussing new types of clergy, there is a similar oddity. On page 41, at the bottom of the first column, there is a brief paragraph reminding people that Priests are not true, learned spell casters; their magics are gifts of their deities, not something they have studied. However, in each priest variation, there is the statement "Remember: A Priest is NOT a practitioner of magic. He does not understand how magic works, cannot learn new spells (has only what is granted to him), and his P.P.E. base is less than true Men of Magic." This is repeated three times within two columns of text, and they follow immediately after the other disclaimer. Why is this so vehemently defended a position? Nothing in the previous or subsequent text challenges it, but it was important enough to repeat four times in the space of just over two columns of text. This is seen again in discussing the education of wizards, as points about the importance of various mundane studies are reiterated withi
 n just a few pages of each other, and again in discussing familiars.

There also seems to be two voices within the text regarding technology. Some lines imply that magic is regarded as a science or technology, only to be contradicted in the next sentence (or, in a few cases, clause), claiming that magic has suppressed science and technology. The second voice would seem to be defining science and technology as the real-world physical sciences and technologies, but they're intertwined in such a way as to make things unclear as to what is strictly meant. For an example, compare "In effect, the magical sciences have replaced, or more accurately, prevented physical science and technology as we know it on Earth" to "[magic] is indeed a science that can be measured, described, taught, replicated repeatedly with the same results, and be used for many purposes and applications." These two descriptions of magic are less than a page apart. It leads to a somewhat disjointed view in the book. This may be an artifact of a joint authorship, with both having s
 omething to say about the subject, but a coherent whole not emerging through editing.

In terms of typesetting and layout, many things seem highlighted or italicized at random. While it is frequently the first instance that is emboldened or italicized, those same items may be so written later, without any clear reason why. At other places, there is the odd misspelling (such as "obstinate" on page 16 being spelled "obstinent"), or awkward grammar constructions. A particularly grating pair of examples are on page 62; both "a weak spell might allow the ill to make a new saving throw to save." and "Like the multi-layer nature of magic, a true name works on several different levels." set my teeth on edge. The entire book has sections that are delineated only by changes in font size, and the logic of organization isn't terribly clear; magical theory and fact is interspersed with O.C.C. descriptions, but I didn't see any odd orphans hanging as single lines above pictures. These problems continue throughout the text.

The mechanics of the book are lackluster. The various priest variants are crippled to the point of uselessness. The two wizard variants (Half Wizard and Forsaken Mage) are interesting, but the Half Wizard seems like a convoluted solution to multi-classed characters, and some of the restrictions on the Forsaken Mage are not explained well; why, for instance, are they limited to only 5 spells of non-standard magical disciplines? Why does a standard wizard want to keep a spell book, in a mechanical sense? Cloud of Slumber, one of the common knowledge spells for wizards, is listed as both a second level, 6 PPE spell, and a 7th level, 17 PPE spell... and both references point to the same Air Warlock spell, but give it two different levels.

Overall, this is a book that has a lot of promise, but suffers from a lack of a single voice and lackluster mechanics. Paragraphs contradict each other, seemingly non-contested points are reiterated verbatim, and odd non-sequiturs haunt it. The organization is haphazard, and the editing is poor. But there are hints of great ideas in the text, and a sense of a decadent, violent world that simultaneously needs and loathes magic.