I just received my copies and I noticed that the text box on the top of page 117 has the incorrect text in it.
It should say:
I read the book now that I have it and I'd like to complement Mark Lawford on the Conciatta chapter. The scope is just perfect in its vastness that's exactly the sort of story that I want my characters taking part in.
I also want to complement Mark Shirley on Richard Strabo. He's an excellent antagonist and a great magus character.
Everything else outside of my chapter is excellent as well but those two items were what struck me most as I read through the book.
Thanks very much. It's a big old road trip of a chapter and I had a lot of fun writing it and, importantly, playing through it with my troupe.
And to clarify, Strabo is in Mark Shirley's chapter.
I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on this one. So much good stuff in there.
Cheers,
Mark
My copies arrived yesterday and the book looks superb. I have to admit that I got more of a thrill than was entirely necessary at seeing a book with actual maps in it. There was something very old-school and reassuring about seeing Villa Fortunata, the mountain-top tomb, and the lost laboratory.
I can't loose the feeling I've seen the mountain-top tomb before somewhere though.
It was in the 2e supplement Mythic Places (or it could have been More Mythic Places, I forget). Variña's Tomb, as described in that source, but with a different back story.
Mark
Conciatta! I liked her, since I'm a Vim fan 
Just a quick note for the Australians here:
I'll be running a fairly close version of the Thomae section as an adventure at Auscon II (October, Brisbane).
I get the same feel too. It was high time we saw another book dedicated to hermetic wizardry and this one does it very well.
I started off with the wrong impression of what the book would be. Early billing made it sound as if it focused on hermetic politics (peacemaking in the Schism war and the like) and more made up Order history. I feel like we have more than enough of that already, so I wasn't very excited. Fortunately, I was wrong. The wizards in this book are notable for their magic, not for being movers and shakers in the Order. It's just what we needed.
I'm excited to hear that this is such a good book! I'll need to order my copy from ebay sooner than later!!
I also had the "old school strikes back" feeling looking at the maps. AND I LOVED IT! 
The book is basically an adventure book, but one that leaves the old 2nd edition adventure books at ground level. It is about HERMETIC adventures. Old school adventures dealing going abroad and doing stuff to the bad guys, investigating dungeons and fighting your way there (or sneaking there, also allowed) but they are fairly straightforward adventures once you are set on the trail. A nice thing since it reduces the work for the SG and I really like that. Also, it includes what looked bad until now: major hermetic breakthroughs. The breakthroughs so far were quite weak. Now those are TRULY earth shaking paradigmatic breakthroughs. Conciattas and Herissons breakthroughs can reshape the Order. In different areas, but substantially in both cases.
Now on the chapters.
CONCIATTA
I left this one for last, so I am only half way through it. It is the longest chapter by far, and the one that implies the longest commitment by the characters to develop in your saga. Stuff about VIm and how she integrated the realms in hermetic theory. it opens the door to REDUCE hermetic forms even further (for example, having all 4 elements as a single Form instead of 4) since there is precedent for it now. A clear sample of what a major breakthrough should mean instead of "but oh, I spent 20 years in the lab top achieve this breakthrough and now I can drink a tonic after casting some spells and recover a fatigue level".
FORTUNATA'S ISLAND OF SPIRITS
A setting for the sanctum of a powerful spirit master that developed her own brand of magic and explored it fully. It is both useful as a potential covenant site and as a place of adventure. Her hermetic developments are also interesting for defveloping the path of mystery vcults in your saga, even if I do not favor that kind of stuff myself; it shows how a magic system can develop slowly burt surely. Most magic systems in ME would have developed following similar paths IMO. In this case this is linked to hermetic magic, but it can be linked to whatever you fancy
GARDEN OF HERISSON
Cool alice in wonderland adventure with the potential for some MAJOR impact in your saga if you integrate the breakthrough presented. Again, same case as Conciatta: a breakthrough worthy of that name. Seems that the line got hold of what major research can really achieve I think it is the most linear adventure design, and it might be difficult to cope with the players going on unexpected tangents but not bad, and the garden is just really cool.
SUNKEN LAB
The lab of a guy obsessed with defences. For such a guy I found the lab to be fairly weak defensively, but it can still present a challenge to the unprepared visitor. It might be that the preparations that my PCs make to go on a Sunday stroll would leave a Delta Force strike team cowering in shame (black hawk included), but hey. the rewards you can get out of the adventure are great, but the interesting thing is the political ramifications. I would have placed some stuff on the roof of the lab, but that is me. Little nice old school "dungeon crawl" adventure. I have to say that if those are the sample defences of the home covenant of Hermanus, Lumen Australis would be like a nuclear missile silo compared to a kindergarten. Well, maybe not that much, but the sunken lab defences would have problems resisting dragon attacks on a regular basis.
FLYING CASTLE
I LOVED IT!!! When the adventure tells you how the castle works I just laughed so hard! 
Oh the wonders of hubris and tongue in cheek!!! I can imagine Thomae laughing so hard at the heavyweights in the OoH :mrgreen: Nice adventure that can bring you huge rewards. Suitable for all power levels and that is COOL. The rewards can be huge if you are a bunch of youngsters, and ok if you are older, but the old ones can still extract loads of important stuff from here. Much more high fantasy than the other adventures in some aspects, but cool none the less. The hooks into the adventure are where it could be slightly improved (why did you say you are going there? really? only for that?) but it is a cool thing.
I'm going to comment because I think that my writing doesn't communicate the idea as well as I'd hoped. The defenses in the Lab are specifically designed not to kill anyone. That's what the magi and grogs are for. They're designed to identify a threat and slow it down or stop it. Now when they're separated from Coeris they're a great deal less effective because they're aren't any of the the detection items that inform everyone when and where one of the sentinels goes off and there aren't any grogs and magi racing to kill the intruders, just two low might spirits trying to be sneaky with all of the toys. The way I imagine Coeris, the automated defenses that kill folks are all for the "treasure vaults"- they're not in people's labs. I wanted it to come out that the enchanted devices you see are for scattering around the covenant (My thoughts looking at how I imagined resources and time made me think that that there might be 60 or so justiciars in coeris) they very specifically don't harm or kill visiting magi because they put them everyplace.
It's always cool to hear from the writers about their work. Now I really have to buy this book. It looks very, very interesting! 
Thanks for the really nice review, Xavi!!! I wasn't sure I'd like the book so much, not being sure what I'd find inside. Now I'm much more excited. Can't wait to get it!
Seconded!!!
Chris
Xavi,
This is the kind of review that should go on amazon. Not sure if you've done so or not, but I think it would be quite helpful for the other Ars MAgica players out there who don't frequent this forum... Or miss your review here.
@Erik: >THought so, but it is never explicit. The defenders would crush a group of companions with magic items, but even a fairly weak magus should be able to break them. The only thing that made me laugh was the presence of the forceless aquam ward since it looks so at odds with the rest of the defences that it is "well, I am placing the thing underwater, so I need to keep water out somehow". Apart from that, I liked it a lot.
@HTH: I have no idea on how I can put a review in amazon, having never done that. I enjoy writing reviews on the spot (this is FAR from a well thought review) and am happy that people appreciate it, but I do not give them much advertisement after that. If you ensure me that puting reviews up is easy., I can do that. Otherwise I will leave them in the forums
BTW: Now that we are rules-picking all around the forum, in conciatta's chapter there is (IIRC) a misuse of lacunae. There are "faerie, magic and infernal" lacunae, while (IIRC) lacuna are basically a TOTAL LACK of aura as per the raw. Just FYI.
The conciatta chapter has 4 different adventures. I really liked the tower and city ones (gonna love the nighttime supernatural community of the city!! I must use that sometime), but the cave and convent ones did not cut it for me. There is a clwear differenc ein power level in the first 3 adventures and the 4th. The first 3 can be done by any troupe with some social skills. The last one can be a death trap for a saga if not played right andf the troupe is even slightly overconfident.
Cheers,
Xavi
Xavi,
Go to: amazon.com/Legends-Hermes-Ma ... 942&sr=8-1
To the right of the picture of the product you'll see a "Be the first to review this item" click on that. I think the only hassle will be setting up an account. Otherwise the form for filling out a review is very simple. If you're not that interested, I'm happy to post a review on your behalf.
OK, posted Was easier than I thought
Cheers,
Xavi
Thanks Xavi!
THanks for the review Xavi: I thought this book had sunk without trace. 8)