It's a fun read ading depth to the SR universe but really not that helpful from a GM perspective

The art is the first thing that met my eye when reviewing this. It's just bad, from a technical standpoint (the intention isn't half bad a couple of times, but the execution ... ...). The real bad pieces - Sea Wolf, this means you! - aren't in the preview, you have to pay for them.

The writing itself isn't so bad, it's fun to read actually, and written well, even though it could use some polish here and there. Shadowtalk is missed though, but probably was cut due to space constraints. Some stuff seems a tad superfluous - what, 2 more Gryphon species? Now there are six - Gryphon (since SR1 base book) Asian Gryphon (since SR1 base book), Opinicus (since Paranormal Animals of Europe), Hippogriff (since Predator&Prey) and now Criospinx and Hieracospinx? That's ... making the Gryphon the topmost varied awakened species on the planet, surpassing Dragons and metahumans (both with five main variants). Intentional?

Other stuff is a fun addition, like the evil sea elephant, the sidebar with awakened insects (I'm a sucker for such flavor), the Echeneis (which I am so gonna convert to an awakened Plecustymus catfish for Amazonia) or the gold falcon (finally something worth poaching that will not require a tank to kill!). And the Mongolian Death Worm, a classic long missing from SR paranimals (and Tremors sense! SR needs more shout outs to B-Movies classics). Why not add a Jenny Haniver though? Ah, but at least someone googled Parazoology while writing this. So the writing's the good part of this. Some critters are usable. Some even have me want to use them. Not bad in itself.

What Mr Large really needs is someone to help him with the rules bit - issues, mainly missing powers crucial to the animals described in the text (accident for the Alicanto, Influence for the Gyre, Accident for the Moon Dolphin, ect ...). This has shown in all PDFs of late, and it's not good. Given CGL has an all-but-officially-official no errata be released, ever policy, there needs to be more attention to getting it right the first time, at least. At least the poor fish have gills now, we gotta be thankful for the small things too.

Also, why is the ToC at the end and why is the content not alphabedically soted if the ToC is? Weirdness. Why is there no introductionary writeup again?

Final impression: The file looks like it could have been a lot better than it came out. Pity, just when things started to pick up again on that front. Still, it's no total loss. I miss shadowtalk, though. It's important for the feel of shadowrun products.

3/5.

This book works very nicely when combined with 'Paranormal Animals of North America'. At the price, it is worth picking up and the diversity of animals is encouraging. Basically, most environments are covered, and the authors were constrained by only thirty animals.

There are some interesting and quirky animals in here, like the Cactus Cat, and also some incredibly vicious ones that will be a good challenge the next time your runners have gone bush.

My only criticism is that the animals overall lacked any sort of 'wow' factor. They are all conceptually good, and can be included in almost any campaign, but there wasn't anything that was a standout for me.

Still, I would recommend the purchase as the one aspect of the ain rulebook that is a little sparse is the area of paranormal animals. As they can offer some unique play experiences, these critters are worth reading up on.