I have to admit bias as the Stellar Frontier and Alien Encounter books were some of my favorite from the first edition of Aeon Trinity. Having some of the content from those books plus their themes and a whole bunch more is exactly my wheelhouse. This is absolutely the Aeon book I have been waiting for. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are a ton of locations in the book. About one hundred pages in the book is dedicated to extraterrestrial locations. They are not created equally (and I will get to that below) but as a storyteller I can find great things about every one of them. Simply reading through the entries sparks plot threads that I know I won’t have time to unravel no matter how many games I get to run.
After the locations is about fifteen pages of technology including some vehicles, weapons, biotechs. Mostly what one would expect from this type of book though there are some standouts. What I wasn’t expecting was the section on relics and artifacts. This is a robust section of about ten pages of very interesting bits of alien tech that also spark countless story ideas.
I was surprised that there were not more edges and paths to be honest and I think that the edges and paths section could have been fleshed out a hair. If that is your reason coming to this book these two pages are going to leave you wanting more. Finally, the final thirty five pages are devoted to the Qin. Again I don’t want to spoil anything, so allow me to simply say that this section is superlative. The rest of the book would have work very hard to overcome the five stars this section earned all on its own. This brings me to cons. The biggest con I had with this book is that of consistency. This book had eight listed authors and it shows. God Bless Colleen Riley because the writing styles are jarringly diverse. The best example I can give is with the section on Far Nyumba. I loved the way the author choose to break down that location to “The Way Things Were, The Way Things Are, and The Way Things Might Go.” The author in three pages really highlights a very interesting location. It is the only time in the book that Past/Present/Future breakdown is used. On Karroo the author breaks down the differences between the “Rich and the Poor” in its own unique subsection dedicated to the differences. On Eden however there is a section about the “Two Sets of Rules” between the Neutrals and the Novas. A bit more consistency would have made the rulebook easier to read and incorporate into gaming tables. My final thought though is that the entire book is fantastic, and I understand the realities of Onyx Path and their authors. The book is wonderful, and each section, on its own is great. The only time there is a negative is when the book is read quickly (like one does when they are excited for their new toy.)

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in more information about the core setting for Aeon Trinity.