I really struggle to recommend this title. The Book of Chantries should really be called "The Book of Templates" it contains hundreds of pregenerated templates for various characters that inhabit various chantires, and not much else. And most the templates are mediocre to say the least - nearly every person has points in all nine spheres. There's no concept of subtlety and balance it's all about big stats and big biff power. Not Mage-like at all. A couple of them are interesting (such as a Marauder double agent in a Technocracy construct) but the reality is that it's just 200 pages of filler.

The 'story' at the end is more like one short, uninspired scene where Samuel Haight steals a tree and the players watch. The Chantry creation system is detailed and all but it amounts to this: Make up how many points you want to give the Chantry, and then spend them however you like. May as well just forget the points and make the Chantry however you like from the start. I guess there is stuff there to get you thinking about making a well-rounded Chantry, but that isn't saying all that much.

My biggest complaint is that it's just Templates, but only Mages - no beasts, no guardians, no consors, no denizens, nothing. For example, they briefly describe the Shard Realm of Forces (where Doissetep is) and it's just great and they mention a whole host of monsters that live there. Would be great to have some stats for those, but no cigar on that one.

Digital Web is just 100 pages, and contains 2 stories. They are both better than the one in the Book of Chantries, and the systems described are actually useful. To be honest, Digital Web is just a much more useful and well-rounded book. I recommend buying it alone.