In my opinion, this is one of the best Mage books out there. It has tons of information which when expanded upon would make for some epic adventures. I'm very happy with this purchase.

super-essential if you want to really understand the attitudes that the order of hermes has towards clan tremere, and has additional info as to how the rest of mages treat kindred as well. great for crossover

Though many other reviews out there are negative and bring up some legitimate point (no mechanics for the failure of magic, Mages not taking full advantage of their abilities, etc) I'm actually positive overall about this book. It was well-written, including the unique approach to the mechanics light chapters of writing it as a play (leading me to wonder if anyone has been strange enough to try to put it on) and the properly punitive mechanics for ghoul mages. It includes several rotes that are not especially tied to dealing with Vampires but are focused on recovering the roots of Hermeticism, and presents a piece of the Hermetic view of the Umbra and Umbrood hierarchies in a reasonable and accessible way.

Overall, I find myself thinking of the book as "Tradition Book: Order of Hermes 1.5." This is far from a condemnation, as it hits several points that are not thoroughly covered in either of the two versions of the Tradition Book. If anything, I feel like it could have benefitted from a bit more discussion of other Mage groups and Vampires, because it teases with bits about how it can be run with other Traditions, or how other Traditions and the Technocracy factor in, but its so brief that it left me wanting more.

Overall, it is a flawed book, because the metaplot that necessitated it was almost certainly not initiated by the writers and was not really tied in, but the things it covered it did well.