This book immediately took me back to my childhood obsession with bestiaries -- the Monster Manual I found in the public library when I was 8, the Dragonology series, various "encyclopedias of fairytale", and so on. I love monsters, and I love Eberron, and I love how the book places these monsters in the world of Eberron, creating a living, breathing, magical ecology.

I especially appreciated the monster variants; the idea of different kinds of allips or ankhegs helps further the idea of Eberron as this is a world that reacts like the real world. The idea that monsters would evolve different biomagical variants based on the needs of their environments is a parallel to the idea that humanoids would develop magic to ease daily life, and for more conceptual monsters, the idea of monsters born of different, varying concepts helps make the world feel fuller and richer. I was also taken with your ideas on the armanite -- that it's specifically a centaur's idea of a fiend.

The one thing that detracts from the text is that it doesn't tell DMs where to find some of these monsters -- I have the Monster Manual and Volo's, and I recognize some of the names, but I don't know where to find aldani or archons of redemption. Cross-referencing would make this book easier to use.

That said, the clear love of Eberron, and of monsters, shines in this work, and the opening fiction supports the concepts wonderfully. I very much enjoy Fortunine and Immok, and Ardiane and Rhen have fun banter. I'm excited for the coming volumes!

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THIS:

• It provides information on how to use preexisting Eberron lore to run fun games and create new character concepts. "How to use this material" sections are something that I tend to support in general, as a design philosophy.
• Also, I'm super excited to play a dippy Ghallanda socialite who blundered her way into a pact with an Archfey at one of ... those parties.
• The idea of dragonmarks as a subrace/race variant feature. It makes dragonmarks one of those "significant choices", and follows the idea of subraces in Eberron being a matter of aptitude as opposed to genetics -- for example, elves in non-Eberron worlds can follow the narrative role of "rangerlike" or "wizardlike". The Mark of Shadow's existence gives elves a third narrative role in Eberron, "entertainer whom it is absolutely ridiculous to believe is a spy, I'll call the Watch for your impertinence!". Making dragonmarks a racial trait is a good expansion of what a "subrace" represents.
• The Eberron-endemic races have new and ... interesting to say the least ... takes on their mechanical abilities. I really like changelings, and the envoy warforged model.

WHAT I DISLIKE ABOUT THIS:

• Some of the mechanics are overpowered, or might be so -- there's some iffy dragonmark abilities, and I felt the traits were a little too free with Expertise, along with the far more obviously questionable warforged armor and Revenant Blade feat.
• The fact that the only shifter with a natural attack is longtooth is somewhat disappointing, given my fond memories of my razorclaw scout pulling out her claws to the terror of everyone at the bar. Even a respin on the longtooth mechanics would have been nice.
• There's no clear way to provide feedback on nonfunctional mechanics outside of reviews/discussion. I'm assuming there'll be a survey to follow up after the Unearthed Arcana on the Eberron races, but that's not clear from the product description.
• I feel like this product would have been better served by waiting for the new artificer to be finished, rather than leaving with an Unearthed Arcana artificer that many have found mechanically disappointing and/or tonally inappropriate for Eberron. I have similar feelings about the lack of goblinoid and orc PC races that fit the Eberron lore, and the lack of a gnoll PC race entirely.
• Minor thing, but I'll bring it up anyways -- the lore given on kalashtar gender directly contradicts one of the things I liked best about them in 3.5. In 3.5, the quori spirit was tied directly to the host's gender, even when the host might have been assigned the wrong one; as a trans woman, I found that, while it wasn't representation, it was a very useful metaphor. The idea that the quori spirit differs can also produce good stories, but I personally liked the idea that the quori spirit would always ultimately validate the mortal's gender identity.

WOULD I STILL RECOMMEND THIS?

• Khyber yes.
• Updates are free.
• Again, tons of information on how to tell good stories in Eberron. I list more dislikes because they're more specific. "Good game products are all alike; every bad game product is bad in its own way," as Tolstoy definitely said.
• Demonstrating interest in Eberron now is how we make a better final vision.