With the release of Guide to the Technocracy, it seemed as though the whole Union had been reorganized. Not only are the Technocrats more human, their goals are geared more towards the protection of humanity from the horrors of the unknown. White Wolf did a really good job with this book. It succeeded in making a former faceless monolith into a living entity with a feel of humanity. The Technocracy tries to be the good-guys, but like with any group, there are always those who are in the gray areas. The Technocracy is not better or worse than the Traditions. They are just another group of mages who believe in science and reason.

The history of the Union was a fascinating read and the art is alright. The book has all the information you need to create a Technocratic agent along with info on a handful of procedures, cybernetics, and devices. The information on the various conventions is detailed enough so that the previous guides are not really needed, though they can still be helpful.

This book is a must for any fan of the Technocracy. It flows smoothly and really improves on the once monolithic and inhuman Union. It is perfect for players who want to play secret agents, cyborgs, deep space explorers, space marines, or any other modern or sci-fi character.

The book is charged with much source material, history, perspectives and how to run interesting Technocracy players and games. The weaknesses are more in the game mechanisms, which do not truly give away a Technocracy feeling.

Rotes and equipement are a weak part, but the greatest failure is that Technocrat 'mages' are still described in game mechanisms as typical mages fooling themselves in using technology. As such, techies are less powerful than other mages. Moreover, the usual White Wolf left-leaning anarchist worldview remains omnipresent, and the reader can't help getting the overall feeling Technocrats (except perhaps for Void Engineers) are the bad guys after all, however just their cause. This is something weak, more emphasis should have been given to portraying Tradition mages as terrorists and roving maniacs.

The first Chapters talk about who the Technocracy is. They aren't the monolith that the Tradition mages make them seem like. They are orginized enough to seem like a monolith but they aren't. Neither is the Technocracy people, their are people higher up in the Pyramid who are evil but most people are what would pass as normal people.

The next rules chapters are full of all types of treats. Tons of new backgrounds including Modifications (Cybernetics and Bioengineering), Patron and Requisitions. These all can lead to story ideas in themselves. Their are tons of technocratic rotes, that help a person to think of "magic" as anything but Magic. Tons of Devices, aka Talismans, are included with a wide variety of uses, and other odd "crunchy" statistical things. On the whole this book is very interesting and is almost as essential as the corebook if you want info on the other major faction of mages.