I thought the Mage Wars storyline was too much, and not really necessary. It's still a good book though, and has many plot lines for any Blackmoor campaign.

Whether you treat the Cabal as good or evil will make a big difference in the campaign though, so be warned.

Yepp, my thoughts exactly.

The storyline is not balanced against the setting at all.

Yet, for a campaign solely based on the d20 material, it might work somehow.

Its not so bad, but lacking in specifics as to how the events relate to specific locations in the North as well as the general timeline.

There are some good ideas in there though. Dustin also explained the background for some of the new ideas in this book in his Q&A thread.

-Havard