Rating: 
Summary: What a ripoff!
Review: This book is good only for explaining the metamagic feats more realistically.Beyond that, it's practically useless. I bought it because the books I bought for the druid and bard classes were so helpful, and I thought I'd get more help with my wizard/sorcerer characters. I should be so lucky. The book lacks many new spells that I think are particularly useful to lower-level players. The main reasons one would buy this book is for a more clear definition between a sorcerer and a wizard, and because it explains the metamagic feats in a more useful way than the players handbook does.
Rating: 
Summary: A geuinely useful sourcebook, though not perfect
Review: This book has some good new arcane spells, especially some low to mid level combat spells which add a great deal of potential power to your wizards. There are some interesting new familiars and several magic items, a few of which are useful, and several prestige classes. There is a much needed fighter / wizard prestige class which (eventualy) has the ability to wear armor while casting spells.
A few of the other prestige classes are either useful or at least intersting (like the "Alienist" class, a thinly veiled Lovecraft cultist type done up in an amusing manner, and the candle making class which uses candles like potions or scrolls). Some of the other prestige classes are downright silly and / or unusable unless you are running a very cartoonish campaign. Like most of the books in this series, this one has a lot of filler, including a fairly useless section on wizardly orders and an almost completly superfluous chapter all about a certain particular wizardly hideout. Overall though far from perfect, this is a suppliment which even the most demanding D20 player or GM should get some use out of. The new spells alone are worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of good, some bad
Review: I've only been playing D&D for two years now, and this is the first "Guidebook" I've bought, as the word "Guidebook" is misleading. It is more or less a bunch of new rules for (mainly) Sorcerors and Wizards. Here is what I think of each chapter: Chapter 1: Arcane Lore
This chapter has a whole bunch of stuff, but around half of it is only useful to DMs, and only in a limited way. The first half or so is about how to play a caster, tips on choosing spells, but some of it is stating the obvious (ex: "Sorcerors need to choose their spells carefully"). But most of this half of the chapter is useful. The rest of the chapter is about various arcane organizations, and is quite interesting to read, but probably only useful to DMs when planning a campaign. It also has a map of a Wizard's Keep, which IS useful, but seems more of a filler. The random peculiar items is funny though. This chapter also has some new familiars, which is nice. Chapter 2: Feats
Mostly a bunch of new Metamagic feats that are actually worth taking! Every wanted a fireball exploding in 4 10-foot columns. Take the Scult spell feat. Ever wanted an exploding iceball that electricutes people? Use Energy Substitution and Energy Admixture on a fireball. Very cool stuff here. Chapter 3: Prestige Classes
A lot of interesting Prestige classes here, I will probably end out playing all of them eventually except the Candle Caster (which is quite cool, but I'd rather stick with Scribe Scroll than taking up a whole 'nother class to do something only a bit better) and the Wayfarer Guide (I teleport enough people around in EverQuest). The Blood Magus is definately unbalanced, DMs beware if you allow this class. The Dragon Disciple is a very close second, though you won't be casting any higher level spells taking this class. Then the Pale Master follows Dragon Disciple in brokeness, getting Summon Undead as a supernatural ability AND natural armor! C'mon! Mindbender could also be considered broken, as could Mage of the Arcane Order (you basically gain access to every single arcane spell with this class). Some prestige classes are rather useless (Arcane Trickster, Spellsword), but would still be fun to play. Chapter 4: Tools of the Trade
A bunch of (useful) magic items that could not normally have been made before. Chapter 5: Spells
Yes. These are all great spells, and I've replaced my magic missile with Orb spells now. And finally the price. I bought the core rulebooks ...(I think the Monster Manual was more, I don't remember though). But they were a good deal in the first place ...but still I think these kind of book should at most have been less expensive, if not 5 or 6.
Rating: 
Summary: An okay book, but overpriced
Review: I'm a real D&D fanatic, so I'll buy ANYTHING that may have a good spell in it or a new prestige class. A few of the prestige classes in this book were worth a second look, but most of them were, I'm afraid, real space-fillers -- workable but bland and colorless. The new spells were worth the price of the book for me-- there aren't too many of them, but they fill some gaps in the spell lists and make playing a wizard or sorceror more satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: A definite buy
Review: To me, this book should be about metamagic feats, familiars, magic items and spells. Lots of spells. Unfortunately, most of the good spells went to the PHB, so you get the odd ones and "school fillers" in this book. Great for surprising a foe every once in while, but few are keepers.
The feats are particularly nice, especially Energy Admixture (adding another type of energy to a spell, such as say Sonic damage to a Fireball - a screaming fireball?).
The upgrade familiars are nice - its good to see the psuedodragon back, and presented in a balanced format.
The prestrige classes are a bit much (especially the Dragon Initiate), but in these books at least one tends to stand out as "kick butt" and all of them are interesting.
The information on magic schools and dwellings are mere filler and could have better been used for creative spell use, magic items or something more worthwile.
Unfortunately, there isn't much information in the book to differeniate between sorcerers and wizards, which the game really needs.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good.....
Review: Okay, liked 'Tome & Blood'. Let me start with what I liked about it. The prestige classes were very interesting, and seem to be fairly well balanced. My personal favorite is the Blood Magus. Really liked the 'Fun with Prestidigitation' section; it reads like a 'Dragon' article, and gave me some great ideas on how to use this under-appreciated spell. Some great new spells, too, like the spells allowing you to fix damage to constructs, although it's not clear whether they can be used on, say a simulacrum, which in the PH requires a set ritual, gold and time to repair. The sections on organizations were well done, and the sample wizard's home was intriguing. Overall a very good effort, and mostly worth the money. Things that kept T&B from being a '5'? Well, it's a bit pricey for the info you get. At fewer than 100 pages, and softcover to boot, it's one-third the pages at half the cost of, say, the PH or any of the other core rulebooks. I would have liked to see more spells--a lot more. There are a couple of points in T&B where it seems a little, well, padded, like they ran out of ideas but couldn't bring themselves to charge for that few pages. Overall, I recommend this book. It gives some breadth to your arcane spellcasters (some decent feats, too!), and really helps flesh them out.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing in it for me
Review: I hated this book. There weren't a lot of interesting things in there for me to explore. I mean, sure, Dragon Disciple, Acolyte of the Skin, Arcane Trickster, Blade Singer, and Blood Magus (especially blood magus) are good prestige classes , the rest blow! I mean, a spellsword? Oh my, you can cast spells through your sword! Big deal! Or the candle caster? That's the queerest prestige class I've ever seen in my life. The feats suck. I've never been one for metamagic feats, and that is the majority of the feats in there. The new spells aren't that great, either. The biggest plus was the familiars. I would love to have a shocker lizard or pseudodragon. Other people praise this book like it is a godsend. I personally don't prefer magic users, though I was one for a while because my party didn't have one. But now my friend, a bard, can cast a lot of spells, so I'm ditching my wizard for a rogue. That is probably the reason why I don't like the book. I'm not big on magic.
Rating:
Summary: Tome and Blood
Review: Tome and Blood is a great book for anyone wanting to add more detail and life to their sorceror or wizard. It is a must have for DM that enjoy anding new spells and aspects to PCs and NPCs. The reason I do not give this book 5 stars is because it lacked any, new real powerful spells.
Rating:
Summary: Title should be, "Tears of Blood"
Review: With the Wizards practice of keeping the core book prices low, and jacking up the optional books, I realized they titled it wrong. If you own the Forgotten Realms sourcebook, most of the information in TB is duplicate. There are a few interesting pieces, like half-dragon sorcerers becoming full dragons as part of a prestige class. But really, how often are you going to run across one? I sold my book within days of getting it to a fellow DM who collects the books. Archmages, circle magic, runecasting, all are mentioned in this book again. They probably just removed the Faerun references, and copied the section. I was extremely disappointed. It's made me leery enough that I now peruse any book I might purchase at a local bookstore before shelling out the cash. As unhappy as I am with this book, you may wonder why I gave it two stars. The book does have considerable value for those people who do not already own the Forgotten Realms Sourcebook. My guess is that with the popularity of FR, and since that book came out first, there are comparatively few people who will fail to purchase the FR book, at which point this one becomes redundant.
Rating: 
Summary: Excelent supplement, great concepts
Review: If you play a wizard or sorcerer, buy this book. If you have wizard or sorcerer players, buy this book. The main features of this book are :
Organizations of magic, like the bleak academy and the guildmages. Finally your wizard can have some sort of past and a home, not just an aimless wanderer.
New spells : a few dozen new spells. the best of which is the orbs, which are an excelent decent damage-inflicting spell for a level 1 spell, and the more powerful versions at level 4.
ITEM PRICES : Finally, the base formulas for making magic items, all laid out in simple, easy to understand formulas. No more asking for the DMG to look it up, or looking up a similar item and guessing.
METAMAGIC : Tons of new metamagic feats. Allows for much more customization. In conclusion, buy this book! I kind of expected it to have more spells, but the spells it does have make up for it.
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