[Smeazel]

Good review, but I have one minor comment: The karkadann? That you mentioned as an example of a "Pure D&D" monster with "no real roots in the natural world, folklore, or fantasy literature"? Actually is from folklore. Arabic folklore, specifically. Go ahead and Google it; you'll find tons of references. Of course, that's not to say the book necessarily handled it well, and maybe they ignored its folkloric roots and treated it as just another D&D-type monster, but it does actually come from folklore.

Anyway, I'm nitpicking, but I just wanted to point that out. Otherwise, like I said, good review. I don't know that I'm ever going to play OSRIC (I'm old enough to have played lots of first-edition D&D back in the day, but that doesn't mean I'm itching to go back to it), but the review kind of makes me want to get this book anyway. Then again, I've always had a fondness for monster books...