I was expecting a "Short History of Palladium Games" - as mentioned on the cover. Instead we mostly get short review sketches for the different game lines from Palladium, with chapters like "Dumb Superpowers" which just lists random superpowers from Palladium games. I'd get more information on the history out of most forum threads on Palladium Games.

Even the infamous "Crisis of Treachery" is only mentioned in a half sentence.

If I remember correctly, I found this while looking up what the controversy was with BESM, after hearing about it from a recent rpg.net thread on two individuals tied to the industry that had landed themselves in some hot water recently.

The author wrote Small Company Big Mess which covered this, but having purchased some Palladium Books (PB) books back in the late 90s/early 00s, I opted to pick up the author's All That Glitters is Palladium first, since I had read through the books and had a basic understanding already of their questionable standing in the industry, and would be able to judge how much bias the author has (which would determine if I could trust their BESM overview).

At 24 pages, with a number of illustrations (mostly small) and a fairly large font, All That Glitters is a very quick read, going over PBs history in the industry. While not matching Designers & Dragons overviews, the personal perspective of someone who was (based upon what they purchased and having been published in The Rifter) a fan of the system and company, made for a very interesting read.

They've picked out a few of the bits in the PB library they find funny and made lists out of them, but I personally didn't find them harsh.

At about $2 (less during the Christmas in July sale I picked it up during), I absolutely got my money's worth.