Had several hours of backseat car journeying today and took the opportunity to read this one. I gave it as a gift to my ex before I actually read much of it myself and was fortunate to be treated to a reading aloud of the first chapter or so from her which left me in little doubt at the time that it wasn't really the best introductory book.
As a student of Gnosis myself, yes, I got a lot out of it, will read it again, and would highly recommend the book! I have however been questing for a Samael Aun Weor book that works as well as the wonderful "Karma Is Negotiable" in terms of diseminating the essential teachings to a contemporary audience.
My observations are that although it's a really great cover, great format and the perfect number of pages to give as an introduction to Gnosis to someone with a modern attention span, it's not really ideal for such a purpose due to it's unqualified use of terms like "elohim" and "aelohim" very early in the book. My ex was lost right away, despite me trying to explain the terms and I know she's not going to venture further after that initial hurdle as to her it may as well be gibberish, sadly.
As a primer on esoteric Gnostic Christianity, it's fairly ok, but I felt that if I handed this to one of my "conventional christian" friends the information and the way it's presented might not be enough to convince them to investigate further. Some parts are quite wooly and depend upon the reader being someone who will take the author as a definite authority whose word they are willing to take on trust.
That's my first impression from my reading today. I would like a book that spells it out better with more in the way of well argued "references". Fair enough, I know that Master Samael wrote it from the position of knowing the truth directly himself and therefore had no need to try and justify what he was saying, but I think the information on the true nature of Christianity on the gnosticteachings website and lectures is more powerful and potent as a tool for Gnostic evangelism than this particular slim volume.