When Barry Bonds arrived at the San Francisco Giants' spring training camp in 1999, he had a new look and would soon acquire a new moniker. The formerly wiry outfielder now had an enlarged, rock-solid upper physique, earning him the nickname "The Incredible Hulk" around the clubhouse. In Game of Shadows, the San Francisco Chronicle reporters who first implicated Bonds in the BALCO steroids scandal supply further details with the aid of previously secret grand jury testimony and other court documents.

Although Game of Shadows reprises much of the information contained in the authors' San Francisco Chronicle articles and raises many of the same issues that Howard Bryant's impressive 2005 book, Juicing the Game, did, it remains necessary reading for anyone concerned with the steroids era in baseball and track and field and its fallout on sports history.
— The New York Times

"A sober, skillful and utterly damning account of not just the Bonds fiasco but the pervasive influence of steroids in sports."—Los Angeles Times

"Devastating. . . . groundbreaking. . . . Necessary reading for anyone concerned with the steroids era in baseball and track and field and its fallout on sports history."—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"A compelling portrait of conspiracy. . . . Fascinating."—The Boston Globe

"Scorching. . . . A testament to baseball’s failure."—Newsweek

"Superb. . . . Important and disturbing."—San Francisco Chronicle

"The evidence is detailed, damning, and overwhelming. . . . It’s a growing bonfire of controversy. This book is one of the matches."—The Philadelphia Inquirer

"[Fainaru-Wada and Williams] have got the goods and they reveal them methodically. Everything is well-sourced and meticulously explicated."—Chicago Tribune

“A shocking exposé of the seedy side of pro sports that underscores just how easy it is to cheat.”—Entertainment Weekly