I can't recommend this highly enough. In fact, anything written by Aronson is a must-buy. His card
thinking is so original and creative, it's a joy to read and discover. In this book, there are
nearly 300 pages worth of card effects that are consistently well-designed, well-explained, and
well-illustrated.
There is a wide variety of material as well... some self-working effects,
some that rely on stacks, some that utilize some sleights... but nothing extraordinarily difficult.
Aronson's work is based on subtlety and psychology, not knuckle-busting showmanship.
If I
had to nitpick, I'd say that I could do without the "spelling" effects. Some people like these,
some hate them... I'm in the latter camp. But you're never going to find a book of this size where
you love everything.
I also think the 90+ pages devoted to a single technique, "Undue
Influence", might be overkill. It IS a really nice, deceptive technique that can even fool the
performer, but I don't know if it was necessary to cover so many variations of effects that use it.
It's not as if you'd ever want to do more than one in a single routine, and it does make for
repetitive reading.
But like I said, these are nitpicks. There is so much useful material
in here, any card worker would benefit greatly from owning this.
