CARDBOARD The Book

Ren

REVIEW PHILOSOPHY
I know doing honest review is difficult, cos no inventor/creator like critical review. However, as the person who reviews the product, I think I bare the responsibility to make the most honest review to the readers.
I have more than thousand of book and thousand of video and products, thus I hope my opinion can help you to make a better judgement.
I will only judge based on what my real feeling about the product, but not consider whether it is made by famous magician.

WHAT YOU GET?
You will get a 103 pages in 6 x 9 perfect bound format. The book comes with 58 black & white pictures.
The book is not those large magic books we’ve seen these days. Instead, it’s relatively small and thin.

QUALITY OF THE BOOK
The book quality per se is not particular impressing. As I said above, it’s a small book.
There are some obvious layout problems but it doesn’t affect reading.

HOW MANY TRICKS? WHAT ARE THEY?
8 tricks + 1 hidden trick are included. 1 move with 2 variations. And a control which takes up 20 pages of the book. And a 2-page article about theory
3 of the tricks need table to perform and others can be done in-hand.

QUALITY OF THE TRICKS
Patrick Redford is an accomplished magician and creator. As a result, his materials do not disappoint me.
The tricks in the book are easy-to-do and practical. In fact, all effects could be done with real audience.
There is no pip dream or difficult moves to master.

To judge a book or a trick, I usually count on the fact that if there is something surprising for me. In other words, they could be clever move, or subtlety which I can employ in other tricks.
In that sense, there are 3 places in the book which I smile upon reading it. But to be honest, the tricks in the book are not super super super magical. Well, there are some great tricks of course, but they don't go beyond my expectation (maybe I set a too high standard for Mr. Redford’s material).

Mr. Redford has provided some interesting presentation in the book, which I value much.

Now, I will rate the things individually.

* Stop, Stop. (An Introduction): 8/10
* Double Thought (A.C.A.A.N.): 8/10
* I.D.I.M: 8/10
* Zombie Collectors: 8/10
* Haystack: 6/10
* Ternion Unplugged: 6/10
* The Super Card: 9/10
* The Decurtait Controls: 5/10
* Stack Safe Decurtait Control: 5/10
* Decurtait Applications: 3/10
* Prophesy Placement: 7/10
* What's the Catch?: 7/10
* Fishman's No Lap Cover Switch: 9/10
* Four Card Monte: 9/10
* Poker Triumph: 6/10
* Weight, Weight...Don't Tell Me!: 7/10
* King Kong Syndrome: 7/10

PROS ABOUT THE BOOK
1. Clear credits are given. So readers can easily refer to other material.
2. Full scripts are given
3. Effects are practical and easy. Most of them are impromptu.

CONS ABOUT THE BOOK
1. Some parts of the book are hard-to-read.
2. Some mistakes in the book.
3. A particular control (and not impressing one, in my opinion) takes 20 pages (1/5 of the book!)

FINAL VERDICT
If you are a card guy, you can find something interesting for sure. The tricks are decent and I can see they can draw huge reaction if done right.
I will re-read some tricks of the book, but as an avid reader of magic books, I don’t see I will refer to this book often. That being said, it doesn’t mean it’s not an interesting book in itself.
Here is my final verdict of the book.

Book Quality: 5/10
Effectiveness of Tricks: 7/10
Practical: 9/10
Creativity: 6/10
Cost Performance: 5/10
Final Score: 6.5/10