Many cardmen immediately disregard mathematical based tricks, classifying them as “boring” or “too complicated.” As a overarching rule, these characterizations of mathematical magic are untrue (although we have all witnessed our fair share of dull card tricks). Anyone who has seen Steve Beam perform or has read his popular Semi-Automatic Card Tricks series can attest to the strength of math-based material when performed by a capable magician.

As with tricks made possible through sleight-of-hand, effects based on mathematics must be careflly crafted and honed to the point where a lay audience will be entertained by them. After all, that’s the result we’re after. How we get there, of course, should be invisible to the audience anyway, right? So, it’s up to each individual to look at ALL of the tool’s in his toolbox and decide which ones should be used to accomplish this end goal.

I say all this as an introduction to this review, because it’s important that you understand that I’m not automatically opposed to mathematical material. In fact, I’m highly interested in it. I taught high school math for three years and have even developed a show for students that uses exclusively mathematical material. So, when I heard about Werner Miller’s series of Enigmaths eBooks, I was actually excited to dive into them.

Unfortunately, I was left feeling underwhelmed. An overall description of the effects in these books might be this: if you take a certain number of cards, apply a specific shuffle to them, deal them into a certain number of piles, and spell a specific set of words, the chosen card will appear. There are many variations of this theme. That isn’t to say that all of the tricks are bad, but this is a collection of MANY such items. Even if you enjoy this type of thing, you’ll probably just want one or two versions in your repertoire.

The audience of magician’s who are interested in these types of tricks is small. The audience of laymen who are willing to SIT THROUGH these types of tricks is even smaller. On a positive note, the tricks are all very simple to execute. There is really no sleight of hand involved. Besides dealing the cards, knowing how to perform a few simple shuffles (Klondyke, Reverse Faro, Monge, etc) is all that’s required. Also, there were certainly some interesting and clever tricks described. I just don’t think I found any that I wanted to add to my performing arsenal.

In Peter Duffie’s review of Werner’s eBooks in MAGIC Magazine, he mentioned “I love playing with mathematical principles, even if the end result is a monstrosity.” If this describes your magical interests, then you may well be pleased with the material contained in these pages. For most of us, however, I recommend you spend your money elsewhere.

- Available for $15 each from Lybrary.com

For more in-depth magic reviews, please visit my magic blog: http://www.calebwilesmagic.com/?cat=3

Caleb