CARD FICTIONS by Pit Hartling (Seven performance pieces with an ORDINARY DECK)

I only have had this book for a day now (yes I read it all in a day). I haven't audience tested any of the routines. However, I want to get this review out of the way because I can't keep my fingers from typing the words. I need to let it out...
This is one of the best reads I have had on card magic in a long long time. I will break the review down into sections:

DIFFICULTY: For the intermediate to advanced students of card magic. I lean more toward advanced because two tricks (of the seven) require faro shuffles, whilst the rest need practice (finger flicking, riffle stacking, memorized deck (at least a partial one), zarrow shuffling and bottom dealing). This does not mean that the intermediate student should not pick this book up. Although Pit doesn't teach all the moves, after reading the routines, you will have enough motivation to learn them from other sources because his material is just so darn good.

QUALITY OF BOOK: This book comes with its own built in bookmark. It is cloth bound with beautiful indented writing on the front cover. 94 pages of high quality glossy paper makes this the best book produced by an author I have ever seen. Simply unbelievable workmanship.

ESSAYS: Inside there are two essays on Method, Style and the Performing Mode, as well as Inducing Challenges. Let me just say that if the book came with just these two essays I would have paid the asking price of $35. Excellent writings on what many magicians lack: not just doing tricking people but...striving for IMPOSSIBILITIES...and making people believe in an impossibility. There are little writings scattered throughout the introduction and within tricks that show just how much Pit is trying to make us think about how to make a mere effect, utterly impossible in the mind of the spectator. His writings on these aspects are similar in some ways to Darwin Ortiz' in Strong Magic. That should say enough about what I think about Pit's showmanship. There is also a cool gag about how to control the actions of someone (turning over his hand) without ever touching him and his feeling no resistance. It is a clever application used to described Pit's performance mode concepts.

TRICKS: Seven gems. I could write a lot in this section. I have read a lot of magic and mentalism in the past year. None come close to this thought provoking journey. Though most of the concepts used in his writings are not new, his effects are original in structure and presentation. I absolutely love his method for the common "Move a Card" theme...Unforgettable. His Colour Sense plot is genius utilizing excellent memorization techniques. His Triple Countdown will be the most talked about trick from the book because the effect is simply impossible. Finger Flicker takes an obvious concept and raises the bar so high that the routine once again screams impossible. That one is going to become a classic. His version of Triumph, while difficult, is one of the more convincing ones out there. His take on Paul Harris' Reflex (aka Whack your Pack) is even better than Harris' and teaches you a great spectator loading technique. Finally his Cincinnati Pit routine (stacking poker hands in ten seconds) is difficult (very Darwin Ortiz oriented) but worth learning because of the effect it can have on a spectator. Overall, none of the effects are fluff, all are worthy of careful study and will garner huge applauses if performed properly...GUARANTEED.

CREDITS: He footnotes every credit and gives a thorough Credit and Comments section at the end of each trick giving the reader more to think about as well as additional reading from some of the world's finest magicians...he takes many "theories" not "tricks" (the tricks contained in this book are original to Hartling) from Juan Tamariz, Paul Harris, Harry Lorayne, Ed Marlo, Dai Vernon, and Roberto Giobbi. He also gives a complete Bibliography at the end of the manuscript.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS: Like I stated above, this was one of the most thought provoking reads on card magic I have had ever. You know when you buy a magic book and the tricks are usually just re-workings of other effects? Or the tricks are convoluted and are good but not AMAZING. Well Pit provides original masterpieces in this book. Stuff that will make any audience stand up and applause. And you know those times when you buy a trick and wish the method was a little bit more ingenius. Well every method here will make you smile. They are not the "I could have thought of that" or "I can't believe that fooled me" methods...but rather "This guy is brilliant. I wouldn't have thought of that. I can't wait to try this out." Recently I have been looking into the mentalism aspect of our art and have always been drawn back into magic. Why? Because I love Cards. There I said it. I am not a mentalist. I am a magician, and at times...a mental magician. Cards will always be a part of my repertoire and while most mentalism books contain a section on cards, and seek to justify that chapter being there (cards are usually used as a form of trickery blah blah blah), I find myself going back to the great books of Marlo, Ortiz, Regal, Jennings, Hollingworth etc. However, I do have my fair share of what I call mental magic in my repertoire, that of Aronson, Osterlind, some of Regal's other works, and now Pit Hartling. While there are only card effects in this book, to me most have a mental theme. The way the tricks are structured and presented truly engage the audience in believing the impossible and getting inside their mind. I can only look forward to future works from Mr. Hartling. I write this review only to let others know of the true value of this wonderful work. At $35 it is the biggest steal I have seen for a magic book. I hope not many people buy these works so that only a select few people will be performing Pit's miracles. This will be a classic book that will be very hard to find in the future. Once it goes out of print and commands $200 on ebay, I'll also be a very happy guy. Please practice before you go out and show anyone these tricks. Bravo Mr. Hartling...Bravo.

OVERALL RATING: Highly Recommended. Must Buy. A+++

Wow...you just sucked the last $35.00 out of me...lol
Thanks for the great review...I'm definetely going to be busy in the next couple of weeks...