The Royal Road to Card Magic

As a beginner magician, I could not be happier that I have found this book. When one first begins his journey into prestidigitation, it is normal to be completely overwhelmed with the mass of sources that claim to teach you the magic you need. The latest culprit of this are the videos that make the promise of mastery of a particular trick within X minutes of watching. RRTCM takes this premise, and completely negates it, despite having been written much prior to the thought of such an idea. Hugard & Braue dispense of the notion that a good magician is one who knows a thousand tricks, for a thousand tricks equate none if you cannot perform them correctly. Each chapter introduces a feature of card handling, whether it be shuffles (overhand, riffle, hindu), flourishes, passes, glimpses, etc. Then, at the end of the chapter, the authors provide a handful of tricks that are performed due to that certain sleight you just learned. The authors instruct you to read the book in order, making sure not to rush ahead, almost as if you were studying for a college class. If you take this approach, it will seem dull at first, but it will make you a better magician, I promise you. To sum it all up, there is a reason this is called the Bible of Card Magic. Whether you're new to the field of card magic, or a seasoned veteran, this book should be the first in your library.

Classical work. You progress from the very basics through advanced techniques. Explanations and images work well together to ensure proper form and technique

While "The Royal Road" may be neither royal nor a road, it is an excellent book for beginning and intermediate magicians. It covers a wide variety of both techniques and tricks, and is highly recommended for every magician's library. As much as I enjoy my Kindle, this is one book I wish I'd purchased in "hard copy", to be able to pass on to my granddaughter.

I am going to start this review explaining why I only gave it 4 stars. The Kindle edition was full of typos which made it difficult (and in one case impossible) to learn the tricks. Otherwise it is a great book which will give you a great grasp on beginner techniques and tricks which are fun to learn and perform. I got a lot out of reading it and am now ready to get some more intermediate skills. I recommend that use youtube to get examples of any trick or technique you can't quite follow with the in book descriptions. I did, then I reread the trick and it made perfect sense. very helpful.

Highly recommend. The number one go to book for learning card magic technique. If followed in order, one will have enough material to buld an impressive routine at the end of the book, though Each section teaches technique then tricks with those learned techniques to apply and lock that learned technique in to memory for future tricks. There's a reason this book is the number one mentioned book for learning card magic. The material within its pages will do one well as you progress. The key with this book as well as any other is Practice. But even though this was written in the 50's it is still THE BEST starting point to learn. Get this book, you will not regret it.

This book is awesome! It teaches you so many great card tricks and flourishes, and although it has examples of things to say and how to go about performing tricks, it encourages you to make up your own tricks as well as routines and dialogue. Also the price is very reasonable, making this book a very valuable asset when learning how to do card magic!

I will start by saying I have zero experience with card tricks. This book was great to introduce me to some terms and basic principles. I only gave it 3 stars because some tricks are very hard to understand based on the descriptions. I know a book can only do so much, but I had to use youtube a lot. Then I ended up just using YouTube all together because it was more simple. Overall, great resource to tell you how to get started

For learning card magic, this book is simply the best. I've studied it for about 40 years. All the necessary sleights for card magic are explained. (False deals excluded). The tricks that are explained are very good. If you can't learn to entertain an audience with card magic with the material from this book, try another hobby.