The Royal Road to Card Magic

I'm ashamed to admit that this wasn't the first card trick book I ever bought. This book walks you through every amateur sleight of hand any card-magician-to-be could ever hope to learn with a bounty of helpful illustrations, along with very deep text. While some of it is a little difficult to wade through, it is well worth the effort. The tricks, with rare exception, are excellent, and the way in which they are taught is very user-friendly. Instead of teaching seven or eight sleights of hand at once, this book teaches you one, then a few tricks using that sleight. Then it teaches you another, and then some more tricks.
If you're just looking into card magic for the very first time, or are an advanced magician, this book will prove to be both fun and informative - a must have.

This review is for all those who have an interest in card magic yet cannot navigate the confusing array of titles that are available. This book is indispensable! If you, like me, are a novice card magician then this is the place to start. If you buy this book and read it carefully then I promise you by the time you have read even the first few chapters you will be able to amaze anyone with a pack of cards. Not only is there a wealth of information here, the book is also extremely well written; I couldn't put it down! The book contains every basic false shuffle, cut, slight, and flourish that you will need to make significant progress in card magic. Within months I had developed a convincing card routine and was delighting people with my 'magical' abilities. If you choose this book then you will be on the way to doing the same.

I recently got back into practicing card magic and this was the only book I had. Looking around at what is out at the market I cannot really see a better book to start with. Each chapter is well constructed with easy to follow instructions. I cannot really fault the book. Though it was written a fair while ago it is still applicable to magic today. If there was one fault with the book I would say that you will find that you work your way through the book quite easily and all of a sudden you come across the pass which you would expect to be at the end of the book due to the nature of its difficulty. However this is only a minor point and one which does not merit giving the book a score lower than 5. If you are interested in buying a book on card magic buy this book.

Whatever you are, an advanced magician or just a beginner, this book was written for you, even if you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about card magic. This is a rare kind of book, I mean, no matter how skilfull you are you'll be interested to read every word. For the beginner, you'll learn the correct way to execute sleights which will make you able to do tricks you never thought you'd be able to do. For the advanced magician, this book is a classic, reading it will enable you to correct possible mistakes you do when executing a sleight, improving your presentation. Simply excellent.

The book covers basic card control, the glide, the glimpse, the key card, the palm, the backslip, false shuffles and cuts, the double lift, the pass, reverses, the classic force, top and bottom changes and use of arrangements. It also contains 76 tricks, of which about 25% are excellent, 50% are unremarkable, and 25% are weak. You'll get more than enough usable material, including many classics of card magic.
This book itself is rightly regarded as a classic of magic. However much of the suggested patter is overly formal, reflecting the style of the late 1940's, when it was written. There are illustrations, but no photographs.
The book is aimed at complete beginners, but provides material that would be of use to anyone interested in card magic.

I'm convinced so far that this is the best starter book for card magic. It is very thorough and full of tricks. The tricks in the book are complete, unlike other books I've read that only contain the sleight, or only the patter, the tricks in here explain everything perfectly. The only downside of the book is that to be more helpful it could contain more illustrations. Every now and again I don't understand the written explanation of what I am to do, but I just find a video of it and it always turns out that I was doing it right anyway. Regardless, the amount of information in here is invaluable.

IF there is any book that you want to read that is on magic, "The Royal Road to Card Magic" is the book to get. It is the first book you should buy and has excellent techniques to teach you great ways to fake shuffle and many other things. It also has cool card tricks.

The book itself is excellent, though, I saw a review that was a bit mistaken. It said to get the DVD set instead... which is partially incorrect. If you're truly interested in learning and perfecting, get _both_. The DVD set corrects some of the mistakes in the book, as well as offers different, more effective methods of some of the tricks.

The book is surely one of the classics in magic, and I'll have mine until the day I die. It's _well_ worth the purchase... and you might consider getting the 5-disc DVD with it. (Not all tricks in the book are covered on the DVD).

This was one of the first magic books given to me. This (along with Expert Card Technique, the four Dai Vernon booklets, Greater Magic and the Vernon Revelations book) was the basis for my study of Card Magic. Unfortunately, card magic is not a skill that can be learned by reading alone and these books only show you the basic structure. Find someone who understands card technique and take some lessons. Then find a rehersal audience (bar magic is good for this) until the timing, patter, control etc. are complete. This book is a great companion for learning.

This book is definately one you should consider getting - whether you've never touched a deck before or you know a few card tricks, this book is great.
Even though this book was writtin in the 50's, it's content is unbeatable - sometimes the words are outdated, but this book is DEEP. You will have a new respect for card conjuring after just reading the Introduction, which is just as good as the rest of the book.
Great book - you MUST READ it if you want to get anything out of it though -- don't just skim through.

This is the must have classic of card magic. I bought this book in 1978 and studied it religiously. This is the book to have if you are serious about mastering the skills of card magic that will make others beleive that you have real powers. This book takes you through all the basics of card control and helps you apply them to the tricks that will astound your audience and make them believe that you are a real master of the art of card magic. This is the book to get and master.

The book is aptly named, as it provides a path for the aspiring card magician to follow. It moves in detailed instruction through simple basics on to more complex maneuvers, with each chapter building on what you've already learned. It provides a number of creative tricks, but more importantly, it equips you with the pieces you need to construct your own.

Best introductory/intermediate book to card magic ..
Book I say, I think for me at least the DVD/videos out there that display actual sleights are a better tool.
RRTCM has a few nice tricks in it also some that are older than the trees but they still amaze most laymen.
Once you get past the old trappings, the tricks stand the test of time .

This book is great for learning different card handling and shuffling techniques, however it can be a little tuff to follow sometimes. If you dont already have a basic understanding of how to handle cards you might want to start with a video first. It's usually a bit easier to learn when you can actually see whats going on. A side from all that, this is a really good book.

Royal Road to Card Magic is a reprint of a classic card conjuring text. The great thing about this book is the ingenious way Hugard and Braue teach you a card sleight and then teach you a card effect using that sleight. An excellent old card conjuring book that will stand the test of time. Highly recommended.

The basic treatise on card magic. Though somewhat outdated, this is still the fundamental course on card sleights. Pretty good tricks in here too. Sound learning principles: learn sleight, learn tricks using the sleight, only then move on to next sleight. As this is inexpensive every magician ought to have this in his library, if only as a reference work.

this book is great! just read it in order without skipping around in the book and u will be able to amaze everyone with card magic on the first day! i've only read through 3/4 of the book and i already know more card ricks than i can remember! easy to learn, easy to preform, near impossible to see how you did it! great way to break the ice or spice up a boring gathering. just make sure to bring a pack of brand new un-opened cards with you so people believe you are not using a trick deck!

The information presented in "The Royal Road to Card Magic" is very good, and, if followed as intended, should provide an excellent set of skills necessary for effective performance of card magic. The writing style is dated, however, which makes the book less enjoyable to read than you may wish. Worse, though, is the poor conversion to a digital book. Often words are misspelled, such as the frequently-occurring "fight hand" instead of "right hand." There are several places in the book where a sentence, paragraph or portion of a paragraph is out of sequence on a page, so it takes some careful reading and deductive reasoning to determine what the authors actually wrote. This can get very frustrating when you are trying to understand a complex series of instructions which have been jumbled in the digitization process. Does no one edit or proof-read these digital books before they are published?