I'm struggling with this review because there is so much good and bad going on at the same time.
The Good:
Gaetan Bloom is a very creative personality, and a lot of his material
uses out of the box thinking in both method and presentation. If there is no part of the book that
makes you stop and think I would be very surprised. One of the first effects is a flat piece of
paper that visually and magically folds itself into an origami hen and lays a real egg. Not the type
of thing I'm likely to perform myself, but I loved the originality and the "weirdness" of it!
This is Gaetan's life work, following a tradition of performers including Devant, Harbin and
Berglas who have, later in life, published an account of their careers and creations. Given the
calibre of creative genius that Bloom embodies, this is a set that I don't think any magician will
not be glad to own.
The Bad:
While there are many books that we gladly pay large
sums to own, and given that this is Bloom's life work and can probably be counted among them, there
are a few reasons why I think this set is over priced.
For starters, at 700 pages total
there really isn't any reason to have split it into two volumes. I might be wrong, but I think if it
were one large book it would have reduced printing costs and those savings could have helped kept
the price down a bit.
Secondly, and far more importantly, are the errors and omissions.
There are a handful of routines/effects where Bloom refers to an illustration that is missing!
There are routines where it feels like the explanations were glossed over haphazardly and are
thus difficult to make sense of. Some of the illustrations are difficult to decipher.
I'm
going to give the book 4 out of 5 stars. I was tempted to give it 3 because the illustration
omissions are almost inexcusable for the price being asked, but I think the quality and quantity of
the material makes this a book set worth owning. It would have been a perfect 5 had the price been
lower (I'd have been happy to pay $100) and the errors not been present.
Full Bloom
Report this review
