Random I-Tunes Song of The Moment: Battery by Metallica
By the time you finish reading this e-book, you (like I) will likely need to recharge your mental Battery (thank you Metallica). Speaking as one who has written a similar e-book on a similarly complicated concept, I know what a drag it can be to make a manuscript like this a) readable (i.e., something that makes sense), b) not dry (i.e., not dry) and c) a worthwhile contribution to the magic fraternity. John Hostler has succeeded on all three fronts. Though front "a" (readability) was difficult, with deck in hand and rereading a paragraph a time or two, the book is very manageable.
The Triskadequadra principle is a close cousin to the Gilbreath family and a distant relative to the Miraskill family. Basically for the slim price of $14 bones you get a brief history of the influencers, predecessors and relatives of the Triskadequadra principle. Following that comes a pretty heavy and intricate description of the concept itself. Hold on to your deck when you read this one, literally and (if there's a metaphor there) metaphorically too. Read through this one a time or two, and at least once with deck in hand.
However, the good news is that you actually don't have to understand it to use it. Further good news: if you want to understand it (weirdo) then you'll be able to after reading the aforementioned section with the aforementioned deck in the aforementioned hand. Finally, after this, you are treated to 4 effects and 2 "bar bits" to which you can apply this principle. This book only scratches the surface of what you can do with the concept. Like it's relatives mentioned above it has its pros and cons. Different things for different situations.
The principle is very clever and very well disguised and could certainly be applied (as John mentions) to much more than just a deck of cards. That said, with this principle you can have the deck cut and shuffled by the spectator yet it still remains in a controlled condition (like it's relatives). However, it has a couple of sneaky advantages that its family does not. I'll leave those surprises for when you decide to not order a pizza and order this ebook instead. You'll still have enough money left over to buy me a 64 ouncer of Diet Dr. Pepper as a thank you for me telling you about this ebook.
The book is well written, well priced, contains a very cool and extremely versatile principle and should be in the arsenal or at least think tank of every performer who uses playing cards.
Final Verdict:
4.5 Stars with a Stone Status of GEM!