A close friend of Ascanio, Jesús Etcheverry had in his possession the unpublished manuscript which was originally titled "The Structural Conception of Magic". After Ascanio's death in 1997 he began work on editing and rewriting the manuscript so that it could finally be released. Gathering information from numerous sources, (published and unpublished) and with the help of Ascanio's many friends and colleagues Jesús was able to finally get Ascanio's work published for magicians all over the world. What will eventually become a three-volume set, the first volume is now available, and deals primarily with theoretical work. The later volumes will consist of effects that highlight and showcase Ascanio's brilliant thinking.
The first volume includes:
* The Structural Conception of Magic:
o Technique
o Construction
o Cover
o Presentation
o How to Study Magic
* Ascanio's Previously Unpublished Essays
o Thoughts on Creativity
o Theory Notebook of 1970
* His Classic Articles on Theory
o Conception of the Magical Atmosphere
o Analysis of a Trick
o On Misdirection
o The Fundamentals of Timing
o Know Yourself
o The Psychology of Palming
* The Interviews
o Interview with a Genius of Magic, by Juan Tamariz
o A Biographical Interview and My Character, by Docampo
* Three Juicy Conversations
o Arturo and Juan Chat
* An Essay by Aurelio Paviato
Any magician, beginner or pro, owes it to himself to pick this book up and read it. Not once, not twice, but as many times as possible. Absorption of this material will take time, but as a magician the benefits that you will gain are countless. The 30 page section titled "How to Study Magic" is something that needs to be read by everyone, whether you think you need to read it or not. Where to study, what to study and even HOW to study are all broken down and analyzed at length so that you are able to discover which avenues provide the best results for you.
I received this book a month or so ago in eager anticipation having just learned the Mercury trick (which uses an Ascanio Spread) and I haven't been disappointed. Available for $57.50 from Ellusionist (and probably other places as well) it is horrendously overpriced but definitely a valuable book to have in your magic library.
The book is awkward in a sense that most of the stuff will be obvious or second nature to a more experienced performer, but while the contents are absolute gold to a beginner I don't think most beginners care to consider things like the philosophy and theoretical considerations of magic. I guess that's their loss.
Covering a number of important topics like presentation, cover, misdirection, timing and performance, the book is very much a book where you don't go to learn new tricks but rather to find gold nuggets of info that you can use to make all your tricks even more powerful. Though much of the book focuses on the non-technique aspects of magic, the few times he mentions technique (like the lecture on the psychology of palming a card) contain some excellent material.
Overall I really like the book and feel that in depth study of it will reap tremendous rewards. For the content itself I'm tempted to give it a 10/10. However, the high price and slightly tedious writing style brings it down to a 9/10 overall. Still, definitely worth buying if the price isn't a huge obstacle for you.