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"For me, the strongest testimony to the caliber of Paul's material is that after some fifteen years, many of his routines (and variations thereof) still remain firmly entrenched in the bedrock of my repertoire. Routines such as Reset, Las Vegas split, Double Monte, A Subtle Poker Move, Quarter Caper, Fantasy Aces, Uncanny, Open Revelation, Las Vegas Leaper, and A Simple Switch -- Just to name a few."
– Gregory Wilson
 "Well, Ellusionist just opened their new store and stocked it with some great stuff, not the least of which is The Art of Astonishment.
What can I say about AoA? Paul Harris is a genius. The AoA come in three volumes, containing 222 effects. I'd say about 220 are good enough to make it into the working repertoire of a professional, paid magician.
A couple of my favorites in the AoA:
Recap:
You vanish and appear a pen and its cap. Stunning beginning, stunning ending. My only peeve with the explanation here is the lack thereof for the strike vanish.
Anything Deck:
The effect is basically you do a crappy effect.... and then you blow away your spectators by spelling out ANY word they can think of. Deep Astonishment is cleaner, but the Anything Deck will still ASTONISH spectators.
ReSet:
4 jacks, 4 aces. You count out the aces, and put them down. You show the jacks, then one by one turn them to aces. You hit the 'reset button' and switch em back. You start and end clean. The explanation is hard to follow, but with a little work you'll get it... and love it.
Cros-Twist:
You sandwich a face down joker between two aces. You wave your hand and the joker turns face up. The audience is amazed, but you state it "didn't work." You try again. Instead of turning over the joker turns red.
Those are the effects I currently use, pretty much every day. They are also some of the most popular. There are a LOT of hidden gems in the AoA I'm currently working on. (Double Monte, Machine Gun Aces, and Giant Killer Coin)
The AoA is also just a plain good read. The conversations from the edge have some awesome ideas Paul hasn't quite polished into finished effects, one of which I'm currently working on.
So, to sum up, get the Art of Astonishment. I'm not the first and I certainly won't be the last to say I think every single magician should own the AoA - and that's saying a lot, because every magician is different.
The only cons with this book is the explanations are sometimes a little hard to follow. Paul is great at creating effects, but he isn't the best at explaining them. So yes, occasionally it will take some time before you understand exactly what's going on. (It was two days before I had any idea what the hell was going on in Re-Set.) However, every effect is explained to the point where your can learn it. Sometimes it will take a little longer than you want. That's a pity... but I assure you it will be more than worth it.
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– Mike Lesiuk
"Sooner or later you're going to have to buy these books. Very highly recommended!"
– Michael Close
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