Ansology Deluxe Edition

Now available for pre-order! Only 75 examples of this deluxe edition have been produced. Order now to avoid disappointment.

This is a collection of mentalism, mental magic, and card effects from the mind of Max Maven. In its pages, over 80 effects from his canon are explained in his clear, unmistakable voice.

Readers will learn: 

• Without gimmicks or props, to name a thought-of travel destination; the effect can even be performed over the phone ("Contimental")
• A multi-phase gambling routine ("Zen Poker") that ends with the divination of a freely thought-of card
• How to divine each card in a freely chosen poker hand ("The Centrifugal Variations") 
• An expanded presentation for the Ultra Mental Deck that reveals a pair of freely selected cards ("TWOULTRA")
  
• From an ungimmicked deck, under test conditions, how to stop a spectator's deal "on impulse" at a first selection, then name the second selection aloud ("The Hawk") 

As Jamy Ian Swiss writes in his introduction, effects in Ansology are "often multilayered to deliver extremely deceptive effects with a minimum of sleight of hand and a maximum of devious thinking." 

In total, the work teaches a complete repertoire's worth of material (and then some), all with a mental flair. Coincidence effects are here, along with predictions of many kinds, divinations, design duplications, and more. Several tricks play on bizarre or mystic themes. Most effects rely on well-disguised methods, simple props, and no sleights whatsoever. 

Ansology's pages collect the updated and revised texts of seven publications written and published over a ten year span, collectively known as the "Lisp" series: Thunday, Thequal, Amperthand, Doth, Fifth, Thavant, and Thabbatical.

Each copy of Ansology also includes the special astrological forecast booklet for "Zodiagnostic," a clean, clear, easy-to-do book test using astrological symbols. The spectator opens to a page, and you read his mind. It's that straightforward; there's no forcing. This effect alone could easily stand on its own as a marketed product. 

Clothbound • 261 Pages • Illustrated by Tony Dunn • With an introduction by Jamy Ian Swiss • First edition, published in 2026. 

Each deluxe edition is housed in a silk-screened slipcase; signed and numbered by the publisher, illustrator, author of the introduction, and graphic designer; and is from an edition limited to 75 (not 200, 300, or more).

Purchasers of this deluxe edition will also receive Maven's never-before offered monograph A Brief History of Book Tests, and a small promotional item from his storied career. 

Please note: books ship in late September, 2026.