Reviewing this pack I enter into the realm of my pet aversion: decks that, for the purpose of economic gain, do their best to destroy Pamela Colman Smith's line art from the original 1909 Waite-Smith tarot. We have here an example of the worst, one that even overrides the wishy-washy recoloring of Hanson-Robert's "Universal Tarot" from 1991, which it reminds me a bit of. A lot of important details in the illustrations are removed or changed, the figures' facial expressions are stereotypes, for example, "Death" appears to be grinning and "The Devil" has apparently put on a rubber mask to scare off children. The stern and powerful "Emperor" has been turned into a cozy Father Christmas, while the wise and mature High Priestess has been substituted with a dressed up frightened teenager.

The full title of the deck is "Radiant Rider-Waite Tarot". Even with my best intentions, I can not see in which way this deck is radiant (well, maybe I have an idea, but I'll leave that to the fantasy of the reader to speculate). By the way, this review gives me the opportunity to say, that the early versions of this tarot deck were not called "Rider-Waite". The first British publisher, William Rider, never attached his name to it; he called it plainly "Tarot Deck" in his advertising and on the boxes. The name "Rider-Waite" is entirely a US Games Systems Inc. invention, dating back no longer than 1972.

In the accompanying booklet, written by Stuart R. Kaplan himself, he says "...Any Tarot reader, be they a serious scholar or a person dabbling into the occult, will benefit from Waite's insight and keen perception...". I regretfully must say, that this current and distorted edition does in no way reflect Waite's intentions with his deck nor does it do justice to Pamela Colman Smith's art. The booklet mentions that the deck was "recolored" by a "Virginijus Poshkus" (!), but who the mastermind behind this misconception really is, is not obvious. Anyway, the deck is not only "recolored" but redrawn in a way that Pamela Colman Smith's original line art has completely disappeared.

The pack is of USGS's usual good cardboard- and printing quality, likewise is the box the usual simple but well-functioning slipcase type.