Magic and 'science' combined brilliantly
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The author of this fabulous novel is unfairly pigeonholed as a fantasy/SF writer. The writing is of the highest quality and the atmosphere and obsessions of the magicians' lives is second to none. The fantasy, or rather fantastic, element in the second half does hint of melodrama, but the twists and turns and subsequent outcome offers a more interesting experience. Highly recommended.
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Excellent holiday reading
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I was worried when I started reading that having already watched the film I would have ruined the book. But I was pleasantly surprised. As I already knew the outcome of the story from the film it was fascinating to see how Priest drops hints alludig towards it throughout the book. I particularly enjoyed the aspects of the story which were not present in the film for example a lot more depth and background to the character of Angier. This book is an excellent read, whether you have seen the film or not. I would say that this is one of the rare cases in which the film is just as good as the book, so go watch the film, and then read the book!
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Save Your Time and See the Movie
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As someone with an interest in the adaptation of books and stories into films, I often read a book and then watch the movie or movies to see how various screenwriters have reshaped the material. In this instance, seeing the movie pushed me to finally read the book that had been sitting on my shelf for two years. One always hates to be a heretic, but this is one of the very rare cases where the movie improves on the original.
The premise of this World Fantasy Award-winning novel is certainly an intriguing one: two English magicians of the Victorian era, Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier, engage in a lifelong rivalry to outperform each other, a rivalry which at times leads to life-threatening sabotage. Their story is told partially from the modern perspective of their great-grandchildren, but mainly through their own diary entries. The narrative framework is the first area in which the film is a vast improvement. The modern storyline serves almost no purpose and the filmmakers wisely jettisoned it. Similarly, the diary entries are entirely unconvincing as Victorian documents, and play a much-subdued role in the film.
However, the main problem of the book is that the feud is never given much of a basis -- in other word, there are no stakes. The one fairly egregious act early on is done by Borden to Angier, but when Angier eventually turns the other cheek, Borden keeps at it. Indeed, the feud seems to periodically die off, only to inexplicably flare up again over the course of twenty years! The filmmakers recognized this problem and came up with a much more convincing back story to explain the start of the feud, and then very carefully calibrated its escalation over time.
Another problem the book has is that for the reader to really buy into the notion that these two magicians are obsessed with each other, the protagonists must be equals. However we learn much more about Angier than Borden, and indeed, while Angier is a bit of a schmuck, he comes off far more sympathetic than Borden. Again, the film does a much better job of making the two men equals in stature, and very different in nature. It also does a good job of streamlining their family lives, which are rather convoluted in the book.
There are plenty of other more mundane instances where the film comes out looking better. For example, in the book Angier consults with the real-life inventor Nicola iTesla. Tesla builds him an apparatus which can replicate matter, lectures Angier about how he should not use it to counterfeit currency, and then proceeds to abandon his lab due to bankruptcy! The film takes the much more interesting and plausible approach that Tesla disappears because Thomas Edison's goons have finally tracked him down and torch his lab. And ultimately, Priest commits the sin of making the story's two big twists all too obvious to the reader, thus removing any sense of wonder or suspense. Meanwhile, the film does a great job of holding off on revealing the twists until the last possible moment, and actually adds one or two.
Ultimately, it's hard to recommend the original book version of this tale -- with its clunky framework, poor pacing, uneven characterization, vague motivations, and tipping of its hand -- when the film version exists. Instead of spending six hours reading this, watch the movie and use the other four hours on another book.
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Entertaining,But Doesn't Quite Hit The Spot
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Having seen the film, I thought I knew exactly what The Prestige would be about, I was thus surprised to discover how different the book and film were! The film, while introducing many differences, was a lot better, but I would've needed a re-seeing to fully appreciate it. Instead I read the book, hoping that'd be better than paying to see it just once more. The book is well written, some of it far surpasses the film and is much more interesting to be read. Its tough to say between the book or the film in my opinion (although the film would probably win) but irrelevant of that. The book is great to read, the competition keen, and its very interesting to first read Bordens side of the feud, then Angiers. Its fascinating, to read what each have to say and really makes you think. However, there were a couple of moments I flicked from Angier to Borden to check some stuff I couldn't quite remember!
Excellent book!
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Excellent stuff!
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I wasn't expecting this to start in the present day, so that was a surprise. At first I thought I might be a little disappointed at not getting straight into the thick of the magic aspect (which I knew was set in the 19th Century), but it's written in such a way that I was hooked from the start. It then quickly switched to the past in the second part, going from being narrated by Andrew Westley, to the personal memoirs of Alfred Borden himself.
It was all rather tantalising. Every time Borden seemed on the verge of making a revelation, he drew back, focusing on the back story and just touching on the beginnings of the feud between Borden and Angier...
The further I read, the better it got! The world of stage magic and illusion is fascinating at the best of times, but this was chock-full of mystery on top of that. I loved how the author kept coming back to the fact that the story was being related through Borden's notebook, throughout which Borden left little notes to himself, and even used the standard tricks of the illusionist (stating the whole "nothing up my sleeve" gambit when making a revelation, in order to relate that he's not hiding anything in the retelling).
In part three, the narrative was continued by a third character - this time one of Rupert Angier's descendants - who was also trying to fill in the blanks where The Great Dante (Angier's stage name) was concerned and who is also intrigued by Borden's descendent and her contemporary.
A fourth part, a fourth voice - now Rupert Angier's side of the story was told from his own diaries, revealing the reasons behind the old enmity between him and Borden that caused them both harm and spanned generations of both the families.
The plot twisted and turned like a twisty-turny thing. Strangely, despite being given every clue, I didn't work it out, which is rather unusual for me (if I say so myself) - I usually cotton onto things, whether it's early on or right before the "big reveal". The finale switched back to modern-day and wrapped up beautifully. I have to say this was quite an extraordinary read and now that I'm finished with it, I'm even more desperate to see the film!
(A big thank you to Marcus J who recommended this book to me - I've now found a new author to collect!)
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