The Prestige is just as clever and thrilling 30 years on

The Prestige
Christopher Priest (Tor Essentials, available in the UK and the US)

The Prestige is probably best known from its 2006 film adaptation, directed by Christopher Nolan, fresh from the success of Batman Begins. The book it is based on, however, has devoted fans, and is often hailed as a literary masterpiece.

I didn’t read the book until recently simply because I knew it to be about stage magic. Lots of people claim to enjoy an evening in the company of a magician, but I would rather do my taxes, or perhaps clean toilets. There was no way I was going to read a book about feuding stage magicians, set in the late 1800s.

However, when I met science-fiction writer Adam Roberts last year, I asked him to list some of his favourite sci-fi writers, and he at once named Christopher Priest, firmly recommending The Prestige, regardless of any feelings one might have about stage magic.

So that was my first reason to dive in, white gloves and top hats be damned. Then there is the fact that Tor has republished the novel, 30 years after it first appeared, with a new introduction by John Clute. (Priest died last year.)

And so to the book, which is about two different but apparently very similar stage tricks and how they are done. Our first hero (I use the word loosely) is the magician Alfred Borden, the creator of a trick called The Transported Man. In short, it involves Borden stepping into a booth on one side of the stage and instantly reappearing in another booth on the other side to rapturous applause from the audience.

However, Borden has an enemy called Rupert Angier. This rival is driven to distraction as he tries to work out how Borden does his transportation trick. Later, Angier develops his own magical masterwork, In a Flash, in which he appears to be instantly transported from inside a flashing machine to another part of the theatre.

Now it is Borden who can’t work out how his rival’s trick is being done, and he is the one driven close to madness by his attempts to crack the mystery. The terrible feud ends up with consequences that will echo down the generations, which is why Borden and Angier share their role as narrators with two of their descendants.

The novel is a real page-turner. It drags you forwards much as a magician drags an audience along – because you really, really want to know how the tricks are done. But it is also far cleverer than it first appears.

I haven’t yet tried this, but I rather think you could read the different sections in almost any order and still find it both interesting and comprehensible. That is to say, it is marvellously, ornately constructed.

As for its genre, it won a World Fantasy Award when it was first published, but it has science and a real scientist (the inventor Nikola Tesla) in it, and these days it is generally described as sci-fi. The vibe of the book is a bit gothic and a bit steampunk, and the style is studiously old fashioned, as befits a period piece.

So if you like complicated, beautifully designed puzzle-mysteries, then this book is most certainly for you. It is a triumph of both plotting and well-managed suspense. I now look forward to watching Nolan’s cinematic version. Apparently, it is very different from the book, but Priest himself applauded the film version and thought that Nolan had done extremely well with it.

Emily also recommends…

The War of the Worlds
H. G. Wells (Various publishers)
Christopher Priest was vice president of the H. G. Wells Society, so it seems fitting to recommend reading (or, for many of you, rereading) The War of the Worlds, first published in 1898. The book is, in so many ways, sensationally modern. It is classic science fiction, and yet science fiction didn’t exist then. But I also recommend it simply because it is a marvellous period piece that bears revisiting.

Emily H. Wilson is a former editor of New Scientist and the author of the Sumerians trilogy, set in ancient Mesopotamia. The final novel in the series, Ninshubar, is out in August. You can find her at emilyhwilson.com, or follow her on X @emilyhwilson and Instagram @emilyhwilson1

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