Quite simply one of the best stories ever written and my personal favouite book of all-time. A story about a magic trick which is in itself a magic trick! ( )

Brainy, intricate, and highly engaging. Could have done without the modern frame, and the ending was a little dicey. Didn't build up the climax as well as it might have but. But I enjoyed every bit of it. ( )

When I finished watching the movie The Prestige I was in awe of the story. It is a well-crafted tale and I was curious to see what the source material was like. When I discovered that it was told in diary format I was a little disappointed. I've never done well with epistolary tales, like Dracula, for instance. But just as these two magicians are consumed by their rivalry, so too was I consumed with these pages. I didn't fix dinner, didn't exercise and didn't sleep. All I could do was turn the page. It's a riveting story. Of course, having seen the movie I knew "the secret" which helped a lot. It's hard for me to imagine what someone coming cold to the story would think upon reading certain passages. Maybe a little confused. But on a whole, the book is out there. If the movie is like leaping off a cliff then the book is like jumping off and doing air-ballet on the way down. I enjoyed the book very much but I must admit that the ending was somewhat of a disappointment. In the midst of a very dramatic moment it just ended and I felt short-changed. ( )

I picked this up because of the movie based on it. All in all it was a fun read. The book occupies only a short section of 'time' in the book's chronology; events in the novel have a ton of lead-up time. The story is told entirely from the journals of the two dueling magicians, first one, then the story is retold from the other's perspective. This is an interesting mechanic and serves to fill in the holes as each magician glosses over the wrongs he commits and embellishes the slights done to him as a man is wont to do. The twist ending is of course still there. Good book. ( )

http://books.moonsoar.com/archives/20... ( )