The Prestige (original 1995; edition 2006)

I really did rather like this book. I like the writing, and the multiple voices used appealed to me. Some parts dragged (the Angier bit in particular) but overall it was enjoyable enough.

And then it ended.

I'm not even sure if that's WHY I'm taking a star off, or what. I'm not sure about anything because I'm not sure what the fuck even happened. I read it like three times trying to work out what was going on in the last five pages and I got absolutely nothing. Not a sausage. Which I think I kind of like? I have no idea. I'm taking a star off for this weird unsettled feeling I have. Because I can. ( )

I prefer the movie, but I'm not sure if that's because I saw it first or because it condensed the confusion down to a lean story of obsession and one-upmanship. My reading was heavily influenced by knowing the major spoilers. Should've read the book first.

Dammit, what is with the Monday morning over-the-shoulder snoopers? Gotta make this fast. Unreliable narrators, stupid feuds with real consequences that made them impossible to let go, destroying your own life through choices. Each man had a chance at normal family life and ended up following their lust at some point. Each man wrote of wanting to give up the feud, of trying to reach out to the other and being rebuffed. Each man clearly tailored their record of incidents. What really happened? Probably something in between. And at the end...huh? I don't understand the purpose of the cult that started out the story, except it maybe implied, well, spoiler. ( )

3.5 Stars

This was... Hmm. This book was not anything I expected. Though, I'm not really sure just what I expected, to be honest. I alternated between thinking that this story was going to be dry and boring, or over the top "magicky", or all fluffadelic like what I expect The Night Circus would be like if I could bring myself to read it. I don't like circuses, or... well, parties or performances or celebrations or fairs or festivals or whatever authors write about to make their books "lively" or something. They just don't interest me, and I zone out and then when I next have a conscious thought, I have a string of drool inching its way down my face and realize I've misplaced 20 minutes of my life. Which is another thing that I thought would work against this one for me. But surprisingly it didn't.

I think that this one worked because of the realism. This wasn't "magic", this was "illusion". Illusion has rules, and relies on real life physics and ability, rather than just "Oh, I'm going to imagine something and then POOF! it will appear from thin air using only the power of my mind and magic." Yaaa-*conk-snore*

As I've recently been reading more fantasy that deals with magic lately, I've come to realize that clearly set rules and laws of magic are vital for me to enjoy a story containing it. Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series works for me for that very reason (among others) - he's created a system of magic that not only makes sense, but has limitations and boundaries and laws. Yes, creativity and imagination shape the outcome of such magic, but only in the desired effect. There are limitations to what can be done, and how, and there's a cost for it. If you want to use force, that force comes from somewhere that will suffer a lack until the balance is restored. Nothing just appears from nothing.

So, ramble aside, the fact that this was indeed NOT magic of the fantasy sense but rather magic of the stage illusionist sense allowed me to enjoy the story much more than I thought I would, despite the fact that many would probably feel that illusion is boring compared to magic.

I didn't think so, though. I thought it was interesting and well written, though, admittedly some sections were dry and overly detailed for the little that was actually conveyed. I enjoyed the feud between the two illusionists, and enjoyed seeing the events from both perspectives. When things started really getting interesting around the 2nd half, I was thrilled because things that had confused me in the 1st half were now starting to click and make sense. It was Celine Dion was crooning, "It's All Coming Back To Me Now"...

I really enjoyed the inclusion of Nikola Tesla, and was happy to see him given the credit he deserved as a mothereffing genius. Because he was. Tesla > Edison. (PS. The Oatmeal. Read it.)

Anywho, the apparatus was... fascinating. Possible? No idea. I get confused subtracting double digit numbers (Do I carry the one? Remainder? Multiply by pi? Should I have all these extra parts? Why are these instructions all in Korean??! It's hopeless, really.) so physics, and energy, and matter transference are light years times infinity beyond me.

I liked the mysteriousness of the story, but I would have liked a little more closure and definition at the end. But still, very good overall, and I quite enjoyed it, and Simon Vance's reading, which can sometimes be hit or miss for me. ( )

3.5 stars

after sitting around on mount TBR for years now, mostly due to loving the '06 movie version, this book has been popping up too frequently lately to be ignored any longer. what with Suzy getting around to it, Priest going all Kanye on the Clarke awards, and the oatmeal shouting the praises of Nicola Goddamn Tesla, 'the prestige' was much on my mind. i figured that having not seen the movie since it came out 6 years ago, i'd be unspoiled enough to come to the book fresh; i was wrong.

you know that moment where something grabs your attention and catches your interest? for me, that moment feels like the sound of a symphony tuning up right before they start to play in earnest, and there's a delightful emotional punch to settling down into rapt attention. it's not at all a necessity for a book to have a moment like that (plenty of wonderful books sneak up on you and gently ease you into their clutches), but i do love that feeling.
Let me set out the Pact of Acquiescence under which I write these words, so that those who read them will realize that what follows is not sorcery, but the appearance of it.

First let me in a manner of speaking show you my hands, palms forward, fingers splayed, and I will say to you (and mark this well): “Every word in this notebook that describes my life and work is true, honestly meant and accurate in detail.”
and from there, we settle in to reading the alternating journals of two victorian-era stage magicians. through a series of minor circumstances snowballing into ever-larger consequence, their lives become entangled into a bitter feud, compounded by the obsessive secrecy with which the master illusionists jealously guard their best tricks. it's fun and exciting, with the mannered pacing of a victorian penny-dreadful (though with rather more modern language), and an awesome visit with the aforementioned N.G. Tesla.

unfortunately, the story is framed by a flash-forward to the modern era descendants of the warring performers that feels utterly flat and empty. you have to wade through several chapters of a thinly-sketched, indifferent man's arrival at an old manor house before striking that symphonic moment, and those chapters feel about 3 times as long as they actually are. the last part of the book is a return to this nobody and his counterpart (a thinly-sketched, indifferent woman), and the potential resolution of the magicians' feud that's been inexplicably passed down through the past several generations. the movie wisely deletes this boring prologue & coda, and i rather wish we could have done the same. ( )

I saw the movie on the plane (where else) and was frantic to surf the 'net to find out more about it when we landed. I wanted to understand more about the book, its author, the concepts, and background. Big screen (well, in this case, the small screen on the back of a plane seat) is terrific but ephemeral, whereas with a book I have time for distractions, cogitation, re-reading (and checking things on the net!). You might argue that I can fiddle with 'Pause', 'Rewind', 'Forward' and (several iterations later) 'Play', but this tends to have the undesirable effect of tossing me out of my utterly physiological entrapment within the film. The beauty of a book is that it is really all in my head! And that's what I would like to discuss here.

Chris Nolan's treatment of the book was brilliant, precisely because of the medium; fast-paced, fore-shadowing, and with a judicious and welcome lack of gratuitous violence and special effects. But it doesn't do justice to the subject matter that Chris Priest wanted to, and effectively did, explore.

Priest's book is a marvel no less worthy precisely because it is a book! The book is written in three parts, each part representing one of the three elements of a magic act, and each part cleverly reflects the nature of the element it represents (bear that in mind when reading nay-sayers who think the opening setting is irrelevant). Nolan did condense parts of the book and the condensation works perfectly in a movie. Priest's original material is able to play with the nature of a magic act in a way Nolan could not, because of the shortening required for a screenplay.

Nolan made an emotional grab for the guts with the motivation he set up for the characters - and that is also a function of the medium. A film doesn't have the luxury of time that a book does. Priest's book, on the other hand, delves much more in the psychology of its protagonists without a quickly discernible (and emotionally acceptable) cause-and-effect providing the basis for the competition between the two magicians.

The book's haunting ending achieves a level of ambiguity the movie fails to translate (and Nolan is known for his lack of black-and-white, cut-and-dried endings). Images from the film still sit with me, but scenes from the book that I have imagined myself resonate far longer, and with far many more questions.

I think it is probably better at this point to recommend reading the book (keeping in mind that it is a book and the film is a successful adaptation) than saying anything else, because even if you have seen the movie, the book is sufficiently different that I would have to start on the path to spoilerdom. And this is a novel which deserves the innocence of an audience waiting in anticipation for the curtain to rise. ( )