The Book God’s copy of The Prestige by Christopher Priest has been kicking around for 12 years and I have added it to and prestige.jpgremoved it from various reading lists since then. I was finally persuaded to read it by the release of the film version, directed by Christopher Nolan, last year (and now in our possession as a DVD). I really like to read a  book before I see its film adaptation. I’m not really sure why – it’s a quirk of my personality that I don’t mind knowing the plot of a film or TV series in advance but absolutely hate the idea of reading ahead; that can really spoil a novel for me.

The Prestige is about the rivalry between two stage illusionists at the turn of the 20th century. Driven by different attitudes to their art and centred around a particular trick where the illusionist is transported from one point of the stage to another, the feud continues until their deaths allow their individual secrets to be revealed.

I loved this book; the atmosphere really gripped me and although I started to get an inkling of what the prestige actually was, I still found the resolution of the story extremely effective. Christopher Priest is a fine writer and I will dig out the other titles by him in the Book God’s collection.