The Prestige by Christopher Priest
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Really amazing. I thought I knew the real story based on the movie, but I was WRONG.

I love the epistolary nature of the novel and how the story stretches through time, but my favorite bits were all between the two warring illusionists. I can't believe how far the two of them went to prolong their feud of pranks. It was kinda great seeing two professionals unwilling to harm their craft still work around all the little niceties to get at one another.

And then while I still remembered the whole Tesla sequence from the movie, the book takes it so much farther. I loved it. I really loved it. It turned a mystery and a rivalry story into true science fiction of the highest caliber. :)

Surprise! Sheesh. I want to just spoil it. It's so tempting. But no. No hints about things that should only belong in space opera tales or popular episodic federation stuff. No beam-me-up Scotty references or out of time or out of phase memes. I refuse to give away the really good stuff in the novel.

And it's really good. :) Great characters, great mystery, and great Prestige: the final result of the magic trick. :)



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