#86. THE PRESTIGE By Christopher Priest

Published : 1995
Pages : 360
Overall Mark : 8/10

Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier first clash in 1878 in a darkened salon at a fraudulent seance conducted by Angier. From then on the two young illusionists engage in an increasingly bitter and deadly feud on the stages of Victorian music halls. And each is driven to extremes by the mystery of an amazing illusion they each perform. For both, there is much more at risk than the mere workings of a trick, and the legacy of their hatred and obsessively guarded secrets will reverberate down the years.

CHRISTOPHER PRIEST (1943-)
Christopher Priest's widely acclaimed novels include Fugue For A Darkening Island, A Dream Of Wessex, The Glamour, The Extremes and The Separation. The Prestige was the winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction and the World Fantasy Award, and was memorably filmed by Christopher Nolan.

VERDICT
This tale of on-going one-upmanship is wonderfully thought through and manages to bring some otherwise unusual notions to a Victorian setting. The idea of two magicians, so jealous of each other that they do whatever they can to find out the tricks behind each others performances makes for some intriguing and thought-provoking reading.