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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780312858865
ISBN number: 0312858868
Label: Tor Books
Manufacturer: Tor Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 416
Printing Date: September 15, 1997
Publishing house: Tor Books
Release Date: November 29, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 183550
Studio: Tor Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
In 1878, two young stage magicians clash in the dark during the course of a fraudulent séance. From this moment on, their lives become webs of deceit and revelation as they vie to outwit and expose one another.
Their rivalry will take them to the peaks of their careers, but with terrible consequences. In the course of pursuing each other's ruin, they will deploy all the deception their magicians' craft can command--the highest misdirection and the darkest science.
Blood will be spilled, but it will not be enough. In the end, their legacy will pass on for generations...to descendants who must, for their sanity's sake, untangle the puzzle left to them.
Amazon.com Review:
The Washington Post called this 'a dizzying magic show of a novel, chock-a-block with all the props of Victorian sensation fiction: seances, multiple narrators, a family curse, doubles, a lost notebook, wraiths, and disembodied spirits; a haunted house, awesome mad-doctor machinery, a mausoleum, and ghoulish horrors; a misunderstood scientist, impossible disappearances; the sins of the fathers visited upon their descendants.' Winner of the 1996 World Fantasy Award, The Prestige is even better than that, because unlike many Victorians, Priest writes crisp, unencumbered prose. And anyone who's ever thrilled to the arcing electricity in the 'It's alive!' scene in Frankenstein will relish the 'special effects' by none other than Nikola Tesla.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Nothing to add to the other reviews in terms of plot critique other than the magic is just too Spontaneous Generation-ish (a pile of straw and dung turns into mice kind of thinking) and I wasn't willing to suspend my disbelief. I did very much like the descriptions of the principles of stage magic that one magician offered in his diary, and the whole treatment of self is very much like Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Who is "I" and what have "I" become?
However, the women in the book are cardboard cutouts, The Devoted Wife and The Scheming Mistress. (the modern woman is OK). I kept waiting for one of them to do something unexpected, but neither lady ever did. I look forward to reading more of Mr. Priest's books to see if he overcame this technical, stylistic, and most basic hurdle in character creation.
Rated by buyers -
Granted, I come to this as a result of having seen the film adaptation. (In fact, the very act of adaptation is what compelled me to read it, not the novel itself in a standalone sense.) And therefore, no matter how I've endeavoured to be objective, have found it wanting.
It's a book from a genre I don't normally read, but it was enjoyable. I guess my chief complaint would be that its telling wasn't up to the premise. It was stylistically done, with great verve and a certain amount of Victorian sensibility about it, but in the end, it wasn't the 'great read' I felt it could have been, had perhaps Caleb Carr written it.
Now, if you want to talk about what I felt of the adaptation to film by the Nolan brothers...
Rated by buyers 
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I watched the movie ("The Prestige" directed by Christopher Nolan) before reading the novel. They actually differ on several points, and I don't think watching the film spoiled the reading. The novel spans a longer time period and is framed by a story set in today's world (a meeting between descendants of Borden and Angier, the two rival magicians). The plot alternates between different times and persons, like a puzzle where the pieces are different perspectives on basically the same events. In this the novel is really effective: it made me sympathise with the different narrators, although two of them are enemies. Also, even though I had watched the movie the story kept me guessing about some things until the very end. The movie is very good, but I actually like the book a little bit more as I think it makes some things more 'believable'.
The Prestige is very well written and hard to put down, and I will definitely read more novels by Christopher Priest.
Rated by buyers -
The book was a good, enjoyable read. However i believe that the movie (The Prestige) took the book and vastly improved upon it. The book somewhat lacks a climax and could be considered a disappointment. The movie outdid the book, but that doesn't mean it's not a good read.
Rated by buyers 
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I bought this book based on its review and was extremely disappointed.
The basic idea and plot of The Prestige was good enough, but I'm not fond of diary-style writing at all, and was unaware that most of the book would consist of this. Priest just droned on and on about details that proved to be quite mundane in the end. The ending would have been satisfying if it was not for the extra 100 pages or so of nothing.
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