Review: The Prestige

This was by far one of the hardest reviews I've ever had to write thanks to its phenomenal movie adaptation. The 2006 flick is, unfortunately, one of the rare exceptions to the "book is always better" rule. I usually always argue, "how could anyone write the story better than the author?!"

In this case, I was completely wrong. and as a result I found it very hard to not be disappointed with the book. However, for the sake of my review (and my professional aspirations?), I tried to forget everything I knew from the movie and take it as objectively as possible. Too bad I still found it lacking.

For those of you curious as to how different the movie is from the novel, let me briefly outline the biggest departures. First, the novel is much, much broader in its scope, since the story spans several generations. Secondly, the motivation for the feud is ... well, shallow. Stupidly so. And the ending is just not as well executed nor as shocking as the movie; it left me vaguely disgruntled.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, onto the review!

Genre: novel, science fiction

Plot: In 1878, two of Britain's greatest magicians enter into a feud that will change not only their own lives, but will continue to haunt their families for generations. Each can perform an illusion the other yearns to unravel, and each will stop at nothing to destroy the other.

The main fault I had with this book was, surprisingly, the plot. While the essence of it is extremely imaginative and it's told with technical excellence, it loses its power by being stretched out over way too many pages, told with surprises that were fairly predictable, and with an ending that fizzles far more than it dazzles.

Structure:
The book has 5 parts, told by 4 different narrators. First we meet a Borden descendant who finds himself in collusion with Kate Angier - this is told in third person. Then we read Alfred Borden's account of the rivalry through his diary. Then Kate Angier takes over, telling some family anecdotes that are only mildly related to the main plot. Then a retelling of the main events, this time through Rupert Angier's diary. Finally, the third-person narration returns to wrap it all up.

In short, it felt like a novel within a novel -- on a technical level, brilliant, but in terms of conveying the story in an interesting, compelling way, it just felt too repeated, too convoluted, too stretched out to be as effective as it could be.


Execution: Priest's exacting duplication of early 19th century language and painstaking attention to detail are outstanding. He fully inhabits both of his main characters in a way that not only highlights their differences, it underscores their similarities. He shifts between several different narration styles, but he does so very smoothly. Although the plot is a little lacking, on a technical level he is an above average author.

Theme: Turn of the century England, magicians, electricity and Nikola Tesla -- it's about a time when science was still mostly a mystery that could deliver things unimagined before, and about two men whose obsessive rage destroyed their families and their careers.

Read this if you you haven't seen the movie! (I feel like I've mentioned the movie too much in this supposedly objective review) But seriously, if you like period pieces, you'll love Priest's use of language. If you're a fan of Mary Shelley or other gothic horror writers, I think this'll be right up your alley.

2 out of 5 stars

Other works:
Indoctrinaire
Fugue for a Darkening Island
Inverted World
The Space Machine
A Dream of Wessex (US title The Perfect Lover)
The Affirmation
The Glamour
Short Circuit
Mona Lisa
The Quiet Woman
The Extremes
eXistenZ
The Separation
numerous short stories

If you liked this, you might also like:
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray