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The Prestige

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About this listen

 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 each other. In the course of pursuing each other's ruin, they will deploy all the deception their magician's craft can command. Their rivalry will take them to the peaks of their careers, but with terrible consequences. In the end, their legacy will be passed on for generations to descendants who must, for their sanity's sake, untangle the puzzle left to them.©1995 Christopher Priest (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc. Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Movie, TV & Video Game Tie-Ins Science Fiction Magic Users

Critic reviews

Winner of the World Fantasy Award

"Extraordinary, like a dazzling magic act!" (Entertainment Weekly)
"A brilliant conjuring act by one of the master illusionists of our time." (Wired)
"A taut, twisting, prize-winning story of two magicians and their fierce fin-de-siècle rivalry that taints successive generations of their respective families....An unexpectedly compelling fusion of weird science and legerdemain." (Kirkus Reviews)
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Loved the way this book is written and that its nothing whatsoever like the movie adaptation. Thrilling in that the depth of character is all there for both the main characters, the supporting characters also, Simon Vance does a beautiful job with the voices too bringing the whole production to life. Murder, mystery and suspense, its all here.

Magic Suspense and Excitement

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I enjoyed the overall story line, but found the ending rather abrupt and left me with one or two questions.
The narration was excellent, which for me can make or break an audio book.
I wish part four was broken down into chapters, it is the majority of the book and would have been easier to navigate if in chapters.

Enjoyable read overall

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I saw the film first - it's top ten all time for me.

There is enough of a difference in storyline between book and film to warrant reading but the core element is the same and hence if you have seen the film I don't recommend the book - it will have lost it's prestige. And I suspect the opposite would be true as well.

The story centres around a feud between two magicians and is set back in 1900. The story involves you in both sides of the feud, from diary perspective mainly but via other means as well. I cannot say too much but the book will lead you one way and then the other and question what you might do in the same situations.

The performance is great and the story is truly excellent - watch the film OR read the book but I would recommend you don't do both.

Movie or book - don't do both.

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The diaries of the respective protagonists make for good reading, and, to be fair, this is much of the book. The rest is superfluous but doesn't really spoil the overall experience.

On balance, worth reading.

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Amazing book, has so much more than was in the film. This is now on my top ten.

One of the best

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