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The Prestige

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The Prestige

By: Christopher Priest
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Summary

 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
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Critic reviews

  • Winner of the World Fantasy Award, 1996
  • Audie Award Finalist, Fiction, Unabridged, 2007

"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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Most relevant
This is one of the first audio books that I have listened to, and I have been very pleasantly surprised by how caught up in the story I was. The quality of narration is excellent, and like any good book I had trouble putting it down.
I would highly recommend this audio book to anyone.

Gripping

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This is an excellent book, cleverly written, in and of itself, but I personally feel that having watched the movie adaptation a number of times before reading this ruined some of the twists for me. I had the faces of the characters fixed in my head the way they were portrayed by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman (to name but two) and so this is how they looked in my minds eye, but I was nevertheless captivated by the writing style, which was lovely and precise. This book is a marvel in and of itself and deserves to be read.

Brilliant

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Really enjoyed the film which is why I purchased this book. Story peers into the minds of both magicians but focused in particular on one of them. Fasinating introduction which lead me to consider if I bought the correct book, but ties it up near the end with me wanting more and wondering about certain aspects

Brillant

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Great book great performance the film his good this is better
Listen and enjoy thanks

Brilliant

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Very compelling I found it easy to just relax into the flow of the narrative and the narration. A high concept literary magic trick. I found it more satisfying than the film because the gothic, supernatural tone is established early on whereas when you’re watching a Nolan film you’re contending with all of these notions of realism. It’s not a true reality being built here, it’s fantastical but the characters are well drawn and layered.

Magic boys

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