Grammath
23rd June 2011, 10:06 AM
Christopher Priest's 1995 novel differs quite markedly from the film adaptation made some 10 years later, but is a very fine, if not better, piece of work in its own right.
This is one of those novels I can't reveal too much about without spoiling it but I'll try and provide a plot synopsis. The action is set at the end of the 19th century and centres on two battling magicians, Alfred Borden, the son of a humble cabinet maker, and Rupert Angier, who renounces the title of Earl of Colderdale he is to inherit in order to practice magic. Their feud centres around one trick known as The New Transported Man, in which the magician appears to the audience to be teleported across the stage. Each finds a way to perfect it, although their methods are radically different. Each becomes obsessed with finding out how the other manages the trick and then to sabotage it through various methods.
The story is told through the diaries of the two men, so immediately the reader is faced with two unreliable narrators and has no idea whom to trust. There's a rather pointless framing device with the great-grandchildren of the two magicians meeting and investigating the case.
My main criticisms are that Priest's narrative voices aren't quite coinvincingly Victorian and perhaps more could have been made of their contrasting backgrounds. However, this is still a gripping story and I, for one, love an unreliable narrator, so having two was a bonus.
I listened to this and the early stages of the dual narratives don't lend themselves terribly well to this format but once the novel was fully up and running I was quickly drawn into this murky world and the twisting plot. Fans of Neil Gaiman and Louise Welsh will find much to enjoy here.
4/5
This is one of those novels I can't reveal too much about without spoiling it but I'll try and provide a plot synopsis. The action is set at the end of the 19th century and centres on two battling magicians, Alfred Borden, the son of a humble cabinet maker, and Rupert Angier, who renounces the title of Earl of Colderdale he is to inherit in order to practice magic. Their feud centres around one trick known as The New Transported Man, in which the magician appears to the audience to be teleported across the stage. Each finds a way to perfect it, although their methods are radically different. Each becomes obsessed with finding out how the other manages the trick and then to sabotage it through various methods.
The story is told through the diaries of the two men, so immediately the reader is faced with two unreliable narrators and has no idea whom to trust. There's a rather pointless framing device with the great-grandchildren of the two magicians meeting and investigating the case.
My main criticisms are that Priest's narrative voices aren't quite coinvincingly Victorian and perhaps more could have been made of their contrasting backgrounds. However, this is still a gripping story and I, for one, love an unreliable narrator, so having two was a bonus.
I listened to this and the early stages of the dual narratives don't lend themselves terribly well to this format but once the novel was fully up and running I was quickly drawn into this murky world and the twisting plot. Fans of Neil Gaiman and Louise Welsh will find much to enjoy here.
4/5