Finished reading The Prestige by Christopher Priest 📚.

I really enjoyed this part science-fiction, part gothic horror, tale. Most of the story is presented as diary entries from two 19th century magicians who become obsessed with competing with each other, sabotaging each other’s tricks whilst fervently trying to understand and outperform each other’s best illusions at any cost. The cost turns out to be quite significant.

There’s a famous enough Christopher Nolan film of the book. In some ways it’s presented quite differently and, from memory, it totally misses out the book’s start and end. But it has basically the same main reveal. So the novel’s twists and turns may have had even more impact had I not seen that first. But it was still an enthralling and gripping read, worth it even if you saw the film.