#26’s Result – The Prestige by Christopher Priest

It has been a minute since I finished reading this book. looking back, I’m kind of surprised to see I gave it three stars on Goodreads. Actually, I can probably attribute one whole star to the reveal/aftermath of how the illusion the New Transported Man works. That was pretty rad. But on the whole, what I remember most about the story now is that it was much duller than I anticipated. The story’s told in an old fashioned Victorian way, where you’re never in the moment and instead always looking back at or around the truly exciting moments. You never experience the touted rivalry head on. The promised drama of terrible consequences, highest misdirection, and darkest science never fully hits. I imagine the film adaptation brings more visceral excitement to the story. I consider DNF’ing several times but carried on as I wondered whether anything more fascinating would be revealed… and there is a bit of that, by the end. Perhaps it’s inaccurate of me to say the promise of ‘darkest science’, at least, never hits… Anyway, you might enjoy this story more than I if you approach it as a character study, rather than a thrilling and dark speculative tale.

#28’s Selection

The theme for the next edition of “I Can’t Believe” is 2023 horror/horror-adjacent releases. Tis the season! To choose titles, I sorted my to-read shelf by release date descending. I selected the first four ‘spooky’ titles that jumped out to me. (And miraculously, all four are available at my library!)

• Nestlings by Nat Cassidy (pub’d 31 Oct 2023)
• Bloom by Delilah S. Dawson (pub’d 3 Oct 2023)
• Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison (pub’d 19 Sept 2023)
• What Kind of Mother by Clay McLeod Chapman (pub’d 12 Sept 2023)

Which book should I read next? Leave a comment on this post to cast your vote.
Voting closes on 18 October.