Victorian stage illusionists Alfred Borden and Rupert Angier both want to reach the top of their profession. The problem they have is that, due to an early run-in at a fake seance, each wants to do it at the expense of the other. So as their careers and lives progress they periodically snipe at each other, sabotaging the others acts and attempting to uncover the other's secrets.

Reading this book was a fluke, a very fortunate fluke. I found myself on holiday in Italy, four days into an eight-day holiday and not far from finishing the third of the three books I took with me. Fortunately for me there is a large number of bookstores in Turin, and one in particular on Via Po sold science fiction and fantasy novels in English. That helped a great deal, as my Italian really isn't up to reading fiction.

I've read a number of Christopher Priest books over the years, although all of them from considerably earlier in his writing career than this particular title. What I can say from reading this is his style has developed wonderfully well. I thought A Dream of Wessex was a great idea, and told well. But it was very much a case of the language was just the method of getting tale across.

In this book Priest uses the language wonderfully. A great deal of the story in this book are presented as the memoirs of the two Victorian stage magicians, and his prose manages to feel authentically Victorian without being stodgy.

I found this book extremely addictive. I was finding myself wanting to spend more time in my hotel room to read what would happen next rather than exploring beautiful architecture and artwork in Turn and Asti. This is what I like in a book; I want them to grab me from the start.

Since reading this book I have watched the movie. I found it to be an excellent film, well paced, well acted and with a superb story - a little different to the book to be sure but still good. But the film is not in the same league as the book.

Priest paces this story wonderfully, framing the piece with the modern day descendants of the two men attempting to seal the breach between the two families. The main sections tell the story from each man's point of view, by means of their diaries. This is a wonderful device, allowing the author to show how the two illusionists perceive the events, and how they are affected by them.

I simply cannot praise this book too much.