The novel tells the story of two feuding magicians at the turn of the century from the age of steam to the age of electricity. Their feud going from pranks to sabotage and all the way into horror. The story is told through these magicians journals. Kudos to the author in the way he presented these journals by making them distinct enough to show us the story from both sides while exposing the characters personalities. The fact that one of journal was written more as a memoir years after the fact while the other as a series of diary entries as the events unfolded was a masterstroke.

Christopher Priest wears his H. G. Wells influence on his sleeve and it really shows. He obviously studied the time period, the technology, the culture, the kind of magic tricks that would have been preformed at the time, the turns of phrase, everything. And finally the way he presented the horror and gave us that wonderfully ominous ending really brought Wells s style into the modern era.

If I wasn't on a SF Masterworks binge I would never have known that this book existed and would have kept thinking that there was only an OK movie by Christopher Nolan. Luckily his adaptation wasn't too faithful so I could still enjoy the book but I am quite sorry that a lot of the books excellent foreshadowing was spoiled for me. Again, kudos to Christopher Priest for making this book so great that the spoilers didn't matter. But, I still wish that I have only read this book and never watched the movie.