Christopher Priest

Psychedelic

Surprisingly no thread here already for this fantastic writer. In saying that though he doesn't seem to be that popular an author. I only discovered him myself after the film of The Prestige was released. I liked the film so checked out the book, which I loved.

Looking through descriptions of his other books I knew they would be right up my street so I read The Affirmation and The Glamour - two major mindfcuks. The Separation and The Extremes were both solid, and The Dream Archipelago and The Islanders were both brilliantly strange and imaginative. I'm almost finished The Inverted World which is very interesting sci-fi.

I'd read online that The Glamour was going to be made into a film, but couldn't find out much so I emailed the author via his website. He replied to say that a script has been written in close co-operation with himself and that he is hopeful it will be picked up by a producer.

He also wrote a story called The Stooge, and he wrote a screenplay for it to be made into a short film, to be released later this year.

So, any other fans of his here?

dr gonzo

Been meaning to read the prestige for so long at this stage. Now that you've started this thread though I think I'm gonna take the plunge tomorrow!

mcgovern

I found the Inverted World a very tough read. I could kind of see what he was trying to do, but it never really clicked for me so a lot of it probably went over my head.

Psychedelic

I found it the opposite, a very hard to put down book, was up till after 3am last night (with work this morning) finishing it off. Some of it is difficult to understand alright, in trying to picture what the inverted world would look like, but overall I thought it was compelling throughout, especially in the last quarter when it all comes together.

Adr.

I'm with Psyechedlic on this one. Priest is a terrific writer whose novels require careful and, sometimes, repeated readings. The Prestige was brilliant - even better than the wonderful Christopher Nolan film. I also loved Inverted World and have several other Priest novels on my shelves just waitiing to be read.

I don't think that Priest is tough going, but there's a lot more going on in his books that sometimes meets the eye.

Highly recommended author.

Shryke

Inverted World was pretty poor. The concept wasn't too beyond what I had imagined would be the outcome. It's telling that it was one of his earlier novels. It lacked a lot of style and wasn't written very well but still competently.
His later novels show how much he improved. The Prestige is a brilliant book and does the whole story a big step up from the film adaptation. The ending is far better also. I would have to give a mention to The Separation too. I went off him after Inverted World but meant to get back on the case. I suppose he's back on the list now that I've been reminded.

Ipso

Psychedelic wrote: »

Surprisingly no thread here already for this fantastic writer. In saying that though he doesn't seem to be that popular an author. I only discovered him myself after the film of The Prestige was released. I liked the film so checked out the book, which I loved.

Looking through descriptions of his other books I knew they would be right up my street so I read The Affirmation and The Glamour - two major mindfcuks. The Separation and The Extremes were both solid, and The Dream Archipelago and The Islanders were both brilliantly strange and imaginative. I'm almost finished The Inverted World which is very interesting sci-fi.

I'd read online that The Glamour was going to be made into a film, but couldn't find out much so I emailed the author via his website. He replied to say that a script has been written in close co-operation with himself and that he is hopeful it will be picked up by a producer.

He also wrote a story called The Stooge, and he wrote a screenplay for it to be made into a short film, to be released later this year.

So, any other fans of his here?

Started reading his stuff after seeing The Prestige, I started with that. It's a very clever story.
Others I read were The Affirmation, The Glamour and The Seperation.
I didn't get the end of The Glamour and I thought the end of The Seperation didn't vome together but I really enjoy his stuff, physche-fi I suppose you could call it.

Psychedelic

Psyche-fi: LOL, that is the exact term I've been thinking of to describe his books, although I would spell it Psych-fi.

What version of The Glamour did you read? Apparently the ending is different in the newer edition than in the original edition. I've only read the old version, and the new version is supposed to be a bit clearer in its ending. Saying that, I don't think it's a book that can have a clear cut ending or explanation to what is going on. To me it worked on a number of levels so you can have multiple interpretations. I'm not sure if I got it myself.

Re: Inverted World, yes it definitely isn't anywhere near as good as his later work, and the ending/explanation is guessable and there's a few plot holes, but I still found it enjoyable.

Ipso

Psychedelic wrote: »

Psyche-fi: LOL, that is the exact term I've been thinking of to describe his books, although I would spell it Psych-fi.

What version of The Glamour did you read? Apparently the ending is different in the newer edition than in the original edition. I've only read the old version, and the new version is supposed to be a bit clearer in its ending. Saying that, I don't think it's a book that can have a clear cut ending or explanation to what is going on. To me it worked on a number of levels so you can have multiple interpretations. I'm not sure if I got it myself.

Re: Inverted World, yes it definitely isn't anywhere near as good as his later work, and the ending/explanation is guessable and there's a few plot holes, but I still found it enjoyable.

I think I read the new edition.

Potential spoilers ahead
Basically the last paragraph that revealed everything went over my head.