Christopher Priest

[Gladys]

So, I heard that Christopher Priest died very recently. Sad news. He was one of the most interesting British writers of the last 50 years or so and wrote some tremendous books. The short stories and novels that made up his Dream Archipelago (the short stories, The Affirmation, The Islanders, The Gradual) are probably my favourite linked series of stories of all time and most of his novels were excellent. He did write some duds in my view (American Story) but overall he was one of my favourite writers of science fiction (or, slipstream if you will), up there with Ballard and M. John Harrison for me. Any other fans?

[Toki]

I had no idea he'd died. I enjoyed Inverted World, but have yet to dig into the rest. Haven't even seen the film of The Prestige, tbh. I'll dive in.

[Alberon]

According to news reports he only died yesterday. I've never read any of his books but I've been meaning to give them a go.

[frajer]

I've only read The Prestige but I really enjoyed it. It's a similar but different beast to the film, with a present day storyline involving the characters' descendants still embroiled in their great-grandfathers' bitter feud. Very much recommended, especially if you liked the film.

Just remembered I lent it a friend who relocated to America without returning it. Hope my great-grandchildren do the right thing here.

[Art Bear]

I've read about a dozen of his novels and liked almost all of them (American Story was pretty ropey, as @Gladys mentioned). The Dream Archipelago stuff is great but the books like The Extremes which inhabit a UK that is familiar but just slightly...wrong... are probably my favourites.

[Ambient Sheep]

I read and very much enjoyed both The Space Machine and especially The Glamour, which I'd like to re-read sometime.

A friend of mine reckoned I'd love Inverted World, the premise as he described it sounded fascinating, took me a while to find a copy... and if I recall I ended up very disappointed: got stuck a little way into it and never did finish it.  Should try again, I think.

Not read The Prestige, but saw the film last year off a bargain bin DVD and rather liked it: certainly an interesting conceit!

[13 schoolyards]

I haven't picked up his last few novels (is it me, or did he pick up the pace over the last few years?) but I was grabbing each new one as it came out since The Prestige, which in something of a fluke I read before the movie. So I got to be the annoying prat saying "it's not as good as the novel" (even though I think the movie is as good as the novel, despite changing the end and dropping at least one big reversal).

His parallel worlds / alternate WWII timeline novel The Separation was another good one, though like a lot of his books I remember getting to the end and thinking I must have missed something, only to realise the sense of missing something was the point in a way,

I remember really enjoying his virtual reality novel The Extremes, which was pretty similar to the (later) Existenz - so much so that Priest wrote the novelisation of that movie under a pen name (he also wrote the novelisation of Short Circut, plus a bunch of other things he seems to have kept under wraps).

Supposedly he was working on a biography of JG Ballard when he died, hopefully he got it close enough to completion that it sees print one day

[Noodle Lizard]

The book The Prestige is excellent. I'd seen the film first, so it was interesting to discover the "BIG NOLAN TWIST" is rather casually disclosed before the middle of the book, while its focus towards the end is much more interesting and truly creepy. Loved it, great stuff.

I haven't read anything else by him, so I'll keep an eye on this thread for recommendations.

[Ambient Sheep]

Would definitely recommend The Glamour, if that wasn't already clear. :-)

I remember very little about it now (it WAS 35 years ago or so), which is why I'd like to reread it, but I remember it made quite the impression on me at the time.

[Fishfinger]

I've only read The Prestige but I really enjoyed it. It's a similar but different beast to the film, with a present day storyline involving the characters' descendants still embroiled in their great-grandfathers' bitter feud. Very much recommended, especially if you liked the film.

^ agree. I was thinking about him just the other day and had no idea he'd passed away.

[Mr Vegetables]

I've only read The Islands, but I remember enjoying that? I'm a sucker for books with conceits, though, so "each chapter describes a different fictional island" sold me even though it's not exactly what the book really is

[surreal]

Sorry to hear of his passing, I must have missed this news or perhaps not widely reported outside of literary circles.

There's a good BookTube interview with him here from less than a year ago:

[Mister Six]

Genuinely thought the black American comic book writer had a side gig writing acclaimed sci-fi novels until I saw that YouTube video.

Anyway, I'd never heard of this Christopher Priest, so I'll definitely investigate. Cheers!

[13 schoolyards]

Genuinely thought the black American comic book writer had a side gig writing acclaimed sci-fi novels until I saw that YouTube video.

Anyway, I'd never heard of this Christopher Priest, so I'll definitely investigate. Cheers!

Reportedly the novelist Christopher Priest was less than impressed that the comic book writer James Christopher Owsley decided to use "Christopher Priest" as his nom de plume (I think he legally changed his name to it at some point). This was the early 90s and while the UK CP never did any comic work (that I know of), he wasn't happy that there'd be this kind of confusion considering the worlds of SFF and comics are close enough to overlap in a bunch of ways.

[Mister Six]

Should've called himself Christopher Rabbi.

[13 schoolyards]

Or just shortened it to Christ Priest

[Gladys]

The whole Christopher Priest and cominc writer Christopher Priest thing is one of those fabulous life imitating art things and (original ) Priest has written about it with a mixture of bemusement and irritation. One of the thematic threads that runs through much of Priests novels is that of twins/dopplegangers/imposters/mirror images so its great that it manifested itself in that way.

[Gladys]

His parallel worlds / alternate WWII timeline novel The Separation was another good one, though like a lot of his books I remember getting to the end and thinking I must have missed something, only to realise the sense of missing something was the point in a way,

I remember really enjoying his virtual reality novel The Extremes, which was pretty similar to the (later) Existenz - so much so that Priest wrote the novelisation of that movie under a pen name (he also wrote the novelisation of Short Circut, plus a bunch of other things he seems to have kept under wraps).

Supposedly he was working on a biography of JG Ballard when he died, hopefully he got it close enough to completion that it sees print one day

That sense of missing something in his writing is a good way of putting it. His style can be disarmingly straight forward and with an uneasy undercurrent of unease and a feeling that there has been much sleight of hand going on. One of my favourite all time writers is Rober Aickman who does a similar thing, albeit in a very different way.

Yes, The Extremes is a good one. His novelisation of Existenz is something i've had on my to-read pile for years but i've never brought myself to read it. I'm a big Priest fan and I loved the film so I guess i'm wary.

Yes, I just heard about the Ballard book. Hope there's enough of it to be published sometime.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Just found myself with a pile of Christopher Priest books - The Inverted World, The Glamour, The Affirmation, The Separation and The Islanders - so am kicking off my binge with the earliest of this bunch, The Inverted World. Fifty pages in and enjoying it so far...

[Neville Chamberlain]

M. John Harrison

This name has come up a lot in my life lately, mainly through watching The Outlaw Bookseller. What would you recommend for someone who's never read a word of his, and bearing in mind that my favourite author of all is JG Ballard...? :-)

[Dayraven]

Signs of Life, Course of the Heart (both collected as Anima) and The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again are probably his closest to later Ballard, in juxtaposing their weirdness with run-down mundanity. Or Settling The World, probably the most available of his short story collections.

[Gladys]

Just found myself with a pile of Christopher Priest books - The Inverted World, The Glamour, The Affirmation, The Separation and The Islanders - so am kicking off my binge with the earliest of this bunch, The Inverted World. Fifty pages in and enjoying it so far...

The Inverted World is a good read but not really representative of his later work. You'll get that with the other books on your pile. Hope you enjoy!

[Gladys]

Signs of Life, Course of the Heart (both collected as Anima) and The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again are probably his closest to later Ballard, in juxtaposing their weirdness with run-down mundanity. Or Settling The World, probably the most available of his short story collections.

Exactly the books I'd recommend as well. Particularly starting with a short story collection - stories like Gifco, Egnaro and such.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Signs of Life, Course of the Heart (both collected as Anima) and The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again are probably his closest to later Ballard, in juxtaposing their weirdness with run-down mundanity. Or Settling The World, probably the most available of his short story collections.

I'm glad you mentioned these, because these were exactly the ones I was most drawn to...

[Neville Chamberlain]

OK, so I've finished Inverted World

Spoiler alert

complex ideas beautifully written, though as much as I liked the ending, it was possibly a bit deus ex machina

[close]

and am now just over halfway through The Affirmation.

All I can say is: where the hell has Christopher Priest been all my life?!? And I've barely scratched the surface (The Glamour's up next...)

Not started any M. John Harrison yet, but I now have copies of The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again and Signs of Life...

[HAVANAGILA]

Discovered CP after being bowled over by the film of The Prestige - I love both book and film, they're markedly different beasts but each great in their own ways - and I rapidly realised I'd found my new favourite author. Everything I've read by him has been incredibly rewarding, and left me with a queasy feeling for days afterwards. Also enjoyed the number of trailing threads he leaves in so many of the books (the Dream Archipelago ones especially), where I feel I'm tantalisingly close to pulling it all together, frantically leafing back through earlier chapters to catch a phrase or line that suddenly acquires more importance... but nope, the likes of The Islanders and The Adjacent will remain a deliciously frustrating mystery forever now.

Was delighted to find out (shortly before his passing) that I'm a couple of books behind, so I can't wait to tear into Airside and Expect Me Tomorrow. Thought The Evidence was a bit of a return to form after The Gradual and An American Story (probably my least favourite of the ones I've read), so I'm hoping he managed to finish on a high.

His blog was always worth a read as well, he didn't hold back on his thoughts about other writers, Nolan, Brexit etc - I imagine he could have been a little irascible irl but on the page / screen he was always entertaining and thought-provoking. RIP CP.

My rankings from Favourite to Least Fave of the 12 I've read :

Superb :
The Islanders
The Prestige
The Dream Archipelago
The Glamour
The Separation

Really Good :
The Adjacent
The Evidence
Inverted World
The Affirmation
The Extremes

S' Alright :
An American Story
The Gradual

[Dayraven]

Liked Expect Me Tomorrow the more of his last two. The plot strand set in the past is closely based on a real-life case, but I'd recommend not looking up about it before you've finished.