Christophoer Priest passed away from cancer on February 2. While not prolific, he produced several works that received widespread recognition. Of these, the best known was The Prestige. This was a story about Victorian-era stage magic where one of the illusions is more than it seems. It was made into a film starring Christian Bale and Michael Caine. While the film is good, the book is even better. Yes, I know that’s a cliche, but the movie left out an entire plot line that takes place in the present world. The big surprise at the end fo the film wasn’t the big surprise in the book but rather the penultimate surprise. If you have only seen the movie, check out the book.

The other item of note that Priest wrote was something  I referenced in the Dangerous Visions post a few days ago. Priest wrote the book The Book on the Edge of Forever. This is a history of Harlan Ellison and Last Dangerous Visions. It’s fascinating reading. As you can probably imagine, Harlan doesn’t come off looking too well.

I picked up my copy at Aggiecon a number of years ago, when Harlan was GoH. The vendor who sold it to me said, “Don’t let Harlan see it.”

Good advice.

Priest produced a solid, if not extensive, body of work. He should not be forgotten.