Lynn E. O’Connacht has done a fascinating analysis of the nationalities of Hugo Award nominees. I thought they were biased towards America, but this is the first time I’ve seen data. According to Lynn, 82.2% of Best Novel nominees since 1959 have come from the US. Only 12.4% have been from the UK.
With this in mind, today’s recommended read is The Prestige by British novelist Christopher Priest. It’s a fantasy about feuding magicians and inventor-physicist Nikola Tesla. It won the 1996 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and was made into a brilliant film featuring Christian Bale and Michael Caine. The trailer is below…
I personally love Christopher Priest’s warm flowing narrative style, and watched the film after reading the book. They are slightly different; mostly the ending. The novel captures the feel of alternate history while being compellingly fantastical.
I own – but haven’t read yet – The Separation and The Adjacent.