Last Call: Amazon.ca: Tim Powers: Books

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

In a difficult, but distinctive and commanding novel, Powers posits a world of magic and horror behind the neon flash of contemporary Las Vegas.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

From Kirkus Reviews

Rich, top-flight mythic fantasy based on Jungian archetypes, Tarot symbolism, T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, and the Parsifal legend; by the smartly acclaimed author of On Stranger Tides, 1987, etc. Luck could not flow with more Jungian synchronicity for Powers than his having cast Bugsy Siegel as The Fisher King in this long novel just as Warren Beatty's Bugsy has fixed the nation's eye on the Oscar race, along with Robin Williams's turn as The Fisher King. The scene is Las Vegas, the subject supernatural poker using Tarot cards. Bugsy Siegel is the reigning Fisher King whose new Flamingo Hotel gambling casino is modeled on the Tarot's tower card, with the Flamingo as an inverted tower. Overthrowing Bugsy is Georges Leon, who assassinates Bugsy in his mistress's home in L.A. and prepares to become Fisher King. Leon has two sons, Robert and Scott. He has already spiritually gutted Robert and now can see through Robert's eyes, and is setting up five-year-old Scott for the same treatment while inducting him into playing-card magic. But Leon's wife shoots him in the groin, giving Leon the Fisher King's unhealing wound, and throws Scott onto a yacht that's passing by on a trailer. Scott, who has been blinded in one eye by Leon and become a one-eyed jack, is adopted and raised by the yacht's wizardly owner, Ozzie (who is much smarter than the Wizard of Oz). Scott faces his father in a weird poker game called Assumption, which uses Tarot cards and allows Leon to assume the bodies of losers for his future use, thus assuring him of immortality as long as he has a stable of bodies. When Scott loses to Leon, his objective becomes someday to beat Leon at Assumption and save his own soul by depriving his beastly father of bodies. Scott is aided by the ghost of Bugsy Siegel, which he meets at the bottom of Lake Mead. Knockout poker sequences give the symbolism real sizzle, while the genre is enlivened throughout with great lines from Eliot. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Customer Reviews

32 Reviews

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

4.7 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Monument to Imagination, May 13 2002

By

Patrick Burnett "penngos" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Last Call (Paperback)

"Last Call" is a book about loss, death, redemption, tarot cards and the Fisher King. It plays out in a vast and mythical Las Vegas that only marginally resembles the one that sits in the Nevada desert.

Scott Crane is a man who loses. As a child, he lost an eye. As a young man, he lost his soul in a card game. As an adult, is wife dies and he loses his will to survive. Until he is drawn to Las Vegas, where the last Fisher King died, and learns his is one of four Jacks vying for the right to assume the King's place.

It sounds wacky and ridiculous and I'm sure it would fall flat in any hands but those of Tim Powers. But Powers is a master of Urban Magic, at finding mystery in the oridinary and in drawing conclusions from history that might only be inferred by a madman. But once he has cast his eye on a subject and explained it to us, it all makes sense. We wonder why we never saw it before.

In typical fashion, Powers has selected Eliot's "The Waste Land" as a sort of working illustration of the story, writing elements that make you stop and think "Oh, ho! Eliot was in on it, too!". Powers uses the poem to good effect, as he has with the Romantic poets in "The Stress of Her Regard" and other works.

I don't get excited about many books or many authors, but this is one of the best. Powers is an amazing talent, always satisfying, always fresh and always jaw-droppingly unique.

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2.0 out of 5 stars A review that is against the norm....., Dec 1 2010

By

Ronald W. Maron "pilgrim" (Nova Scotia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Last Call (Mass Market Paperback)

While I can certainly understand that there is a population of readers who thoroughly will enjoy this book and will feel that I am, at best, a poor reviewer. In spite of that, this is far from being my favorite adult fantasy book and is one of the poorer attempts at fiction writing that I have experienced. I think that this book is a contrivance of popular superstitions mixed with a series of improbable characterizations. The book, itself, flows in a jagged and irregular manner going from one unlikely event to the next with little, if any, connections between these events and concludes in a bizzare trio of occurences that could only happen from a mind similar to that of a Stephen King. If you like King, you will love Powers! Like King, however, there is nothing to be gained from the completion of this 500+ page tome; no morals to be learned, no life experiences to be gained, nor not even a memorable character. The mystical world of superstition that they live in is not only incredulous but seems to be sporadically invented as the writing of this book proceded.

I truly admire the world of adult fantasies as long as it is both well formulated and that you can learn a life-lesson from it. I am sorry, Mr. Powers, but this novel failed to meet either stipulation.

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5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book, May 27 2004

By

R. Chamberlain "quiltfan" (Sunnyvale, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Last Call (Paperback)

This book is indescribable. I have attempted on many occasions to explain the plot of this book to people, but how can you explain that the main tenet is that luck can be won or lost playing poker? It helps if you know a little of the history and origin of tarot and card games, but honestly, how many people (other than me) have that as a hobby? Which makes this a difficult book to sell to others. But in all honesty, you don't need to understand all of the mythology references to enjoy this book. It is a compelling and fascinating look into a world that coexists with our own, just under the surface, but which few can see. I loved that Tim Powers took european myths/archtypes such as the Fisher King and Dianna and moved them to the American West.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy noir?
OK, I'll admit that I'm biased. I went to school with Tim: truly! Hey, every celebrity was a kid, once, and went to school and had friends :-) That being said, I've read most... Read more

Published on Jun 9 2003 by S. Carleton

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Tale
Whenever I read a novel I can tell from the first few sentences whether or not I will enjoy the book by judging the author's writing style. Read more

Published on Jun 9 2002 by rzaster