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whatdotheyknowaboutfriends's review against another edition
3.0
A fun, rambling book about a gambler who sells his soul and tries to get it back, complete with god-like entities (Archetypes) who flash in and out of the scene. A lot like "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman but not as good. I found the "archetype" stuff and the tarot really interesting, and wish some more information had been provided on who the various arcana in the tarot were. I think personifying them a bit more would have made some of the card stuff (oh, theres a two of spades, that means the Jack of Hearts is looking for you, etc) seem less random. Easy to rip through this one though, so worth a pass.
falconfeast's review against another edition
4.0
This was one of the weird ones I've ever read. I started this book because I wanted to read something about poker & gambling. It definitely had that but along with that, there were a lot of weird/crazy things happening in this. But whatever it was I enjoyed this one, especially toward the end.
The thing I really liked the most about this one how all the subplots came together and made this whole. A few of the chapters in the middle were kind of boring for me because it seemed that everything was written with too much depth. But in the end, all the things become clear and you end up saying "ooooh" like 10 times. All in all, I really liked it.
Will, I recommend this to someone else? - Yes, definitely but they had to have some cards knowledge otherwise the whole setup/plot will be very weird
Will, I read this book again? - Nope, never again. This is the kind of one which you read once and things are now spoiled and reading again won't be that fun now.
The thing I really liked the most about this one how all the subplots came together and made this whole. A few of the chapters in the middle were kind of boring for me because it seemed that everything was written with too much depth. But in the end, all the things become clear and you end up saying "ooooh" like 10 times. All in all, I really liked it.
Will, I recommend this to someone else? - Yes, definitely but they had to have some cards knowledge otherwise the whole setup/plot will be very weird
Will, I read this book again? - Nope, never again. This is the kind of one which you read once and things are now spoiled and reading again won't be that fun now.
srlemons42's review against another edition
5.0
Oh man, this book! So, this is the first book from author Tim Powers that I have ever read. Friends have been recommending his books to me for years but I've always had too many other books jumping in front of him. Long story short: I was a big dummy who should have picked him up sooner to read.
Short review: This book is so inventive that it makes me jealous even though my own writing is no where close to being good enough to publish. I absolutely loved every page and savored it for as long as I could. I even held off on reading it for two days because I didn't want to get to the end and finish the story and leave all these great characters.
Longer Review: Last Call tells the story of Scott Crane as he tries to save his own life and possibly the rest of his friends lives through playing of the game Assumption.
The book starts in a flashback of sorts that tells the story of five-year-old Scott's last day with his father. they end up at home playing a card game with a special tarot deck that starts to pull Scott into a kind-of dream-like coma, empty state. Scott's mother, however, has other ideas. Not wishing her last born child to end up a mindless nothing controlled by her husband she shoots Georges Leon and grabs Scott and makes a run for it.
The main tale starts to unfold when we meet a much older Scott. He is a drunk with a dead wife and his only friend is his next door neighbor. Through a bit more flashbacks we learn the when Scott was around twenty-one or so he went against his adopted fathers advise and played a game of Assumption and a houseboat. Now his real father has "assumed" his life. This is how he plans to become and stay basically immortal, by jumping into his many "children.
The story follows Scott, his sister, his neighbor, and other assorted people in a run and fight for their life. I am finding it very hard to convey just how great this story is. it weaves in fables, myths, tarot cards, poker rules, poker superstitions, roman god/goddesses, gangsters, and so much more that I am surely forgetting some things.
The book builds and builds until the tension threatens to break the characters and also the person reading it. By the end you read faster and faster because you can hardly wait to get the bubble of tension popped. I felt the ending was great and very satisfying. I have never felt better about my friends taste in authors and even have more books by Tim Powers loaded on my kindle to read next!
Very highly recommended.
Short review: This book is so inventive that it makes me jealous even though my own writing is no where close to being good enough to publish. I absolutely loved every page and savored it for as long as I could. I even held off on reading it for two days because I didn't want to get to the end and finish the story and leave all these great characters.
Longer Review: Last Call tells the story of Scott Crane as he tries to save his own life and possibly the rest of his friends lives through playing of the game Assumption.
The book starts in a flashback of sorts that tells the story of five-year-old Scott's last day with his father. they end up at home playing a card game with a special tarot deck that starts to pull Scott into a kind-of dream-like coma, empty state. Scott's mother, however, has other ideas. Not wishing her last born child to end up a mindless nothing controlled by her husband she shoots Georges Leon and grabs Scott and makes a run for it.
The main tale starts to unfold when we meet a much older Scott. He is a drunk with a dead wife and his only friend is his next door neighbor. Through a bit more flashbacks we learn the when Scott was around twenty-one or so he went against his adopted fathers advise and played a game of Assumption and a houseboat. Now his real father has "assumed" his life. This is how he plans to become and stay basically immortal, by jumping into his many "children.
The story follows Scott, his sister, his neighbor, and other assorted people in a run and fight for their life. I am finding it very hard to convey just how great this story is. it weaves in fables, myths, tarot cards, poker rules, poker superstitions, roman god/goddesses, gangsters, and so much more that I am surely forgetting some things.
The book builds and builds until the tension threatens to break the characters and also the person reading it. By the end you read faster and faster because you can hardly wait to get the bubble of tension popped. I felt the ending was great and very satisfying. I have never felt better about my friends taste in authors and even have more books by Tim Powers loaded on my kindle to read next!
Very highly recommended.
garretreece's review
5.0
Exquisite book by Tim Powers that blends together the Tarot, poker, semi-ancient mythology, and Las Vegas in ways that I thought not possible. Highly recommended, and especially recommended for those who think that fantasy is all pointy ears and chainmail bikinis.
beadgirl's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent novel incorporating magic, gambling, Las Vegas, "The Wasteland," and tarot cards. Similar and yet so different from Gaiman's American Gods.
http://janalynmarie.blogspot.com/2014/01/last-call-by-tim-powers.html
http://janalynmarie.blogspot.com/2014/01/last-call-by-tim-powers.html
williemeikle's review against another edition
5.0
My first read of 2017 straddled the old and new year, which is pretty apt for a tale of the death of an old king and the ascension of a new one.
LAST CALL is a dazzling jewel of a book. Powers pulls out all of his vast array of literary tricks, and not for the first time drags his Jungian archetypes to center stage to show off for him.
In this one we get Fisher Kings, blasted lands, fools and knaves, queens and one eyed jacks, all vying for control of the Kingdom and the power that comes with the role of the new King in a plot centered around the casinos of Las Vegas and the surrounding area.
So there's that, but there's also an almost noir feel to the book, like Raymond Chandler filtered through the eyes of a burned out poker player ready to cash in his chips for the last time.
As ever with Powers there's wonderful characterization, tremendous set pieces, wild flights of fancy, and lyrical flourishes of brilliance.
This one won the World Fantasy Award in 1993 and fully deserves every plaudit thrown at it. It hasn't dated either - you can still feel the desperation and despair in those Vegas casinos, and still see the lost and fractured people chasing their places in the Kingdom.
The old King wants to be reborn in a new body at the start of a new cycle, and will stop at nothing to avoid slipping away into the waiting dark. But the throne comes at a price, one that many others are also willing to pay. There's a game being played, a high stakes one, and Powers makes sure the tension is ratcheted up all the way to the final hand.
It's a great, great novel, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone with a taste for dark tinged, modern Arthurian Fantasy.
LAST CALL is a dazzling jewel of a book. Powers pulls out all of his vast array of literary tricks, and not for the first time drags his Jungian archetypes to center stage to show off for him.
In this one we get Fisher Kings, blasted lands, fools and knaves, queens and one eyed jacks, all vying for control of the Kingdom and the power that comes with the role of the new King in a plot centered around the casinos of Las Vegas and the surrounding area.
So there's that, but there's also an almost noir feel to the book, like Raymond Chandler filtered through the eyes of a burned out poker player ready to cash in his chips for the last time.
As ever with Powers there's wonderful characterization, tremendous set pieces, wild flights of fancy, and lyrical flourishes of brilliance.
This one won the World Fantasy Award in 1993 and fully deserves every plaudit thrown at it. It hasn't dated either - you can still feel the desperation and despair in those Vegas casinos, and still see the lost and fractured people chasing their places in the Kingdom.
The old King wants to be reborn in a new body at the start of a new cycle, and will stop at nothing to avoid slipping away into the waiting dark. But the throne comes at a price, one that many others are also willing to pay. There's a game being played, a high stakes one, and Powers makes sure the tension is ratcheted up all the way to the final hand.
It's a great, great novel, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone with a taste for dark tinged, modern Arthurian Fantasy.
hand_of_cthulhu's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
intothestarrysea's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Transphobia, Cancer, Blood, Death, and Death of parent
katgotyour's review against another edition
5.0
Luscious story telling, this book wraps you in a world of magic and cards with the desert as your landscape. Absolutely stunning
tansy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
4.75
Bits of this book have aged poorly, but I still loved it. I picked it up because I was running a game of "Unknown Armies" and Powers' "Fault Lines" trilogy, (of which this is the first book), was mentioned online as a big influence on "Unknown Armies". (The similarities became blindingly clear pretty early in the book.) "Last Call" is the sprawling story of a professional poker player who ends up in a secret competition in Las Vegas to become the Fisher King. There's a lot of other things going on though, (the story takes place over a span of 40 years and every character has their own weird agenda), but the strange magic used by the characters is what I really fell in love with. It's a very punk, do-it-yourself magic - one of my favourite ideas in it is that you can use a game of poker to both divine the future and also change it by deliberately losing a hand that predicts bad things.
There are some bits that aren't great, (the casual homophobia of the early 90s shows up, and for some reason Nardie Dinh is only ever referred to as Asian despite clearly being Vietnamese and I have no idea why), but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Diana and Nardie, the two female characters. They're both determined to be players instead of pawns and I am here for them taking control of their own destinies.
I had a blast reading this, (I stayed up too late because I was so gripped by the final showdown), I had to look up a load of things, (including a lot of minor arcana tarot card meanings), and I'm going to pick up the second book in the trilogy, "Expiration Date", as soon as possible.
There are some bits that aren't great, (the casual homophobia of the early 90s shows up, and for some reason Nardie Dinh is only ever referred to as Asian despite clearly being Vietnamese and I have no idea why), but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Diana and Nardie, the two female characters. They're both determined to be players instead of pawns and I am here for them taking control of their own destinies.
I had a blast reading this, (I stayed up too late because I was so gripped by the final showdown), I had to look up a load of things, (including a lot of minor arcana tarot card meanings), and I'm going to pick up the second book in the trilogy, "Expiration Date", as soon as possible.