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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.
cj_jones's review against another edition
4.0
We had a copy of 'The Anubis Gates' sitting around the house when I was a child, but I never got around to reading it. I'm not certain why I grabbed this one off Amanda's bookshelf, but I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I'm over half way finished at this point.
eatordie's review against another edition
5.0
I'm a big fan of [author: Tim Powers]. He has this strange ability to take bizarre and disparate elements and weave them together into a cohesive and engaging story. This particular example of his work involves (among other things) poker, chaos theory, Jungian archetypes, Tarot, and The Fisher King. These things seem to have little or no relation to each other, but it all works, and it does so brilliantly. The best thing he's written, in my opinion.
smorancie's review against another edition
5.0
Eye read the first time years ago. Second time listened. Stalled out at the 2/3 part because of the reader, not the book, but managed to finish! The story is as good the second time around as the first.
heyhawk's review against another edition
5.0
"I stayed up late playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and eight people died."
Stephen Wright didn't mean that joke as a review of this book, but it works as one.
Read twice in 2008.
Stephen Wright didn't mean that joke as a review of this book, but it works as one.
Read twice in 2008.
lasbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
sara_q_chicago's review against another edition
5.0
Poker and the occut- fun! Tim Powers is amazing at making you feel that the creepy and strange is frightenly possible. . . this book (for better or for worse) has effected my poker game ("2-4 spades again, why 2-4 spades, what does it mean!")
nwhyte's review against another edition
1.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1796765.html
I didn't really get in with this, and almost gave up after the first third: most of the characters too unpleasant and unengaging, too many cultural references that simply sailed past me. I stuck with it in the end, and appreciated as ever Powers' dense description and evocative spookiness, but didn't really feel I grasped what it had all been about or why it mattered at the end.
I didn't really get in with this, and almost gave up after the first third: most of the characters too unpleasant and unengaging, too many cultural references that simply sailed past me. I stuck with it in the end, and appreciated as ever Powers' dense description and evocative spookiness, but didn't really feel I grasped what it had all been about or why it mattered at the end.
unsquare's review against another edition
5.0
This was one of those rare page-turners... after a certain point I just could not put it down, which is why I started in on the second half of the book around midnight tonight and am just now finishing at 6am. This is a book firing on all cylinders - pitch-perfect characterization, a deep and involving mythology, suspense, thrills, and incredible high stakes. Highly recommended, even to people who don't understand poker (like myself).