by Tim Powers
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| List Price: | $15.95 |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $9.34 |
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Product Description
Enchantingly dark and compellingly real, the World Fantasy Award-winning novel Last Call is a masterpiece of magic realism from critically acclaimed author Tim Powers. Set in the gritty, dazzling underworld known as Las Vegas, Last Call tells the story of a one-eyed professional gambler who discovers that he was not the big winner in a long-ago poker game . . . and now must play for the highest stakes ever as he searches for a way to win back his soul.
Average Customer Review:
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 A Let Down, 2008-05-09
I loved Anubis Gates and several other Tim Powers novels. This book seemed to be a perfect combination for me: Powers + mystique of cards + seedy underbelly of Las Vegas... but unfortunately it failed to impress.
I bought this book when it first came out. The first time I read it I felt it dragged on and didn't deliver to my expectations. Because I wanted to dive into the other 2 books of the loosely connected trilogy (Expiration date & Earthquake weather), I thought I'd give it another chance. I'm sorry to say, that it still left me wanting more. Not much really happens, especially compared to the brilliant plots of other Powers novels.
Some reviewers commented about needing a sense of humor to read this. The truth is you just need to have the patience to endure really corny humor (lots of puns!). Disappointed to say the least.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Insert winning poker hand pun here, 2008-02-28
What a change of pace! Tim Powers reenvisions the great western epic with tbis book. It's interesting to me that one thing that never seems to come up in the reviews for this book is the overt link to truly great western cinema. Powers has a knack for drawing characters as intrisically flawed but strangely charming, much like the central characters of Leone's masterpieces or Clint Eastwood's "new" classic, Unforgiven. Much like the William Munny character of the latter, our hero Scott Crane is a retired "card"slinger with a weakness for booze that really sets him apart from the Mary Sues of the genre.
Aside from that, most of these reviews are spot on. Powers finds a way to tie together poker, Eliot's The Wasteland, the tarot, Jung, and mathematics. The only thing I would reccomend to any reader starting this out is if possible become acquainted with the basic symbolism of Tarot cards and the ranks of poker hands. Being a tarot enthusiast and amateur poker player myself, I know it certainly helped enrich and enliven the story for me, and helped me from getting lost in some of the intense poker scenes.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good Call, 2007-01-18
The Last Call is the most recent Tim Powers book that I read, and the oldest one chronologically (it was written in 1992, The Anubis Gates in 1997 and Three Days to Never in 2006). Power's trademark blend of fantasy, the occult, magic, conspiracy and suspense are very much in evidence here, in this tale of Scotty Crane. Abandoned as a young child and raised by Ozzie a professional poker player and master of so much more, Scott, now a 46 year old ex-professional Poker player and recent widower, finds himself caught up in a web of magic, murder and mayhem surrounding a very special game of Poker, played with a Tarot deck, that he took part in 20 years earlier against Ozzie's desperate pleading. Now Scott finds himself literally playing for his life against his true biological father who tried to co-opt him as a 5 year old and then won the rights to his body in the poker game 20 years ago in which neither was aware of the other's identity.
There are many references, both clear and obscure, to T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland", Arthurian legend, The Fisher King and more, but it is not necessary to be familiar with any of these works to fully appreciate or enjoy the novel. Nor is it necessary to be a poker player, although poker players and/or gamblers will get a kick out of the well-written poker scenes even though they are little more than background scenery for the main story.
The characters are well-developed, believable, and except for the baddies, likeable. The writing is excellent and the Las Vegas scenes and descriptions are great. If you like at least one of poker, Powers or magical fantasy, you will like this book. If you like more than one, you will like this book a lot.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Myth meets the Mundane, 2007-01-09
This book is definitely not for everybody. The story places a battle of mythic proportions (literally) on the tawdry streets of Las Vegas. I got a big kick our of the way Powers combined the banal with the mystic (e.g., in one scene, two characters find a location in Vegas by shaking silver dollars in an empty vanilla wafers box, and seeing if they turn up heads). The dialog has the tough-guy quality of a roman noir, but they are discussing tarot cards and moon goddesses. If you like that kind of thing, then you will probably enjoy this book.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Surprised nobody's mentioned Charles Williams, 2006-08-05
When I read "Declare" I thought 'Alan Furst meets Charles Williams;' certain of the themes of "Last Call" remind me particularly of "The Greater Trumps." It's difficult to imagine Mr Powers being unacquainted with the 'spiritual thrillers' of friend-of-Tolkien-and-Lewis Williams; those who enjoy Powers are likely to be in for a treat should they give the neglected Williams a try. (The 'other,' pulpier Charles Williams, the American caper writer, is also great fun.)
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