Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing Tale
Review: 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. From the first few words of Tim Powers' "Last Call" I was drawn in to this captivating story. Tim Powers is a fantasy author but what makes Mr. Powers' novels different from others is that his fantasy novels take place in our world and seem that what goes on really could happen. Scott Crane was involved in a dangerous card game called Assumption many years ago and he is dreaming of the game. In this game his soul was stolen by the man that started the game. 20 years from when the game took place Scott decides that he wants to get back into playing Poker and Crane has no clue for what is going to happen to him. Scott is biologically the next Fisher King, the mythological king of the tarot card world. When Scott enter Las Vegas the cards are showing that he is in the city and people want him dead. From Vegas to Los Angeles to the Hoover Dam this novel is a tour de force that will keep you riveted from page one. Tim Powers is a very different type of fantasy author. His fantasies take place in our world and deal with real people just like you and me. The whole fantasy premise of "Last Call" is based on tarot cards and Powers makes you believe that these cards really have meaning and are much more than bogus. Other myths are also used in this book such as some things from King Arthur. Powers is an amazing author. From the first page of this novel you are grabbed and you will read and read and read until you have come to the ending. All of the characters are three dimensional people that you will care for and will either love or hate. There was just one thing about this novel that I didn't like. In fact, another reviewer brought something up along the lines of what I am going to say. I felt that the book's ending was a bit rushed and that Powers didn't let the ending work itself out. This minor wualm, however, did not make my reading of this book bad and therefore the book will keep five stars despite this. This is my first Tim Powers novel and it defintely will not be my last. I will never look at tarot cards or regular playing cards the same way since I have read this book. This is the perfect fantasy for somebody that wants an original read. Happy Reading!
Rating: 
Summary: Great story, but disappointing ending.
Review: While I am in no way a "fantasy officinado", I decided to try this book after encounters with the fantastic in writers like Murakami and Pynchon. I greatly liked this book in it's execution of a very smart premise, but was somewhat disappointed by an ending that had too many "special effects" and too little of the brilliance that was so abundant in the first 450 pages. Jung postulated that the subconscious of the human mind had two compartments, the individual subconscious and an inherited counterpart. This inherited part containing the so-called archetypes, that could be described as inherited personality blueprints. In this book Powers gives the idea of the archetypes an imaginative twist by conjuring up the existence of a spiritual pool that allows some people to move their minds from one body to another. Especially by embracing the classical archetype of the Fisher King, Powers explores his fictional take on Jung's ideas very successfully. Last Call is a decidedly post-modern take on the fantasy genre. While it is miles and miles away from Pynchon, Powers does often embrace obscurity to make the reader part of the mystery that his characters walk around in. There are many players and the narrative constantly changes angles and focus. If I would devise a movie-based subtitle, this book could be called "Angle Heart meets Ghostbusters on Independence Day". Due to its rooting in classical psychology, I considered the 450 first pages of this book as wild, surprising and coherent. Unfortunately, Powers threw a lot of the foundation of his story out of the window during the finale. While it still has the "Independence Day" feeling of may individual strands coming together, the narrative just became too fantastic and arbitrary to me. I am sure that it will give a special effects unit a field day when a movie version of this book will be in the works, but I considered it too shallow considered by the very high level of the preceding part of the book. Yet, those who have enjoyed the likes of Danielewski and Stephenson should definitely give this book a try.
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