Subject: Review: LAST CALL

From: [email-masked] (Alan Wexelblat)
Date: 05 Jul 93 03:37:59 GMT

LAST CALL
			by Tim Powers
		Review Copyright (c) 1993 Alan Wexelblat

OK!  At last, something Alan likes.  Loves, to be honest.  Tim Powers has
never disappointed me, from the moment I first picked up ANUBIS GATES to
this.  Every one of his books is a delight to read, filled with historical
details that make the background come alive.  His characters (except for a
distressing authorial tendency towards physical mutilation) are all
different, realistic people with lives and loves and motivations as complex
as yours or mine.  And in this case, I have to grant that the physical
changes are integral to the story.

This time Powers tackles that icon of American mythology, Las Vegas -- the
town that gambling (and Bugsy Seigel) built.  Add in Tarot and just about
every associated superstition, stir with the blood of an old gambler and
you've got one corker of a story.  Scott Crane is this book's hero, in every
sense of the word.  He starts as a washed-up poker player haunted by
nightmares and alcohol.  What he transforms himself into is something that
has to be seen to be believed.  Along the way he has some important things
to say about true friendship and the kind of kinship that should exist
between every father and his son.

I've talked before about Powers' view on Magic.  I always feel when I read
his books that magic is something real.  That if I just had a drop of the
right blood, or knew the right totems, I'd see the magic all around me.  His
magic is low-down, anyone-can-do-it stuff with strict logic but
unpredictable effects.  And never doubt the ability of a bullet to punch
through any silly "spell."  Powers never lets his magic totally overwhelm
reality as we understand it.  It's just there, it just works, and it just
makes the plot function.  It has the right "feel."

I realize I haven't told you much of anything about LAST CALL.  That's
deliberate -- part of the delight of this book is seeing it unwind; there
are plots within plots here.  One hint, though.  Before you read this one,
read T.S. Elliot's "The Waste Land."  Powers has seemingly tired of doing
card tricks in the dark and is now laying out his sources for us to see and
to learn from.

Oh, and for those who doubt me -- note that I (who complains about paying $6
for a paperback book) laid out the bucks for the hardback on this one; there
may be a paperback version out there, but I don't want to wait.

%A Tim Powers
%T Last Call
%I Morrow hardcover
%G ISBN 0-688-10732-X
%O $23.00
%D 1992