The Last Call

Man can this man write.

The Fisher King. Tarot. Poker. Gangsters. Tangible ghosts. Fractals, chaos theory and the Mandelbrot Set as a Fat Man. Reincarnation. The Easter cycle. Castles in the desert.

The biggest problem I have with describing a book by Tim Powers is to simply state what it's all about. Is The Annubis Gates merely the adventures of a modern-day time traveler in 19th century England? Is On Stranger Tides only about zombie pirates in the Caribbean? Is The Stress of Her Regard a tale of female vampires preying on Romantic poets?

On the face of it, Last Call (Avon, 1993) is about the Tarot, gambling, ghosts and the legend of the Fisher King. But the best thing about Powers writing is the way he weaves what must be notebooks full of notes into one vast and wonderful tapestry. You start out the book wondering what the heck is going on, feeling like you're almost in some Van Vogtian dream state of a novel. Eventually the characters grab you (and minor players have a way of building into major players as time goes by in a most wonderful way). Legends drift in, particle physics, bits of popular culture. Suddenly you realize that it's 4:00 AM, you've read half the book, and you really should get some sleep as you have to be up in a bit to get your daughter off to school.

I read the book in about two days. I just couldn't put it down, wondering if Scott Crane would be able to overcome the obstacles put in front of him and win at the ultimate game of Poker. Good stuff. Excellent stuff. If I have any complaint about Powers is that he doesn't write enough stuff. You have to wait 3 to 5 years between books, making the dreck that you encounter labeled as "fantasy" in the meantime seem all that much worse.

There are no "official" Tim Powers sites, that I've come across, but here are a couple of pretty good "unofficial" sites, plus a Powells.com interview.