Last Call by Tim Powers

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about Tim Powers's Last Call.

The Short of It

Plot: Scott's life is falling apart. Maybe because of the alcohol, maybe because his dead wife keeps talking to him, or maybe because of that poker game where he bet his soul.

Page Count: 535

Award: 1993 World Fantasy Award, 1993 Locus Fantasy

Worth a read: Yes.
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Fail.
Technobabble: Not really.
Review: Somehow walks the line between relentlessly dark and darkly humorous. Lots of fun world building showing off a hidden side of what we know, though occasionally gets lost in the weeds on the very same. Scott is such a depressing character that we both cheer on his improvements and believe his failures. For a book that really dives deep into the rules of both magic and card games this manages to maintain a remarkably solid pace.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free!

At the heart of this book is an extremely detailed magic system. The base for this is tarot cards and the power that they hold, but this is intermingled with plenty of other myths and religions. In some ways it is reminiscent of American Gods - the clear suggestion is that significant parts of many belief systems are on the money, overlapping. This is absolutely a hard magic system: it is defined by rules. Those who know these rules are at an advantage, those who are unaware struggle to keep up.

The world, then, is derived from these rules. Power and position are intimately linked to the rules of magic. Without going into spoiler territory, the proper use of magic is shown to be the reason a historical figure gained power, with the implication being that this is true of many others.

Alright, it's Bugsy Siegel, and it's the very start of the book. Look, let's not pretend that Bugsy is a major historical figure for most. Or that this is really a spoiler. 

I'm a bit out of practice writing these reviews, it seems. Let's talk about characters. Last Call is novel in that pretty much every single character here is 95% flaws. They're selfish, petty, self-destructive, bitter, violent, and cowardly - though not all at once, most of the time. And yet they're well enough written that, while reading, you can't help but want the good guys to win. Yes, the antagonists are worse - but they're worse in ways that are often understandable, if reprehensible. Both heroes and villains are just about the darkest reflection of human nature for which one could ask. You read through and watch Scott ruin something for the umpteenth time, and despite feeling annoyed with him, you can't help but feel for him too.

Lots of elements of the plot feel overcomplicated, there to showcase another aspect of the world. Characters alternate between chasing down someone and fleeing from someone - sometimes the same someone, sometimes a different someone. Occasionally things get spicy and they go to find a thing... before being chased by someone. It works well enough, allowing action sequences to spice things up so that we are not simply with just a lot of card games.

And there are a lot of card games. In 500 pages:

• Deck: 160 times
• Card: 130 times
• Cards: 340 times
• Poker: 83 times
• Game: 142 times

There is something absolutely gripping about Last Call. This book has an exceptional and tense opening chapter, raising questions and pushing you forward. When things slump for a bit after that to set up our characters, we're still buoyed by the need for explanations. It just works.

The Long of It

Spoilers Ahead!

Everything related to Scott's wife Susan is devastating. Susan is, unfortunately, deceased. Her death immediately proceeding the story is one of the things that drives Scott to drinking heavily. Seeing how much he loved her makes us care for him despite his flaws. And watching him lie to people and pretend that she's alive is both saddening and horrifying.

The problem is, she doesn't stay dead. We start out thinking that Scott is delusional with grief and seeing traces of her - until one of his friends speaks with her.

“Scott?” came a whisper. “Come to bed.”

“It’s me, Susan, Arky,” said Mavranos, embarrassed. “Scott’s still off at his… whatever he’s doing.”

“Oh.” Her whisper was weaker. “My eyes aren’t very good yet. Don’t… tell him I spoke to you, okay?”

She added something else, but it was too faint for him to hear.

“I’m sorry?”

He could hear her take a deep breath, like wind sighing through a leafless tree, but when she whispered again, he was only just able to hear it.

“Give him a drink,” she said, and added some more words, all he caught of which were the syllables back us.

“Sure, Susan,” Archimedes said uncomfortably. “You bet.”

Scott is offered the choice of staying with giving up his quest and staying with this twisted copy of Susan - and he accepts. For a while at least. There are a string of excellent scenes with this: we watch in horror as Scott starts drinking, knowing it helps people track him, we follow as he heads to a hotel to sleep with her, we join them in a car out for a drive. And we pity him, and we understand him, because all he wants is her to be back.

Her sentence rocked him, even through the tranquilizing alcohol haze. It was a line from one of the books he and Susan—the real, dead Susan—had loved.

Even knowing that this thing is not her, Scott is aware that this is the closest that he'll be able to get. Sure, it's not quite her... but it's not not her either. Maybe it's enough to be with the best possibility. Of course it might kill him, but if it does, he gets to see the real Susan again.

And as perverse as it is, we even mourn with him when Fake Susan dies, knowing that even that is no longer an option for Scott.

Anyways, that's why you shouldn't get back with your ex, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!