Last Call

By: Tim Powers

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player 20 years ago and hasn’t returned to Las Vegas, or held a hand of cards, in 10 years. But troubling nightmares about a strange poker game he once attended on a houseboat on Lake Mead are drawing him back to the magical city. For the mythic game he believed he won did not end that night in 1969—and the price of his winnings was his soul. Now, a pot far more strange and perilous than he ever could imagine depends on the turning of a card.

Enchantingly dark and compellingly real, this World Fantasy Award–winning novel is a masterpiece of magic realism set in the gritty, dazzling underworld known as Las Vegas.

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©1992 Tim Powers (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“A dizzying, stimulating magnum opus.” ( USA Today)

“Brilliant! Compelling and satisfying! Tim Powers is one of our best writers, and Last Call is his best book yet.” (Raymond E. Feist)

“Distinctive and commanding…a strikingly inventive novel.” ( Publishers Weekly)

Fans of American Gods will like this one

This is an excellent story. The world is rich and dark. It reminds me a great deal of Gaiman's American Gods and that is a good thing. The characters are well developed and I like how they involve the supernatural with real world people and events.

Bronson Pinchot does the narration and he is one of the best. This is something different from the standard urban fantasy fair and you well definitely enjoy it.

Deal me in

What a great book. if you like "American God's" (neil gaiman) or "Dark Tower" (stephen king) this book is in the same neighborhood. Excellent narration, captivating story, worth the credit or the cash.

Powers Rocks

Tim Powers is neither sci-fi nor fantasy (at least no in any conventional sense), he writes very interesting stories where impossible things happen. In Last Call, he's mixing cold war spy stories with old school middle eastern mythology, and pulls it off brilliantly. Pinchot would not be my first choice for this book but he does a very good job.

5 STAR BOOK MEETS 3 TO 4 STAR READER

I love this book. I have read and reread it many times. Wonderful characters in a very original situation. It can be hard to follow but it is completely worth your patience. Bronson Pinchot does a decent job narrating.

Great Listen

A great book with excellent narration. Glad Tim Powers has made it to Audible and hope to find more in the near future, esp. Expiration Date and Earthquake Weather (the sequels to Last Call).

A good book!

I have been debating writing this because I wasn't sure I could add anything worth knowing about the book in my review! But I will try in the spirit of "sometimes anything is better than nothing at all". Here it goes:
It was a good book but not near as good to me as one of my all time favorite books by any writer "On stranger tides". It is interesting with lots of good characters but a little too much bad language for my taste. The reader did a great job and I even think he fit this book better than "On stranger tides". The story seems to be well thought out and you will need a pretty good memory to remember who is who through out the book. You have no need to like gambling (I dont) to like the book but gambling is a huge part of the story but it is not gambling quiet like any of us has ever tried or ever will! I wont say anymore about that so as to not give away too much. I consider Powers to be a very talented and smart writer and I think the reader may need plenty of the latter to enjoy his books to there fullest.

Powers is Under-represented on Audible

One of the most ineteresting and lieterate fantasy writers of the last 30 years. This is an excellent listen.

not for the faint of heart

Any additional comments?

tim powers is awesome but dark and deep especially in audio. have a light on and someone there to hold your hand in the spooky bits... and make sure you have enough time. you wont want to put this book down!

Don’t Let Anyone Make Any Assumptions

When your mother warned you not to play poker with Tarot cards, this is exactly what she was afraid of. Typical Tim Powers weirdness accompanies this extraordinary novel populated with ordinary people in the most strangely supernatural circumstances. This novel has a lot of common elements with Powers’ later novel THREE DAYS TO NEVER: set in an earlier decade of Americana, where cigarettes are smoked in every public gathering, characters changing bodies to prolong their weary existence, alcohol used to alter the connection to the spirit realm, but here in LAST CALL it all has an unforced harmony that is lacking in the later book. As in most Powers novels the story gets very complicated as we get to know the characters and then begins to come together as it approaches the climax, feeling somehow like an inevitable force of nature.

Bronson Pinchot has very good voices for all the quirky people and sometimes goes over the top as is required by the story. He helps make this a very entertaining audiobook.

Another Exciting Tim Powers Magical Adventure

Where does Last Call rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Bronson Pinchot has to be the best reader I've encountered yet. The story was very exciting but like with the prior Tim Powers books I've read, the narrative seems to not know how to end.

What other book might you compare Last Call to and why?

It does share common themes with Tim Powers' other novels. It's got to do with inhabiting another's body just like how Lord Byron and Michael were sharing each other's in "The Stress of her Regard." And there's a whole magical system setup for communicating with certain magical creatures like in "On Stranger Tides."

What does Bronson Pinchot bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He's got a great way of making each character's attitude and reactions seem totally natural. I think he should start using sound effects though (like for gunfire).

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed a bit.

Any additional comments?

Some of the characters don't get fleshed out enough and are added in around halfway through the book.