The Ultimate Tarot Novel
By Thea Wirsching
Some novels are so masterful and epic in scope that it’s difficult to know where to begin discussing them. Tim Powers’ 1992 fantasy novel Last Call is one such. The simplest way to sum up Last Call would be to say that it’s a novel about tarot cards. Given that terse description, many potential readers might take a pass, imagining wooden prose, new age themes, and a predictable plot that involves ‘proving’ the efficacy of the cards. But Powers doesn’t waste a single sentence wondering about the presumed impact of tarot. In the novel, tarot is responsible for blinding some characters and making others crazy, as well as for several shoot-outs and the fate of the land itself. In Last Call, tarot is the dominant face of the invisible currents that determine our respective fates, but the Goddess Fortuna also shows herself in poker hands, flipped coins, weather omens, and waking visions...
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