YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO HOME, BUT YOU CAN’T STAY HERE: I’ve already raved about Tim Powers’s incredible novel, Declare. And yes, you should read that right this second. I’ve managed to snare at least three people into reading it, and all three have admitted that it was great.

I recently finished an earlier Powers novel, Last Call. I don’t have a huge amount to say about it. It struck me as fantasy-horror, not just fantasy. Lots of people I like get really into Tarot symbolism and Jungian whatnot; if you’re one of those people, I’m pretty sure I can guarantee that this novel will flip your switch. For me, Tarot was a passing fancy, whereas the Cambridge spy ring (implicated in Declare) was true love.

But I’ll say two things for sure: 1.) This novel reminded me of everything I love about Stephen King. The gritty, blue-collar atmosphere; the battle between self-deception and self-knowledge; the descriptions of alcohol and need. Susan, in Last Call, reminded me strongly of both Pet Sematary and The Shining–and those are the King novels I think will still be remembered “when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits.” I need to re-read Dostoyevsky’s Gambler; but even the fact that this book reminded me of that one should let you know how painful and acute it was.

2.) I was okay with this book until the last, let’s say, 150 pp. Then I needed to know. I stayed up all night reading. My heart pounded. Partly, okay, yes, that’s because Last Call tapped into my deep-rooted obsessions with humiliation and sacrifice. But I’m pretty sure that, whoever you are, it taps into some of your deep-rooted obsessions too.

I think maybe all great fantasy is about salvage. Great fantasy, I think maybe, requires characters to sacrifice everything on behalf of something; and it’s the everything and the something which determine the story.