The Last Hot Time [Hardcover]

John M. Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

That woman, it turns out, is important to another party on the scene: Mr. Patrice. Who, in his turn, appears to run a lot of the City. Doc knows he holds some kind of unusual power. Mr. Patrice knows it too. So does the beautiful Ginevra Benci. And so does the sorcerous Whisper-Who-Dares, who offers threats and temptations far beyond anything Doc ever imagined. By turns brutal and delicate, murderous and metaphysical, The Last Hot Time is a fantasy novel unlike any other, a brilliant dance of genres and storylines leading to a thoroughly unusual conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Brilliant is as brilliant does, and Ford's first excursion into enigmatic, offbeat speculative fiction in seven years bids fair to win him yet another World Fantasy Award, as did The Dragon Waiting. In this mesmerizing near-future scenario, most of Earth's technologyDman's "magic"Dhas been destroyed by the immortal Elves who once coexisted with primitive hominids, then vanished back into the parallel universe of Elfland. When the Elves return a generation after JFK's assassination, they witness, horrified, what man has become, and they strike out in panic, blasting most of Chicago. Young paramedic Danny Holman, heading toward Chicago's Elf-gang-ridden heart, saves the life of a young woman wounded severely in a drive-by shooting. The mysterious Mr. Patrise rewards Danny with a new identityD"Doc Hollownight"Dand a job as house medic to Patrise's web of underground nightclubs. Danny also gets involved in Patrise's clandestine operations against Whisper-Who-Dares, the loathsome Elf who fuels his insatiable lust for power by flaying humans alive, feeding off their unspeakable agonies. Whether human, minor Elf nobility (the Ellyon) or Highborn Urthas Elves, Ford's generous cast of characters continually surprises, intrigues and pulses with life, a tribute to his power as a storyteller. Haunting, puzzling, even unsettling and deliberately obscure, this improvisatory jazzlike riff of good and evil in the context of a most unusual growing-up story is bittersweet as first love and loss, a minor-key elegy for the death of youth and innocence. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

When he stops to administer first aid to a gunshot victim, paramedic Danny Holman steps out of his old life and into a bizarre underworld of fast-talking, magic-wielding elves who dub him Doc Hallows and promise him a future beyond his wildest dreams. Ford depicts a modern-day world inhabited by supernatural creatures who enjoy fast cars, hard liquor, and the sound of money even as they keep alive the old traditions of fairy curses and otherworldly magic. By turns violent and funny, the latest novel by the author of The Dragon Waiting delivers a rapid-fire modern fantasy suitable for most libraries.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312855451
• ISBN-13: 978-0312855451
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,270,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Urban Fantasy, December 8, 2000

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Hot Time (Hardcover)

I liked this book a great deal. It's a "Borderlands"-type book: that is, the Elves have returned to Earth. In this case, one locus of the boundary between Earth and Elfland is Chicago. Danny Holman, a young paramedic from Iowa, comes to Chicago and (somewhat luckily) gets adopted as the medical person for a relatively "good" gang in the "Levee", the boundary area where magic works somewhat. Doc, as he is dubbed, falls in love, but must deal with a dark personal secret, while also learning about power and his need for control, in various facets of his life, and how that ties in with the way his new boss feels about control and power of the Levee. The plot concerns a smallish "gangland war", against a bad gang led by a bad elf. The plot is a minor part of the joys of the book. But Doc's personal story is very well done, and the backstory about the relationship of Elfland to our world is lightly sketched but fascinating, and the writing is just wonderful. The general description of the Levee as analogous to a romanticized version of Prohibition-era Chicago works beautifully. The elves are very well described: and their names are striking indeed. Furthermore their characters are believable: not human, not at all, but not better or worse: just different.

A very fine book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Moments of sheer brilliance... and of utter confusion., December 1, 2001

By 

Alex (College Park, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Hot Time (Hardcover)

"The Last Hot Time" is a resonably excellent book, but I have severe reservations about recommending it outright. The book has a fantastic premise, a large number of unusual, if slightly flat characters, great ambiance, and the power to absorb the reader utterly. On the other hand, there are stretches of dull non-events and moments of such absolute confusion that the reader begins to wonder about the rhetorical "why?".

" 'You'll regret it,' he looked up smiling. 'This isn't a threat. I won't _make_ you regret it.' " This was the line that told me that, at last, I was reading something worthwhile. Something that transcends cliches. Something that is humane and believable. Ford's writing is fresh and clean - any faults are its own, not inherent to the age-old cliche. As in many other books, the young hero isn't an especially good dancer - but where else have you NOT read long scenes of the hero's agonizing embarassment at that fact?

However, I have to agree with the reviewer m-fitz about the fact that the various parts of the book just don't seem to add up. The Levee, tribal and elfin magic, Vamps, Loop Garous, Shadow Cabinet secret police and the Shadow itself are intensely interesting ideas, but Ford barely elaborates on them. The book is mum about its most fascinating aspects just when we want to know more.

"The Last Hot Time" has moments of almost magic realism. While reading about Danny's quarters in Patrise's mansion, I could actually relax in my hard, rigid reading chair. The reader is IMMERSED into the words.

Unfortunately, there are many, many moments where the author loses the reader. The characters are too many, and introduced too quickly, to be remembered as individuals. Even at the end I was having difficulty telling Shaker and Alvah apart. After page fifty or so the book begins losing steam - the scenes at La Mirada and at Patrise's mansion are so similar they seem to be re-writes of each other, and so frequent that those two locations seem to be the only ones in the book (however interesting locations they may be). There are many scenes in which the characters half-guess what the other is going to say - but the reader doesn't. Anyone who can understand a single "Contrarian Flow" column will receive a big thanks from me. Lastly, the characters seem almost too mellow at times (while Danny is performing an autopsy, Stagger Lee brings him a mug of coffee - but what coffee it is!).

Ford is very whimsical in assembling the setting: we have mentions of "wire-wheeled cars" alongside "electric folk" music and "spaceship controls." Roaring-twenties fantasy-punk is an excellent sub-genre, and I hope more authors take advantage of it. Ford has done an amazing amount of research, and the book is peppered with information that rings true - history, medical trivia, fine art, etc.

This is one of those books I hope more people read - it has such promise I want someone to fall in love with it. "The Last Hot Time" is original, intense, and complex, and warrants an immediate re-read - something I wasn't too enthusiastic about.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Answers to some questions asked in these reviews, January 11, 2009

By 

TNH (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Hot Time (Paperback)

1. Was John M. (Mike) Ford ever seen in the same room with Will Shetterly?

Yes, more times than anyone could count. Mike lived in Minneapolis, and was a close friend of the writers in and around that milieu -- Will Shetterly, Emma Bull, Steven Brust, Pamela Dean, Neil Gaiman, Adam Stemple, and many others. He was also a friend to many of the Bordertown/Fairytales/Ace/Tor fantasy authors who didn't live in Minneapolis, such as Terri Windling, Jane Yolen, Ellen Kushner, and Delia Sherman.

Mike Ford had a lot of friends. He was generally beloved.

One underappreciated fact about him is that he's a character in the Bordertown series. The "M" in "John M. Ford" stood for "Milo." When you're reading the series, watch out for references to a Bordertowner named "Milo Chevrolet."

2. Is The Last Hot Time related to the Bordertown series?

Yes. It was originally conceived as a Bordertown novel, but it mutated so much in the telling that Terri Windling and Mike amicably agreed that he would move it out of the series proper. It didn't move very far, as witness the fact that Linn and Rico can wander in unannounced.

None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who's familiar with the history of his Star Trek tie-in novels.