Customer Reviews

The Last Hot Time

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

"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.

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.

A long, long time ago, back when man was still hunting and gathering on the plains, the elves left our world to return to Elfland. About thirty years after JFK was president, they returned. They were horrified to see what humans had been doing in their absence and immediately started to change the world. One of the first things they did was to get rid of television. From there they established themselves throughout the world, making places like the "Levee" in old-Chicago where Elfland's and Earth's borders meet. Danny is a small town Iowa paramedic who has always dreamed of going to see the Levee. One day, he can no longer resist the "call" and hops in his souped up old car and heads out. When he gets near the Levee, he witnesses a drive-by shooting between rival elf gangs and races to help the survivors. He saves Norma Jean's life and enters the employ of Mr. Patrise. Mr. Patrise renames him Doc Hallownight and takes him to the Levee. There he is introduced to the 1920s/30s style of the elves and the humans who live on the border. He learns that magic is real, that everyone has secrets, that love is not always what is seems, and learns who he really is...

This was a beautifully written novel that will stay in your mind long after you have finished it. The characters are fascinating and very well drawn. Ford does not completely flesh out the characters - he leaves them a little mystery, a little shadow, so that you never really know them, but you think you do, just like real life. I loved Ford's writing style. He creates an almost hazy, blurred vision of this beautiful and ugly world that Doc has chosen to live in. His prose was absolutely gorgeous and a delight to read. I absolutely loved this book and hope that we will hear more about these characters one day.

"The Last Hot Time" is, at heart, a coming of age story. Years after the gates to Faerie have been reopened, Daniel Holman is running: away from his Iowa childhood, toward something better, or at least different. A road accident throws him into the orbit of a literate, powerful patron named, appropriately, Mr. Patrise. Patrise, it seems, is one of the leaders of the world between the worlds, and Holman, now renamed Doc Hallownight, learns much about his new world and more about himself.

John M. Ford owes debts in many directions for this book. Most of them are explicitly acknowledged, such as the movies Doc & his girlfriend Ginevra go to see and the references to tales of 1920s gangland Chicago. Terri Windling's "Borderlands" series is neatly tied to this one by several subtle references, and Ford borrowed two Emma Bull characters for a cameo. Those who love contemporary fantasy, residents of Chicago, and old movie lovers will find many in-jokes and references to enjoy here.

Ford's signature style is to leave much unsaid, to assume the readers' intelligence and let the reader draw their own conclusions from the hints Ford provides. It took me a full re-read of the novel before I understood the ending, and the exact nature of Doc's treacherous heart, and the reason Doc fears himself as much as anything or anyone around him. The story is told from Holman/Hallownight's viewpoint, and the moment when he switches from thinking of himself as Danny to knowing himself as Doc is sharply drawn and never commented upon.

If "The Last Hot Time" has a flaw, it is that Ford is covering well-trodden ground. Windling and her co-conspirators have done a remarkable job describing their Borderlands, to the point that Ford's story is overshadowed by his predecessors. Still, "The Last Hot Time" is at least as much about mood and character as about setting, and here Ford succeeds admirably. It's easy to fall in love with his complex, self-contradictory, wonderful characters.

I recommend 'The Last Hot Time' to anyone who wants to remember a time that never was, but that you wish you'd seen.

I am a big fan of urban fantasy by the likes of Emma Bull, Will Shetterby and Charles deLint. I has heard good things about this book and I had looked forward to reading it. I was a little disappointed.

This book has all the texture and flash but seems to be missing something at its heart. I'm not sure quite what. It does have it's high points. The descriptions are lush and you have no trouble seeing this world. The characters are interesting and eclectic, my favorite is Phasia.

The problem with this book was that the plot was a bit murky. Things happened, interesting things happened, then something else happenes, but the thread that should link everything together and push the plot along is missing. It is like watching scenes form a movie, but not the whole movie. The backstory was just not as tight as it should have been. I was never sure why the border style in this book came from an old gangster movie. The one time this is brought up in the book I was not satisfied with the answer. Also the sub plot where Doc has to learn to accept his true inner self is so subtle it's confusing. I'm not saying don't to read this book, but get it from the library and save your money for a better book.

My husband said, "I've never seen your re-read a book right after finishing it." and he's right -- I never have before. This one warranted an immediate re-reading. It pulled me along so fast the first time through that I thought I might have missed some of the good tidbits, images, and moody dialog and so decided to read it again. I like it just as much this time 'round.

I'd recommend not reading too much about the book before hand. For this one, it is much more fun to let it unfold as you go. Enjoy!

The Last Hot Time is a fascinating tale of young man who leaves his home in the mortal world to live in The Levee, a region inbetween the mortal world & Faerie. Danny Holman becomes Doc Hallownight and quickly becomes involved in the intrigue of the Levee. Under the sponsorship of the mysterious Mr. Patrise, he uses his medical knowledge to help the other residents of the shadow region. With a colorful cast of characters with names like Cloudhunter, Stagger Lee, Ginevri Benci, & Phasia, he battles a dark force loose in the Levee. I have waited a while for Ford's new novel and it is well worth the wait. This made my Hugo nomination list for Best Novel of 2000.

I've seen this "contemporary fantasy" (as the cover copy calls it) compared to the Borderland series, but it's not that except in the most superficial background sense. Elfland has reappeared in our world from its parallel dimension to the general detriment of human society. Danny, nineteen years old, a trained EMT, and too bitter for his age, journeys from Iowa to the nearest point of contact with the Shade, in Chicago, where he becomes part of the entourage of Mr. Patrise, a partly bent, partly noble power in this new world. There he becomes Doc Hallow, repairing wounds caused by gunshot and other, less Worldly forces in the struggle between Truebloods and humans. And that's about all the real plot there is. The real point in reading this darkly magical book is to experience the characters who inhabit it, to enjoy the interplay among them, to observe what magic does to people and non-people alike. Doc has his own deep secrets that keep him from loving, but he also has a strain of glowing personality that leads people to defer to him unexpectedly. Ford is an artist with fairy dust on his brush.

This book was not long or densely written, but it nearly wore me out reading it. Ford drops you into the story with no exposition and little explanation, so the reader has to pick it up as she goes along. And there's a lot to pick up--the elves are nearly incomprehensible, the humans all have hidden agendas, and the protagonist is an innocent abroad. I still don't think I caught everything, and there were times when I said to myself, "What the hell...?", but it was a fascinating and compelling read nevertheless. In fact, I'd like to read it again to pick up on the nuances I missed the first time, and there are very few books that prompt that reaction in me.