Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Urban Fantasy, December 8, 2000
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.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Moments of sheer brilliance... and of utter confusion., December 1, 2001
"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.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Coming of Age in a Brave Old World, February 22, 2001
"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.
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