The Last Hot Time

by John M. Ford

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.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Noir, Fae

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

John Milo "Mike" Ford was a science fiction and fantasy writer, game designer and poet.

Ford was regarded (and obituaries, tributes and memories describe him) as an extraordinarily intelligent, erudite and witty man. He was a popular contributor to several online discussions. He composed poems, often improvised, in both complicated forms and blank verse, notably Shakespearean pastiche; he also wrote pastiches and parodies of many other authors and styles.At Minicon and other science fiction conventions he would perform "Ask Dr. Mike", giving humorous answers to scientific and other questions in a lab coat before a whiteboard.

Ford passed away from natural causes in 2006 at his home in Minneapolis.

Biography source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._...

Reviews

[John Carter McKnight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've long since lost my taste for literary fiction. The Last Hot Time is everything literary fiction is not: it's *painterly,* where the craft is more powerful for not drawing attention to itself with how clever it is trying to be. It is not mundane; it captures transcendent passions. It does not turn up its nose; it gets its hands deep into the muck of our souls.

The Last Hot Time tells a coming of age story, and a very good one. But what it mostly does is capture a hundred shades of sweet pain. It is melancholy, and the fear of losing a love not yet found, and knowing oneself too well, the kind of absolution that burns away guilt but never responsibility, the fear from knowing that you'll have to peek behind the curtain rather than being comforted by the illusion.

It is layers upon layers of nuance in a very short book. It is imagery that will stay with you forever. It is a reminder of why True Names matter and why words hold power. It might make you cry. It will likely haunt you. It is not perfect, but it is all the better for not being so.

*Find* a copy. Clear a late night. Savor that feeling when you turn a corner to unexpectedly confront perhaps not *great* art, but true art.

[Cera · Rating 5 out of 5]

A teenage boy, trained as a paramedic, runs away from his small-town Iowa home to magical gangland Chicago -- and this Chicago really is magical, as elves have returned to the world. An awesome book for the autumn, with some of the action taking place on Halloween.

I'm not sure I can say enough good things about this book, because Ford does all sorts of things I love. The main character grows to know and trust himself, and through doing so learns to know and trust others, but it's a realistic, hard-fought journey, and prices are paid before the end. There's a sense of a real cosmology underneath the story, fully worked out, but that's not what the book is about, and thus the novel creates the illusion that it is a text *produced by* the world which it describes. Just as Jane Austen doesn't explain her early 19th century assumptions to the reader, so Ford never stops his narrative to explain the rules of his magical Chicago. The pieces are imbedded in the text, there to be picked up and put together, but never in the way of the story.

Another thing I loved about the novel is Ford's respect for his human characters. Too many novels which feature a human protagonist encountering legendary non-human creatures are about how much more interesting & exciting the vampires/werewolves/elves/etc are than the humans. Ford avoids this; his elves are Other, beautiful and frightening and compelling in their magic -- but his humans are compelling as well. Moreover, they have their own magic, the magic of natural history museums, cabaret singers and Buster Keaton films. The book ends up being a celebration of humanity and its ability to interact with the unknowable without losing itself.

Finally, Ford's prose is as always delightfully oblique; there are layers and layers going on, and thus the novel will reward multiple rereadings. I look forward to coming back to it in a year and seeing what I find.

[Liralen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those books that makes me want to go back th rough all my ratings and put everything down another notch just so I can rate this higher.

Again, I find myself loving it for what it doesn't say as much as what it shows. Definitely a true example of why it's important to show and never tell. Ford's prose always gets me. Solid, detailed, distinct and perfect for the character. I love how Danny's perspectives change, how his name changes, how he changes through the whole of it, and how the shape of the things about him changes as he grows.

It's dense, structured, with multiple layers on every meaning. Beautiful and harrowing. With quotes for those that love literary things. There's always more to be had with each piece and each action.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is apparently set in the Borderlands, which adds value if you know what that is but doesn't spoil anything at all if you don't. If you've read other Faerie stories, that will also help. If neither, Ford just lets you pick it up as you go along, and I didn't notice any "huh?" moments.

So let's mix detective noir with fairies and the Mob, shall we? Let's have a VERY interesting array of talents, and a bad guy who's worse than anyone thought.

Was there ever any doubt that Danny would have The Touch? although to Ford's credit he does establish that not everyone just finds this place. And it was NOT obvious what that would lead to.

Through all the adventure, we see Danny developing, although one part of it seems a tad distracting, or perhaps odd, or over-stressed, or something, But in the end I guess it was plausible and could have had the effect shown.

Main thing: like Ford's other work, I really enjoyed reading it.

[Maura Heaphy Dutton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Learning that this novel is set in the the Terri Windling-Emma Bull-Will Shetterly-etc. "Borderland" shared-universe explained a lot: I felt that there was a fascinating world to be explored here, but the author was coasting, letting the knowledge he assumed the reader would have do the work for him. As someone who hasn't read any other Borderland stories, I found the descriptions of the world -- the magic of the areas affected by elven magic, and the hints about the dystopian world the central character is escaping from -- either ploddingly encyclopedic, or frustratingly offhand.

I finally gave up on it because, in a narrative in which a lot happens, I couldn't see anything like a plot developing. Page after page goes by in which Doc, our innocent young protagonist, is introduced to one exotic and slightly shady denizens of this magic-infested realm after another. We learn what they're wearing, what they're eating, and drinking, what they're singing. (Central to the action is a 40s-style nightclub, complete with top-hatted doorman and tuxedo'd waitresses.) Each one patiently explains his or her backstory, and "powers," someone fires a tommygun, Doc patches someone up ... and then he meets someone else. It's like the first day at a very puzzling internship, when you've been told everything about the switchboard and the coffee machine, but nothing about what the business actually does.

Perhaps they all come together, and something happens. I just didn't find it interesting enough to wait and find out.

[Alex Sarll]

I used to love urban fantasy, but now the field has become so oversaturated and formulaic that I tend to steer well clear. But, this one is by John M Ford - and the only other book of his I've read, The Dragon Waiting, overcame the similar reluctance I now feel about alternate histories and vampire stories, simultaneously. This is also very good, keeping the essential strangeness of elves in Chicago intact, even as we come to know individual elves. There are nods to Dunsany, who managed a similar trick when his elves visited the Fields we Know, and a resistance ever to reveal too much - there are tantalising glimpses of the mechanics, of what happened when they returned, of what the rest of the world is doing (though cleverly, never of Britain, where preconceptions might intrude), but no solid RPG-style info-dumps. And that's part of why, unusually, I would have been quite happy had this been twice its economic 200-page length.

[Benjamin]

After reading a few encomiums to John M. Ford -- all of which note that his literary estate has only recently become untangled, so get ready to clear out some shelf space for the new editions -- I picked this up at the library.

It's a short book, only ~200 pages, and except for that -- and also it taking place in a Chicago that's 1930s gangster elf-themed -- I kept thinking about Henry James. As a friend once put it in grad school, the experience of reading James is often going "oh no, I don't want to miss this moment when this tension climaxes; oh no, I missed the moment; oh wait, what was that moment?"

Or put another way, this is a book long on innuendo and short on explanation. We meet the 19-year old protag as he runs away to the big city of Chicago, a bordertown between the human world and elfland, through a human landscape that seems on the verge of collapse: the gas station he comes to is crumbling, large parts out of service, and coffee is a scarce commodity. This all gets quasi-explained maybe a hundred pages later, when we learn that, when elves returned, many of them ran amok destroying parts of human culture that they couldn't abide. Which includes TV, which is maybe why the dominant art form is old movies, so even though this book takes place in, I don't know, the 1990s?, everyone dresses and acts like they're in a 1930's gangster movie.

This isn't exactly a case where the style is the genre, though Ford is playing with two genres -- the elf-punk bordertown; the gangster fantasy -- where style is prominent, if not preeminent. (Bordertown is kind of a sleazy, gritty place, where misfits might fit in in a place halfway between two worlds; gangster fantasy is wizards with hats fighting for bootleggers who say, "look, see." Both of those styles are present here.) That is, Ford seems less interested in the accoutrements and more interested in our protag's journey of self-discovery, which...

I'm not sure whether to call what I'm going to say at the end here a spoiler or a guess, because the way people talk to each other in this book is mostly someone saying something oblique and the respondent starting a sentence that they never finish. That's, I guess, part of the fun with a gangster story, where you never quite know where people stand and who might double cross who and for what. But in a speculative fiction story, there's so many unknowns that things that don't get said might simply end up never being known.

Take, for instance, the villain, a bad elf named Whisper Who Dares, who is behind some torture and murder, I guess; a bad dude who is gaining magical power, I think, for some ends which I don't think are ever said; and in the final confrontation the protag walks in to a hostage negotiation and gets a hostage out without really any sense of negotiating, intimidating the big scary guy with something even more terrifying, kinda? It's moments like that -- a big unexplained action climax with no action -- where I felt the lack of the explanation. (As one reviewer put it, the big villain plot is kind of a subplot because it doesn't seem all that important because it's never quite explained.)

It's funny that, in a way, this novel that refuses to talk about what it's about also includes several characters who don't talk about what they talk about, like the columnist whose column is both gossipy and oblique; or, most notably, the human woman who goes by Fay now that she's been cursed by an elf with aphasia, the inability to talk, which grants her also the power of the Voice, that instills emotions in others through, essentially, scat-singing.

That's the sort of thing that makes me think Ford is willfully playing with the power of the unsaid. It works, in a way, especially since this story is from the POV of the new guy in town, the aw-shucks small-town EMT who here is made into the pivotal Doc of the gangster crew without ever really knowing what's going on, and definitely without speaking about it. But at the end of the day, his journey of self-discovery feels both unsaid (because it's literally never articulated) and not worth saying (to me), since his big revelation seems to be that he's into bondage. Maybe this is the sort of thing that time has robbed of its power -- maybe in 2001 this could have been treated like a real revelation and like a character who is concerned with power coming to terms that he can take power without _abusing_ that power.

I mean, I guess I'm glad for the dude that he learned what his kink is, but did it have to take 200 pages of people never finishing their sentences?

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a new Bordertown story. It does stand on its own; nothing requires the reader to even suspect the existence of the other stories, much less have read them. Danny Holman, a young man with considerable experience as an emergency medical technician, flees his old life for the City, and along the way he gets hooked up with Mr. Patrise, who appears to be a somewhat senior gangster. Danny, with his EMT skills, becomes Doc Hallownight, and settles in, more or less, to his new life, providing much-needed emergency medical services after, and sometimes during, shoot-outs. He also acquires a girlfriend and other friends, elf and human, and slowly and painfully starts to learn a few things about himself. Elves are almost inescapably alluring to humans, but elf culture is fairly appalling, morally, when you look at it. There's more than a hint of its nature in the fact that the elves' name for themselves is Truebloods. Some of the inhabitants of Bordertown, both elf and human, have noticed this.

The book is far too short to say anything more about the plot without spoilers, but this is one of the stronger Bordertown stories.

[Leons1701 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Library book sales are always fun, and finding a J. M. Ford book that I don't already own is even better (and getting harder all the time). Ford is probably best known for his two Star Trek novels "The Final Reflection" and "How Much for Just the Planet" which were so awesome Paramount kicked him off their writers list for making everyone else look bad (this may not be literally true). But Ford was so much more than just Star Trek (even if he did write RPG supplements as well as novels).

This is very typical Ford, witty and deeper than it might look at first glance. It's a coming of age story, as so many of Ford's novels are, but it's also a meditation on love, sexuality, power and the consequences thereof. It's got a lot of those subtle Ford touches, the main character, Danny, gets a new name when he arrives in Chicago and at some point later in the story, Ford stops referring to him as Danny and uses the new name instead. One could view this as simple lazy writing, but it seems clear Ford is making a point about Danny growing into his new identity as Doc Hallownight.
Ford never really explains his setting, elves came back and apparently all the portals are in big cities, magic works, TV doesn't and it all feels vaguely Roaring 20's like but we never really know why. There are little hints dropped here and there, but noting concrete and it totally doesn't matter. (Apparently this book may be linked to the Borderlands series, but that doesn't matter either). It's enough to grasp that this is fantasy noir, that the world is a harsher, colder place but not without hope.

[Daniel Polansky]

I read this book when I was maybe ten or twelve, during a period of time where I was probably reading a couple of hundred fantasy/sci-fi books a year, the vast vast majority of which either have been or should be forgotten. This one stuck in my mind, however, not so much for the general premise – elves/magic have re-entered the world, brought about a minor apocalypse, and now like to cosplay gangland Chicago – but for its lyrical wistfulness, peculiar pacing and a BDSM subplot. When I pieced together that this half-remembered work was by John M. Ford, writer of the really excellent The Dragon Waiting, I was pretty sure that a re-read would prove it to be that rare example of a work in which my past and current self would find agreement. Huzzah! This is urban fantasy done right, pulpy and fast-paced but also moody and vibrant, a world you want to live in even though you might have your heart broken or get eaten by a dragon.

[Isaac]

3/7/21: I just started this book and am noting this here to keep track of this thought. At the beginning, while meeting all the characters, I really noticed that characters are only described in terms of race if they are not-white, not-human: elves, Asians and Black people so far. This is something I'm working out for myself as a writer so I pay attention to how it's done or not done by other writers. However, by contrast, a doctor at the hospital comments on knowing someone is not from around here because he said 'a woman' while people from around there would say 'a white female'. To me, that suggests white isn't the norm there if it's an active rather than implicit descriptor... but it's implicit in the way the characters are described that unless mentioned otherwise, they are white. A curious mix of in-world awareness that isn't matched in the author descriptions of the world. The descriptions are very rich in many aspects and tell something about context... it's this one piece that stands out. Not that I want to write like a census taker.

[Freya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review to come :)

[Sir He-Man · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Hot Time is a strange pastiche of subgenres and tropes. And it's one that mostly works.

Taking place in a post apocalyptic era following the return of Elfland, a paramedic only going by "Doc" Hallownight, or "Hallow" comes by chance upon an injured elflord named Cloudhunter and his human friend Mr. Patrise, who hires Doc as their resident physician.

I'll sum up the worldbuilding for you. It's well done but takes place throughout the novel. Elves are superpowerful aliens. They last visited our world at the dawn of our species and when they return are shocked we have evolved so quickly. They annihilate almost everything. People live simply as they did in various previous decades. Television is banned. Chicago is mostly gutted/destroyed but a portion of it remains. Elves like to use our world as a battle ground. Being immortal in their world but not in ours has precipitated blood feuds that converge in Chicago, which is filled to the brim with cultural remnants resembling decades from the 1920s to the 1970s. You don't see a lot of the destruction that has taken place in this world. You have women in gorgeous vintage style dresses, people attending black and white films in movie theaters, newspaper writing being the popular thing to read again, and men and elves alike in dapper suits and fedoras. Lots of gangster type shootouts straight out of the Prohibition era.

The entire story is told from Doc's point of view. The last few reveals of the book struck me as incredibly unforeseen and downright odd. I wasn't sure what secret Doc had, but it turns out on thee last paragraph to be...he's into BDSM. What a completely random ending. It has literally nothing to do with the rest of the book. Right before this, he finds out that he has The Touch, and that he will most likely be part of a shadow council that rules Chicago on the downlow. The Touch means he can heal people to some degree with his mind, but he learns it too late to help a main character that dies. And he doesn't really deal with the repercussions of this. The book just kind of hangs on that note without exploring it at all.

I love the feel of this book. I like how it doesn't deluge you with details, it just presents all this visual imagery together in a really cool bit of urban fantasy. But it doesn't entirely hold up. I really liked certain characters. Stagger Lee (what a cool name!), Ginny (Ginevra) and especially Mr. Patrise always managed to hold my interest. Lucius as a character seems like the only one who was truly plucked from another time and therefore he interested me the most.

The noirish bits work the best. It doesn't deluge you with bits about magic. It's thrown in there between the fighting. I loved the slow sort of picture forming of a group of people who were all at the end of their ropes interacting in a glamorous, really decadent atmosphere. And contrasting that decadence with the outside world Doc came from and has no desire to return to, to the point where he surrounds himself in an environment where he is doing autopsies of gun victims every week.

There isn't a lot of resolution to this book, but it is different. It's quirky and the weird mix of cultural pastiches don't always feel entirely like they work together, but they do most of the time. My biggest problem is with just how random the ending was. If you want to do a BDSM storyline, I don't have a real problem with it but throwing it on as a surprise ending was a really perplexing move and didn't gel well at all with his character.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is fantasy/film noir set in modern-day Chicago.
Yeah, I was confused, too. And reading the book didn't make things much more clear.
The Last Hot Time follows Doc, a young paramedic, as he navigates the new and confusing world he's found himself in.
This book had the potential to be really interesting and really fun, but I had a few issues with it.
First of all, hardly anything happens. The book spends so much time explaining the world and the people to Doc and to the reader that there isn't much time or room left for action. It's a very slow book (which works in some cases) and I didn't like that at all.
Second of all, even with the endless world descriptions, I was very confused. Periodically, it'd feel like the author had forgotten to tell us something about the world and the reader had to figure it out on their own. It felt like the author had this brilliantly developed world, but knew it so well that he'd often leave out details because he assumed the reader should know it as well as he did.
Third, most of the characters have several names and nicknames that aren't obvious through context clues and aren't mentioned in any clear way. So in the final third of the book, I was very confused as to why "The Fox" character was important and who they were when (after several pages) I finally realized that it was a character we'd known all along. This happened often enough that it was frequently unclear to me who was speaking and which characters were in the scene.
Fourth, I just really didn't quite understand how the ending happened. Things were happening (kind of sometimes) and it was getting slightly dramatic and then - suddenly Doc is in charge of everything? How did this happen?
This was probably the most bizarre book I've read in awhile, but not necessarily in a good way. It had potential, but didn't quite fulfill my expectations. I won't be recommending this to anyone anytime soon.

[Caitlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

How have I missed this author?

There is a great tabletop role-playing game system called Shadowrun that was originally published in 1989. In it magic returned to the world in 2011, bringing with it mythological creatures and turning some humans into orks, trolls, dwarves, and elves. In the gaming system it's initially 2050 and it's a cyberpunk urban fantasy world that prefigures a lot of the popular fiction being written now, where mega-corporations rule the world and operate sort of like organized crime syndicates - sort of William Gibson meets Tolkein. It's an awesome gaming system and I've never understood why it isn't more popular. Related to this are the Borderland Series based on a similar fictional universe and created by Terri Windling. There are a number of collections of short stories edited by Ms. Windling and several novels of which my favorite is Finder by Emma Bull.

The Last Hot Time is set in a similar sort of universe. Its Chicago and the elves have punched through into our universe bringing with them all kinds of magic and transitory places. This is a coming-of-age story whose main character is plopped down into the middle of things in this alternate Chicago. A paramedic by trade, training, and vocation, Danny Holmann becomes Doc and learns about life, friendship, and the possibility of love.

If you can imagine elements of high fantasy crossed with a film noir feel you'll get a sense of the flavor of this wonderful and original book. Ford writes well and tells a great story and now I want to find everything he wrote. As an aside, Mr. Ford is the person who introduced Klingonaase to the world in his Star Trek novel, The Final Reflection. How geektastic is that?

[Chiara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really uncertain about picking up this book, I actually left it in the bookstore and only ordered it online after because I couldn't stop thinking about it. Something about the cover was just fascinating (you don't see an elf in a leather jacket holding a gun everyday). I saw a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews and yet I was still blown away by how much I loved this book. The world and the characters are just fantastic. It's really a really character-driven story, and I love that, because the characters, many as there are, are all unique and fascinating in their own ways.

I was especially surprised by how much I loved the main character and how quickly. He is definitely not what I expect in a character who looks like a noir hero on the cover of his book, but I mean that in a good way, since I don't usually like noir or its heroes. One review mentioned it's a growing-up story (which I interpreted as coming-of-age) and I really see that and I think that's what really drives the plot. I loved seeing Danny grow into Doc and I loved the friends he made along the way.

My only complaints are that there isn't a sequel and (mild spoilers) one of my favorite characters died. I did learn (when I was ordering the book) that the book, while not on most of the official lists for the Borderland series, is closely related to those books, so I ordered an anthology of Borderland stories along with it that will hopefully satisfy my need for a sequel.

[Debbie is on Storygraph · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a relatively short book in the days of scifi-fantasy publishing where most books are around 400 pages minimum. It also manages to pack in a lot behind the seemingly simple plot of gang warfare in the streets of a Shadow Chicago where elves and humans coexist in a world of twisted laws and politics. Ford's writing style, slow and a bit superficial, sets the tone, reminiscent of the old gangster movies of the Depression era. This is intelligent fantasy and Ford appears to make an effort to not have the reader pick out everything the first time through. I'm going to have to read this at least another two times before certain things get cleared up. The characters were great, but I would have liked to have seen them a bit more in-depth than they were portrayed. That, as well as the ambiguity over certain plot points lessened my enjoyment from this book.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real hidden-gem of an urban-fantasy noir by John M. Ford found by chance at a used book sale. I love the depth, world-building, magic, politics, mystery, action, and change explored in this alternate Chicago. Easily a new favorite! It works well as a standalone novel, but oh, how I wish it was part of a series that really expanded on all of the material just touched upon here! I suppose I really need to read the Bordertown series which inspired this tale.

Also, as a person who works with paint, I laughed far too much at Matt Black and Gloss White! :D

[Sasha Twyst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calling this Urban Fantasy seems a little misleading, but with the Tommy guns, poker games, Chicago landmarks and elves, it's hard to use any other shorthand. It would be more accurate to call it literary jazz, backed by dancers made of magic dust, but that probably isn't a category at Barnes & Noble.

This is my first and only John M. Ford book and I can't remember how it got into my "to read" stack. I know I've had it for a while. I'm glad I read it when I did, after having gotten back in the habit a bit, because this is a book that takes attention, even as short as it is. Every detail is important, some coming back without warning or recap. The language is smooth and nuanced. It's obvious from page one that you're dealing with a masterful author. I think the readers who will enjoy this most are the active ones, the sort that dive into a book and chew on every sentence, extracting every flavor of meaning before trying the next one.

The story is simple enough: a young man from the country is going to Chicago. Almost there, he witnesses an attempted hit. Having some experience with trauma due to being an EMT, he helps and immediately falls into the circle of a powerful man with dangerous enemies and magical connections.

I think this story was just short of perfect, but that shortness is significant. There are a lot of characters and while they all have distinct voices and are each given the spotlight here and there, Mr. Ford doesn't always make them so distinct as that you don't have to remind yourself of who you're dealing with (particularly the women). Also, there are details that get mentioned all of once, but which are hugely pivotal down the line and if you can't recall them, the book turns from brilliance to utter nonsense; I loved it, and there are still bits I don't entirely understand, even though I'm sure if I went back and reread it, I would see them foreshadowed over and over.

I wish the author had taken a little more time. The book is narrow, only 200 pages or so, and I think a few more might have let us wrap ourselves up in the characters a bit more, given them perhaps a few more distinctions and fleshed out some of the ones of which we only really get a shot of; a chaser would have been appreciated.

After I finished the story, I found that the author had passed and I was sorry to hear that. I'm going to have to go back and look up more of his work. I'm glad this one somehow made it into my library. It was definitely worth the time.

[Frank Vasquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is special, and I can’t understate that. While considering how to speak to what it is, tell how it made me feel and what I think about it, I tried to wrap my head around the fact that it’s at its core a coming of age, a commentary on power (because I lack the understanding of what politics or nature it speaks to), and an exploration of practical and supernatural magic. The Last Hot Time is, truly, an undiscovered gem. So many parts subtle and as many words and pages eloquent and slick and groovy. It’s goth, it’s a reimagining of contemporary fantasy, it’s plot driven but unable to progress without its characters… I’m spellbound, bewildered, nodding my head in knowing and spitting glossolalia like it’s sense. Ford delivered a novel of unspeakable depth and beauty, packaged as an action semi-noir adventure, riddled with gorgeous description and sleight of hand scene transitions that evoke a quality of ethereal while remaining too truly real. Science fictions and fantasies pretend at world building, subtly gifted to layer a narrative with weight, but Ford delivered a masterwork of contemporary AND post-modern magic. What’s it about? A boy maybe questioning his sexuality leaves his American town to explore who he is in the rift of an established frontier of magic in the ordinary world where elves and humans find themselves drawn to power and safety and meaning finds himself the lever of war as a healer that must understand what pain is in order to attain the power to shape a world of uncertain permanence. What? No, I don’t know what I mean. Or what Ford meant. Eloquent, evocative, and very final, The Last Hot Time is a novel for anyone searching for a tale that can be told by anyone hoping for something better than where they are. Then, now, hopefully not tomorrow.

[Luke Stacks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elves have returned to the Earth, and they don't like what they see. They've dismantled our televisions and reintroduced magic. But the Earth changes elves, too: they have taken up Buster Keaton, leather jackets, and motorcycles. Chicago now sits in the shadows between Earth and the elven homeland, stuck in a funhouse mirror version of the American past, aesthetically hovering somewhere between the 1920s and the 1950s. Gangsters, thugs, and smugglers are thoroughly respected.

Into this scene roars Doc Hallownight (yes! indeed). The Iowan paramedic administers first aid to a car after a drive-by shooting, and winds up in the passenger's employ with a brand new name.

Ford had a skill for keeping the plot moving even when readers can't be sure what the plot actually is; his novel The Dragon Waiting hides some exquisite subtleties. There are definitely times I wished I had access to a set of annotations for this novel, but even if you don't have the answers, Ford made sure that you have the right questions and empowered the reader to look closer. When this directly affects the plot, the reader can at least make out effects and discern causes, but Ford's books also take the same approach to characterization. Several times we see Doc struggle to explain an emotion he himself doesn't quite understand. As readers, we can sympathize with Doc in these moments while at the same time seeing him in these moments as an outsider would. If all that effort sounds fun to you, Ford is well worth your time.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Danny Holman moves from his parents farm in Iowa to a future Chicago, where a shadowy region known has the Levee, has grown up at the place where the Elves have established a portal between their magical realm, and this reality. Magic works in the levee, but not reliably.

Danny is a paramedic. He acquires a patron in the Levee, who gives him the nickname, Doc Hallownight. The Levee is incredibly violent, and Doc settles into a role of patching up victims of shootouts and other confrontations.

This is a complex and deeply textured book. It has a lot of significant characters who form relationships with Doc. Everyone has their own backstory and motive, which are revealed piece by piece over the course of the novel. The reader has to play close attention.

I was so gripped by the book that I read the last two thirds in a single afternoon. I recommend it.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hard-hitting urban fantasy set in Chicago, Illinois that it is full of elves and magic and a young man from Iowa who finds his destiny forever changed by saving a life on a highway. Mr. Ford's words will make you sit up and take notice. I had no idea this was the same author who wrote a comedic Star Trek novel years ago, which I still have in my possession, and I am so glad I still have it in my possession so I can read it again.

**Update-I thought I still owned the Star Trek novel he wrote, but I can't locate it, so I guess I got rid of it, not realizing the significance of that moment.

**Update #2-I found that Star Trek novel and I'm happy now.

[John Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

John M. Ford is one of those criminally under-read, and underpublished (though that's going to change soon) fantasy authors who somehow managed to slip between the cracks of the SF world.
This book has its faults, but it was entirely worth buying and convinced me to shell out more cash for the very rare (and even better) The Dragon Waiting.
Want gangsters? This book has them.
Want magic? Yep, that too.
Elves with tommy guns? Sure, just like the cover advertises.
Mystery, mayhem, romance? Check, check, and however shoe-horned, check.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like being dropped in the middle of a dream. Things don’t always make sense and all you can do is sit back and enjoy the ride. Imagine 1930s Chicago gangsters set in a crumbling world filled with elves, magic that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, and a gang war with an unknown opponent. Despite the lack of background information about the world and the conflict Danny finds himself thrust in, the story and plot line works and engages the reader. It’s beautiful and a book you’ll find yourself thinking about long after you’ve finished it.

[Juan Sanmiguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paramedic Danny Holman is heading to Chicago for a new life. On the way, he saves a woman from a gunshot wound. As a reward, Mr. Patrise gives Danny a new name and a job in his organization. Patrise is the head of an Elf clan. Danny or Doc Hollow, as he is now known, falls into a world of magic and intrigue. This was a fun urban fantasy. It still feels like our woorld with an added element. Its a bit episodic but you want to know what happens next.

[Ilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Has that Gene Wolfe feeling of getting the contours of what’s happening but not being able to fill in all the details. There are suggestions that characters are more than they are, but the background mechanics are never directly revealed. A subplot running throughout is the sexual repression and awakening of the protagonist, which at the end is drawn into an interesting metaphor for exercising power responsibly.

[T · Rating 2 out of 5]

there were aspects of this book I did enjoy (mostly the general atmosphere/description of the world), but I also came away feeling like it was TMI about John M. Ford's tastes in an uncomfortable way (and not great with its nonwhite characters as well, and none of the characters I might have liked were developed enough).

[Rachel Ayers · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's super sparse. I want to throw a reviewer phrase like "sparse and elegant" around. Sometimes, with some of the characters especially, I think it's too sparse. I want to know more about Katie. But when I'm tired of urban fantasy holding my hand and carefully leading me through its moralistic quandaries, this is refreshing and clean.

[Farzana · Rating 5 out of 5]

John M Ford is brilliant, and incredibly wide-ranging in his novels. I would read his shopping lists. He could have started a dozen series but didn't, dropping each book like a separate complete scintillating multi-faceted jewel. I am delighted some of his books are coming back into print, as hunting down his out of print books is consuming time I would rather spend reading my latest find.