The terrifying Las Vegas of Tim Powers's imagination is one that secretly animates the neon-lit gambling capital we all think we know. It is a world in which superstition assumes the power of religion, the gambling tables are strange altars to chaotic gods, and luck becomes a deity literally made flesh.
Ten years ago Scott Crane quit playing Poker professionally — and he hasn't been to Las Vegas or held a hand of cards since. But now he's having nightmares about a strange Poker game that took place on …
The terrifying Las Vegas of Tim Powers's imagination is one that secretly animates the neon-lit gambling capital we all think we know. It is a world in which superstition assumes the power of religion, the gambling tables are strange altars to chaotic gods, and luck becomes a deity literally made flesh.
Ten years ago Scott Crane quit playing Poker professionally — and he hasn't been to Las Vegas or held a hand of cards since. But now he's having nightmares about a strange Poker game that took place on a houseboat on Lake Mead in 1969. The game in which he won a fortune twenty- one years ago is, in a supernatural sense, not finished yet. The money he took home was actually in exchange for his life…and perhaps his soul. And there's one hand yet to be played, a last terrible bet to be called, and he will have to wager everything.
From the Poker clubs of Los Angeles through the mythic wasteland of the Mojave Desert to Bugsy Siegel's magical city of Las Vegas, Crane's odyssey leads him to one last Poker game, a game that involves Tarot cards and the souls of the players much more than the chips on the table.
