Tim Powers does not follow the beaten path, and his latest work, Last Call, is more proof that he has managed to elude one of the greatest threats to creativity faced by modern writers of fantasy.

J.R.R. Tolkien almost certainly didn't intend to strangle the freedom of thought and creativity of those who love fantasy, but in a large measure his overwhelming success and the popularity of The Lord of the Rings has done just that.

Here, Powers takes an almost untouched field of fantasy and brings it into late 20th century America, the result being one of the most unusual and memorable fantasies of recent years.

Last Call deals with the magic of cards descending from the ancient Tarot to our familiar deck of playing cards.

In the world of Last Call, cards are a gateway to a higher reality where our fates are determined and tools for shaping destiny.

The protagonist, gambler Scott Crane, made a fatal mistake in 1969 during a card game in a houseboat on Lake Mead near Las Vegas. After he and other players lose in the game, he is unaware of exactly how much he has lost to the individual known as the King of Cards.

He finds out 20 years later that the King, a sorcerer, calls up demons and moves from captive body to captive body to extend his life indefinitely; he won not just money but the bodies of the losing gamblers.

Now the King is employing the magic of the Cards - whose power stretches back from the gambling dens of Vegas to the fabled fortune-telling Tarot deck - to draw his victims back to the haunted desert where he will send their souls to oblivion and take over their bodies.

Crane appears to have a hopeless struggle for survival - hopeless because he lost the battle in 1969. But with the help of his stepfather and beloved stepsister, a neighbor dying from cancer seeking a miracle and the ghost of Vegas-founder Bugsy Siegel, Crane is determined to give the King a run for his money - and for Crane's body.

Powers has never written a bad book, and never the same book twice. If Last Call is any indication, his next book will enhance his growing reputation as one of the finest living fantasy authors.