I'm not, as a general rule, a big fan of fantasy stories in contemporary settings, and for some reason most attempts at humorous fantasy fail to raise even a smirk, but books like The Last Coin and The Paper Grail by James P. Blaylock are notable exceptions. Like his friend and sometime collaborator Tim Powers, Blaylock is one of those rare individuals who have the vision to see the numinous and the mysterious in even the most mundane people, places, and events. While he is at it, he writes amusing characters -- the more entertaining because I always feel that I know people with some of the very same quirks and foibles.
The coin of the title is one of thirty notorious pieces of silver. Created by magicians in some vague prehistoric age, these coins are the embodiment of evil, as well as considerable occult power, and the last man to possess the entire set was (as you may already have guessed) Judas Iscariot -- blood money for the most infamous betrayal in history. Shortly after the crucifixion an effort was made to scatter the coins so far and wide that their baleful influence might be diminished; in addition, "caretakers" were appointed and pledged to the task of keeping the coins apart for all time. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, the caretakers themselves sometimes succumb to the allure of the coins, not to mention their promise of worldly and occult power, and begin collecting them.
As the story begins, one of these corrupted guardians, Jules Pennyman, has finally bribed, swindled, and murdered his way into possession of twenty-five coins. Already something of a jinx (strange things tend to happen in his vicinity), he is naturally prepared to employ equally ruthless methods to gain the remaining five, but it will take a series of odd coincidences to bring them all within reach at the same time: one of these coins was swallowed by a deep sea creature in the distant past; one of them is still in the keeping of another caretaker in the Pacific Northwest; two were buried in the earth two thousand years ago, but have been gradually making their way back to the surface on the other side of the globe; and the final coin is in southern California, disguised -- in a typically Blaylockian touch -- as a teaspoon.
Pennyman, of course, is the villain of this tale, and as smooth and plausible an antagonist as you could ever hope to meet. The hero is ... more problematical. Andrew Vanbergen is an eccentric dreamer, a man with big plans but very little of the focus and determination, not to mention common sense, he needs to successfully carry them out. He is also the sort of person who can't seem to resist concocting preposterous excuses to explain away even the most minor embarrassments and the most trivial misdemeanors -- only to realize once he is in too deep to gracefully extricate himself that the simple truth would have served him infinitely better. (He then goes on to invent another implausible tale, which only complicates things further.)
Andrew's current scheme is to open a boarding-house and cafe. He already has the house -- or at least, his aunt-by-marriage is willing to allow him the use of her rambling old craftsman-style house in a California beach town -- and he has Aunt Naomi's financial backing as well. But it just so happens that Jules Pennyman has rented a room as one of Andrew's very first boarders, as it also happens that the house is not the only object of significance that Aunt Naomi owns. She is also in possession of a certain heirloom silver spoon ...
How Andrew and his equally eccentric though slightly more grounded friend, Beams Pickett, begin to suspect what Pennyman is up to and what it all means, how they set out to thwart his sinister designs and avert the apocalypse, makes for a story that is by turns suspenseful, humorous, and sometimes as rambling and obscure as one of our hero's own inventions. Andrew's long-suffering and wearily good-natured wife, Rose; shrewd old Aunt Naomi living up in the attic with her abominable cats (one gets the impression that neither of these women is fooled by Andrew for a micro-second, but they play along rather than burst the bubble of his fragile self-esteem, and because they are amused by his idiosyncracies); and Andrew's dotty Uncle Arthur (who has his own long-standing connection to the silver coins), contribute additional fun and interest.
Weird and wonderful touches abound; Blaylock makes good use of his coastal setting, extracting his own brand of magic from familiar places and familiar things. While Biblical conspiracies and revisionist scriptures are all the rage now, Blaylock got the jump on the current crop by several years. I like to think that The Last Coin is the sort of book The Da Vinci Code might have been if Dan Brown lived in southern California, could write three-dimensional characters, and had a sense of humor.
The coin of the title is one of thirty notorious pieces of silver. Created by magicians in some vague prehistoric age, these coins are the embodiment of evil, as well as considerable occult power, and the last man to possess the entire set was (as you may already have guessed) Judas Iscariot -- blood money for the most infamous betrayal in history. Shortly after the crucifixion an effort was made to scatter the coins so far and wide that their baleful influence might be diminished; in addition, "caretakers" were appointed and pledged to the task of keeping the coins apart for all time. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, the caretakers themselves sometimes succumb to the allure of the coins, not to mention their promise of worldly and occult power, and begin collecting them.
As the story begins, one of these corrupted guardians, Jules Pennyman, has finally bribed, swindled, and murdered his way into possession of twenty-five coins. Already something of a jinx (strange things tend to happen in his vicinity), he is naturally prepared to employ equally ruthless methods to gain the remaining five, but it will take a series of odd coincidences to bring them all within reach at the same time: one of these coins was swallowed by a deep sea creature in the distant past; one of them is still in the keeping of another caretaker in the Pacific Northwest; two were buried in the earth two thousand years ago, but have been gradually making their way back to the surface on the other side of the globe; and the final coin is in southern California, disguised -- in a typically Blaylockian touch -- as a teaspoon.
Pennyman, of course, is the villain of this tale, and as smooth and plausible an antagonist as you could ever hope to meet. The hero is ... more problematical. Andrew Vanbergen is an eccentric dreamer, a man with big plans but very little of the focus and determination, not to mention common sense, he needs to successfully carry them out. He is also the sort of person who can't seem to resist concocting preposterous excuses to explain away even the most minor embarrassments and the most trivial misdemeanors -- only to realize once he is in too deep to gracefully extricate himself that the simple truth would have served him infinitely better. (He then goes on to invent another implausible tale, which only complicates things further.)
Andrew's current scheme is to open a boarding-house and cafe. He already has the house -- or at least, his aunt-by-marriage is willing to allow him the use of her rambling old craftsman-style house in a California beach town -- and he has Aunt Naomi's financial backing as well. But it just so happens that Jules Pennyman has rented a room as one of Andrew's very first boarders, as it also happens that the house is not the only object of significance that Aunt Naomi owns. She is also in possession of a certain heirloom silver spoon ...
How Andrew and his equally eccentric though slightly more grounded friend, Beams Pickett, begin to suspect what Pennyman is up to and what it all means, how they set out to thwart his sinister designs and avert the apocalypse, makes for a story that is by turns suspenseful, humorous, and sometimes as rambling and obscure as one of our hero's own inventions. Andrew's long-suffering and wearily good-natured wife, Rose; shrewd old Aunt Naomi living up in the attic with her abominable cats (one gets the impression that neither of these women is fooled by Andrew for a micro-second, but they play along rather than burst the bubble of his fragile self-esteem, and because they are amused by his idiosyncracies); and Andrew's dotty Uncle Arthur (who has his own long-standing connection to the silver coins), contribute additional fun and interest.
Weird and wonderful touches abound; Blaylock makes good use of his coastal setting, extracting his own brand of magic from familiar places and familiar things. While Biblical conspiracies and revisionist scriptures are all the rage now, Blaylock got the jump on the current crop by several years. I like to think that The Last Coin is the sort of book The Da Vinci Code might have been if Dan Brown lived in southern California, could write three-dimensional characters, and had a sense of humor.
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One of the most entertaining books I've ever read.
