Last Exit by Max Gladstone
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Here's what you probably need to know. This is a gloriously multi-genre-mashing horror/fantasy/SF epic. The blurb doesn't do it justice.

Think SK's Dark Tower meets IT. Flavor it well with gorgeous small-line language that's some of the best, so evocative. Break up the story between two time periods and a massive road trip epic in a world (or rather, many, many worlds) gone wrong. And throw us some of the best, most genuinely scary scenes with tension coming out my ears.

Before I knew what was happening, I was completely lost in the tale, awash in real-life details and modern references that reminded me VERY fondly SK's early novels, leading me into very firm despair before the band got back together. And that's just the setup, leading us to a very Dark Tower-like epic that had me squealing like a true fanboy for ANY kind of novel or novelist able to pull this off in grand style.

And Max Gladstone did.


To be entirely honest, even though I had loved his original UF series and truly adored a certain red vs blue romance, I wasn't entirely sure this particular novel would have gone all out with originality and skills. It just seemed... interesting, not epic.

I'm glad I'm very wrong on that score. This was fantastic.

View all my reviews