The Last Hot Time

by John M. Ford

Tor, 2000, ISBN 0-312-85545-1

A book review by Elisabeth Carey

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.

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