The Last Coin

by James P. Blaylock

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▾LibraryThing recommendations

The Paper Grail by James P. Blaylock (1991)
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The Knights of the Cornerstone by James P. Blaylock (2008)
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Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)

*note to self. Copy from A. (different cover, different edition. scan when read).

velvetink | Mar 31, 2013 |

Would have been greatly improved with some serious editing. Too many scenes that were not funny enough to stand on their own for the sole purpose of showing the same characterization over and over and over again. (

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nicole47 | Aug 13, 2011 |

I first read this book in the late 90’s and loved it. Ten years or so on, and I’ll admit to struggling with it this time round. This is more a reflection on me than the book - unless the fiction fairies have been subtly altering the plot whilst I wasn’t looking. Still enjoyable, just sometimes felt a little slow paced. (

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theforestofbooks | Mar 1, 2009 |

http://www.lonelymountain.net/books/jun08.html#blaylocktlc (

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gwyneira | Oct 1, 2008 |

One of Blaylock's best. Possibly the best of his books. (

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Anome | Aug 31, 2006 |

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Series (with order)

Canonical title

The Last Coin

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Awards and honors

World Fantasy Award Nominee (Novel, 1989)

Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee (1989)

Epigraph

--Nay, if you come to that, Sir, have not the wises men in all ages, excepting Solomon himself, -- have they not had their Hobby-Horses: -- their running horses, their coins and their cockle-shells, their drums and their trumpets, their fiddles, their pallets, their maggots and their butterflies? -- and so long as a man rides his Hobby-Horse peaceably and quietly along the King's highway, and neither compels you or me to get up behind him, -- pray, Sir, what have either you or I to do with it?
--Laurence Sterne Tristram Shandy

Dedication

For Viki

And this time,
For my friend Lew Shiner,
Pen Pal and Surfing Buddy

And for the lovely Edie and her mint brownies, raccoon houses, and coffee ---

from the four of us

First words

He sat in the back seat of a sherrut, a whirling dervish taxi, slamming down the road out of the Jerusalem Highlands toward the Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

Quotations

"What's this? Trix? Aunt! Trix? You? You're after the prize! What is it?" He picked up the box and studied the back. "A glow-in-the-dark squid! Have you got it out of there yet?" He tilted the box, angling the little colored balls of cereal so as to see the bottom, and nearly spilling them onto the table top. "Here it is!" He hauled out a little cream-colored, glitter-sprinkled squid, three-inches long and made out of rubbery plastic.

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

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Gibson, William

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Book description

The price of immortality...

Two thousand years ago, there lived a man who sold some valuable information for a fee of thirty silver coins. His name was Judas Iscariot and he is no longer with us. The coins, however, still exist - and still hold an elusive power over all who claim them...

Like Andrew Vanbergen, whose attempts at innkeeping bring in stranger business than he ever expected.

And Aunt Naomi, whose most prized family heirloom is a silver spoon - with a curiously ancient-looking engraving.

And especially old Mr. Pennyman, who is only five silver coins short of immortality...

Haiku summary

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