https://lynns-books.com/2022/03/14/last-exit-by-max-gladstone/
4 of 5 stars
My Five Word TL:DR Review : A Book To Be Savoured

Last Exit is a book that I have no hesitation in recommending. It’s thoughtful, thought provoking, entertaining and character-led. At its core it’s a book of hope wrapped up with fantastic prose, found family and friends. It has echoes of Gaiman’s American Gods and also shades of King’s IT and is a wonderful mix of science fiction, fantasy and horror. The only proviso I would mention up front is that this is not a book that you will race through. It takes it’s time and ponders life and friendship along the way.

This is a book told in two time frames. A few years ago a group of intelligent students became good friends and, having made a discovery about how to manipulate probability and travel through alternating worlds, went on many adventures (ultimately seeking something better). Unfortunately their final adventure ended on a dark note with one of the party (Sal) having fallen to a darkness that prevented her return. The gang split apart and all tried to make new lives, except one character, Zelda, who lost the love of her life that fateful day and has been fighting the darkness (or rot as it’s known) ever since. Zelda eventually realises that Sal is returning and calls the gang back together for one final foray. She believes that during their travels they inadvertently spread the rot to our world and it’s now trying to push further in leaving destruction in its wake. This is their chance to set things right – a make or break finale.

The characters are all very well drawn. I couldn’t help favouring Zelda though who is really the central focus although there are pov switches. Gladstone manages to really highlight how they’ve changed. Ten years have slipped by and during that time they’ve started businesses, had children or entered new relationships but this isn’t the only way that we see them change. It’s more that they started out as idealistic young people, everything was fun, exciting and a bit crazy – right up to the point where it all turned deadly serious and they realised they were dabbling in things that were actually dangerous. They now have responsibilities and ties but at the same time they can’t deny their past or the need to come back together to preserve their future.

The setting – well, there are many settings, some only briefly visited, others horror soaked and post apocalyptic in style. I can’t really say that any of them would have made for a preferable location to the world the characters were from and perhaps that’s one of the overriding messages of the story. The grass isn’t always greener after all.

The fantasy elements here are fairly slim. There are the alternative realities and the ‘knack’ that each of the characters develop. On top of this there is a strange character that seems to follow the gang trying to prevent them from their mission. This character takes the form of a cowboy, his face always in shadow beneath the rim of his cowboy hat. A decidedly creepy character who brings the horror elements to the story.

In terms of criticisms. Well, I mentioned above that this is a book that you won’t speed through and whilst that isn’t particularly a bad thing I did feel that it took quite some time for things to really get going. I noticed on Goodreads that this has 400 pages but I think that might be a little lighter than the reality. I would have guessed to be closer to the 600 page count and that isn’t really a criticism so much as a word to the wise that this may be a longer book than you’re anticipating. In contrast to the excellent characterisation the world and some of the plot elements were a little skimpy. The whole, mind bending probability discovery is only briefly touched upon, you just have to go with the flow and accept it for what it is. Similarly with the ‘rot’ which I couldn’t help likening to the ‘nothing’ from the Neverending Story – a sort of bleak and dismal despair that sucks people and places in and leaves them devastated.

Overall, though, slight reservations aside, this is an impressive book. A road trip with muscle cars that travel through universes like a tardis dipping in and out of realities and escaping death just in the nick of time.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a return to form for a standalone novel from Gladstone after the turgid and generic "Queen of Forever."

Dressed up as a portal fantasy, it tells the story of four college friends who found a way into parallel universes and tried to save the world--then failed. So, ten years later, they have to go back and do it all again, confronting mistakes, grief, loss, and aging. The narrative moves between past and present, and for a novel about the end of the world or not, it is intensely a novel of love, loss, trust, and friendship that was aching in its beauty beyond the action and adventure parts.

It's the book I immediately recommended to all my friends and sparked conversations with my core college friends.

This book is a lot of things. A character study, a monster story, an alternate universe hopping road trip novel. It's basically Mad Max + "Crack the Skye" by Mastodon + Need for Speed + The Magician's Nephew. If that sounds like a lot, it is! But, it's expertly melded together. I immediately fell in love with every character except for one and I think that y'all will too. The characters are the glue that holds this genre varied novel together. I also really enjoyed the prose. You'd think a SFF novel wouldn't be consistently gorgeous with lines that made me stop and think for a while. You'd be wrong! I will say that it is dense and I can see how that would turn people away. It's worth it.

Thank you to NetGalley for a preview copy of the ebook and eaudiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I read a book by this author so long ago, I forgot I’d even read it. I thought this sounded interesting, so I requested it. I’d like to describe a little about the genre, but it’s unique enough that that’s hard. But, I can say that it’s well-written, lyrical (the use of words is a step above), and fascinating. While I didn’t really love this book because it’s more character-driven, and I really enjoy plot-driven, I could still really enjoy this ride. If you like unique books, you definitely need to give this one a try. Recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.

This was such an experience!! I can't wait to reread this book further down the line and experience every piece of it again.

Cleverly and gorgeously written. I'm a pretty fast reader so I was surprised how long it took me to read, but it definitely didn't feel too slow or overwritten. I enjoyed every moment. We don't even meet our whole cast of characters until almost 45% in, which normally has me impatient, but they were all so fully realized that I didn't mind at all.

This book was deliciously creepy. It broke my heart, made me laugh, and pieced me back together again. A must-read for fans of the paranormal American road trip story (American Gods, Dark Tower, ect.)

Last Exit is the first book I’ve read written by Max Gladstone alone, but it certainly won’t be the last… no pun intended. A horror-infused urban fantasy, Last Exit may not answer all the questions it poses about what it means to save the world, but it certainly presents them in visceral style. With its elevated prose, richly imagined cast of older characters, and intriguing worldbuilding, Last Exit is definitely a novel to be savored—slowly, carefully, and with intent.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGalley for an advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Max Gladstone’s latest, Last Exit, is a blend of (pre)apocalyptic sci-fi, magical realism with a horror twist, and a road movie. It shouldn’t really work, but it comes together well enough.

The plot is straight-forward. A group of people who have met in college and banded together to find alternative worlds, gather one more time to find the one they left behind. But the semi-intelligent rot that bleeds into the worlds, destroying them, doesn’t want her to be found. It’s a constant battle all the way to the crossroads at the heart of the alts, which is the only place where they can find her. Sal is the veritable MacGuffin, always a little out of reach, and never as important for the plot as the characters make her to be.

The idea of alternative worlds isn’t unique, but the rot destroying them makes it more interesting, as does the idea that they can be accessed either with magic or mathematic irregularities, depending on which member of the group you believe. The alts were surprisingly boring though, and while the book gives an explanation to why they’re all so similar, I whish more would’ve been done with them.

But the weakness of the book is its characters. I couldn’t connect with any of them. I followed them down the road, but I was never with them on the journey. I never felt their emotions, fears or pain, because the character experiencing them was never the point of view one. They told very little of themselves and at the end of the book I had learned nothing new.

A road movie is never about the road, it’s about the people on a transformative journey. All the elements were there: four people who used to know everything about each other, good and bad, have grown apart and into different persons in ten years they haven’t seen each other. An epic journey is a chance for them to put the past into a rest so that they can continue with the lives they’ve built for themselves.

The characters plunge into endless reminiscing of the time they met and how the band came to be. Surprisingly little time is spent on remembering their time exploring the alts. The crucial event that led Sal to be lost is brushed away with a quick description that includes torture and fighting people to death. I would’ve thought a trauma like that would merit a larger role in their healing process, but instead they talk about the racism of the college they went to—arguably important, but meaningless for the plot, even with its diverse cast—and the state of (present day) America that they live in.

The token outsider that’s supposed to push the characters out of their remembered patterns only managed to enforce them. The climax was clearly meant to happen because of her, but in the end she was pushed aside and played no crucial role.

All in all, the plot could basically have been the same without Jane and the fantasy elements for how little they meant for the characters. They went through their journey and the world was different at the other end—or at least it felt renewed for them, which is the best anyone can hope. If I’d felt them transform with the world, the book would probably have made a greater impact. Now it’s just something I’ve read. I dithered between three and four stars, but the long stretches that left me bored made me give it three stars in the end.

How to review Last Exit? It’s a monster novel, a tour de force, not just a cross-dimensional roadtrip, but also a treatise on fear and privilege, love and family. There is so much going on here that it’s difficult to know where to even begin.

Last Exit pretty much asks: what if you tried to save the world and failed? What if that failure caused you to lose someone you loved, to lose everyone you loved in different ways? And what happens when you try bring the band back together to do it all over again?

It’s a dense book—it took me a good few days to get through and more careful reading than I might usually, to soak it all in. But it’s dense in a good way, a very thoughtful book, in a way that leads to such fully fleshed out characters and worlds that you’re absorbed by it, unable to put it down even for the slightest moment. I think the comparison to American Gods is apt here—there’s that same kind of slow build, that same attention to detail in the worldbuilding.

Given the pace of the plot (quite ponderous), what elevated this book for me was its characters. They’re so vibrant and full of life—one little detail I particularly liked was how each individual’s knack within the worlds related to their personality—and you can’t help but be rooting for all of them. And the relationships between them? Perfectly balanced between showing how they came to care so much about one another, the breakage between them, and the slow repair of it as the journey wore on. It’s hard to overstate just how well done it all was.

I think that’s why the pacing—which I might otherwise have suffered with—didn’t matter to me. It was a character-driven novel first and foremost, and the characters were the sort who could drive it. Of course, the plot came into it slowly, unfolding at the right pace to keep you intrigued. It was, basically, the perfect combination for me. The right depth of character work and worldbuilding, the right slow drip of information.

In all, a book I would very much suggest you do not miss. This is probably up there with the best of what science fiction has to offer for me, and definitely cements Max Gladstone as a favourite author.

I liked this book and the writing was excellent, but wasn't feeling it. It was sooooo looooong. It was a neat and creative story, but the characters and their "knacks" (think powers but not really super power more abilities that come to them when needed.)

It's also March 1 and my March TBR list is lengthy and I want to get into these.

Hate I didn't finish. I've been in a bit of a meh mood on books right now, so need to get out of this slump.

There was a lot I was really fascinated in in this book. The synopsis calls it an American myth, and it does feel that way. There is so much weight in this book, so many symbols and pictures, so many familiar fabrics you can perfectly feel, laid ontop of the unknown. You can't peak into this book and not immediately want to go deeper.

The concept in this book is really great, and I loved the cast of characters. I'm a big fan of post-prophecy/post-Chosen One stories, stories where the heroes are past their prime, or where former heroes must deal with what they've done and was done to them. There was no prophecy or Chosen One in this, but it has the same feeling. All of the magical, hopeful adventure that most books would be centered on years in the past, and while you can see the blurred outline of how it went and who they were, this is a hesitant return by people not the same as those who first excitedly explored it. And you can see that in the way they view each other as well, and the way their group meets and diverges in flashbacks.

The problem for me was, there is so much in this book, and it isn't a series or a 700 page scifi, so it wound up feeling strange for me. There is so much I wanted explored that only got touched on, and generally in ways that wound up confusing me. I was never quite sure if I knew what was going on- or if I was supposed to or not- and never entirely certain in the stakes beyond the biggest stakes. There wasn't much room to breathe or casually discover, so the world didn't feel the vast way it could have, and while it was always compelling in concept the density of the writing made it a chore at times to read.
Also, the amount of information and characters combined made it hard to show and grow the characters' relationships, and only some of them felt developed. The cast as a group of former friends, merged by a relationship, some of them close and some with resentment, is definitely interesting and give you plenty to play with, but there wasn't much time for that.

I would have loved this book as a series or a TV show, and if it ever becomes either- the TV show is probably more likely- I was jump to experience it. The visuals of this book and general sensations are phenomenal and the concept is wonderful, it just was a bit much for me condensed into this size book.

This book is very beautiful and complex and destroyed my mental health. I tried to get through this book, and I downloaded the audiobook when it became available on Netgalley, and 40% in I had to stop.

I'm sure that this book will get praise from the people who can handle it. This book does deserve accolades and love. However, I can't take the news right now. I've been skating on the thin ice of anxiety and depression, and I read books (among other things) to keep the ice from breaking, and I don't need a book to break that ice.

But if you don't have that problem, you'll have a good read. If you're like me, don't read this. Nothing is worth hurting your mental health.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

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.

I really wanted to love this - I've loved all of Gladstone's other books! - but it was so slow to get going, and once it did, it went far heavier on the horror vibes than I was able to handle. I don't think it's a bad book at all, but I'm not at all the right reader for it.

Anyone who has read Max Gladstone’s prior works can attest that he has a way with words. His prose routinely offers poignant observations on what it means to be human and what it means to be living in this cultural moment.
Last Exit is an urban fantasy book that has the traditional structure of a quest novel (think The Hobbit, Six of Crows) led by a host of diverse characters who are complex, sensitive, introspective and, above all, very easy to root for. Our main cast is a group of Uni besties (a touch of Dark Academia thrown in) who in their youth went on misadventures and aspired to lofty ideals until a personal tragedy sent them reeling away from each other. 10 years later, the band must reunite to fight the ‘big bad’ and stop an impending apocalypse. However, like any novel worth its salt, the most important battles they are fighting are internal and all the fantastical monsters they face are stand-ins for real world challenges.

Last Exit at its root is an unfettered critique of America and American Dream, who it benefits and from whom it exacts it costs. The novel is so rooted in the cultural, political and geographical landscape of America that it invariably excludes anyone with a non-US centric world view. It also didn’t flow as well as I would have liked because the long pondering, social commentary didn’t mesh seamlessly with the fast paced action sequences.

To Gladstone’s credit, the use of classic horror elements and themes as metaphorical representations of the structural failings of current society was a great stylistic choice.

There is a lot to unpack and ruminate on in this novel, you just have to be the sort of person who enjoys the mental exercise.

[NetGalley ARC]

Ten years ago, a group of friends found a way to travel to alternate realities, and they had many adventures, some more dangerous than others. Then, they lost Sal, the real heart of the group, and everyone went their separate ways. Sal's lover Zelda has never stopped looking for her, traveling the US destroying the rot that they found in all their alternate universes, any time it creeps into ours. The rest of the group have moved on, started families, become successful. When Zelda and Sal's cousin June find rot seeping from the crack in the Liberty Bell, and proof that Sal is still out there in the alts, they get the group back together to go save her. 

This was a really interesting story. I mostly found it very intriguing because this is the story of what happened after the initial adventure, which you don't often see. It's most definitely an adventure itself, of course, but you get to see this one unfold while only getting snippets of what happened ten years ago. You get enough for context. You get enough to fuel what's happening. I was never confused as to what was happening, but it still left some of it as mystery. The prose was fantastic. It was not at all difficult to sink into this book for hours.

I liked Zelda as a character, and I found it easy to cheer for her to lead her group into and then out of danger, and to get Sal back. I also really liked Ramon and June. Ramon's knack (a sort of supernatural ability that each of them have) was interestingly used throughout the story. He can just... find a good path. It gets him and his friends out of danger a lot. June is only seventeen during this story, but all the same she holds her own very well, even when really crazy stuff is happening. She also gives several good clap backs in this one that made me smile. 

I got the same vibe from Last Exit as I did from King's The Stand, or The Dark Tower. It's got the same sort of dark, mysterious alternate universes that are definitely different to our own, and usually dangerous. It also has that probably really evil presence chasing the protagonists. So, this is quite a different story (obviously), but with those elements in it, I just found myself getting the same feelings while reading it. This is a good thing, I promise. ^_^

So, all told, I thought Last Exit was a great read. Suspenseful, dark, and just weird enough that I was sucked right in. This is undoubtedly going to be a fantastic audiobook (with Natalie Naudus narrating) and I am saving a credit for it! Now, excuse me while I read the rest of Max Gladstone's work.

This genre bending novel (scifi, fantasy, science fantasy, horror?) was wildly inventive, focusing on college friends who each found their knack for distorting probability, lost a friend along the way, and a decade later need to get the band back together to go on one last adventure. There's a diversity of emotional arcs, settings, and characters, and I enjoyed following them through worlds.

This is a book about college friends who find each other and try to make the world a better place, only to fail, lose someone, and who separate instead of trying to heal together. I'm a sucker for the misfits who find each other in college trope, because it's very much my own story. I am also in touch with almost no one that I was close friends with in college. In the end, those friends were not the ones who stayed. I still think of them fondly.

I think a lot of people go through something similar. After coming from the small pond of high school, the ocean of college is a bigger place to find personalities you vibe with. In college, there's more time. You're figuring yourself out and so is everyone else, and the stakes are more likely to be personal and you can get intimate fast. You can screw things up, figure out how relationships work, figure out your damage. It's a vulnerable time, and I can look back on my young self and shake my head fondly- what a screwed up kid, glad she at least had some fun and got clear of what didn't work.

Anyway, what this band of misfits found was a way to access the multiverse. Once they'd figured that out (which is never really described but that's okay) they decided that these worlds were opportunities. They could make things better. They could fix our world, take the best things from the others. And they had adventures and survived. They each found a knack (a magical aptitude) that aided them in their quest. (Except for Sal, the one who was lost. What was her knack?) I liked the way magic worked in this book. And in the end, they almost got there. But in the end, Sal was gone, her girlfriend Zelda blamed herself and everyone scattered. For what seemed like good reasons.

Since then, Zelda has lived off the grid, seeking the monsters that find a way through the thinness between worlds and plugging the holes that she finds. One of her friends became a doctor and started a family. One became a tech mogul who lives a life that's utterly controlled. And one tried making money, found it didn't make him happy, and now works with the cars that he loves and has a guy that he loves too.

But of course they've got to get back together. Stakes have risen, horrors are invading the world, and they are the only ones who know what's happening or have a remote idea of what to do next.

These people still all know each other so well. They work together unthinkingly, love each other's flaws. They save each other constantly. And still have the same blind spots that kept them from success. It's The Big Chill with higher stakes. It's The Gunslinger with his college buddies.

And its an indictment of America. The personification of the evil that pursues them wears the white hat of the cowboy hero. I've got to hand it to Gladstone- he can write a creepy book. You may notice some logical inconsistencies between the dark that devours and the man in the white hat, and you should pay attention.

It felt easy to despair during the first part of the book. The American Dream is laid out along with its ugly underside. The author understands just how messed up America is- the rot goes deep. I think that's something a lot of people are realizing now. What could possibly heal the horror that lies under the patriotism and flag waving in service of power and control? What's a hero, anyway?

There's something that the characters are missing. I noticed it and wondered when they would. Despite the pain of the book it is ultimately one that hopes, too.

I'm not a big fan of horror, though, and the sadness in this book made it hard to read. The sadness mostly outweighed the wonder that this author can also create. That's why I'm not rating it higher. I also could have used a bit more light to balance the dark. Maybe the author's having a bit of a harder time accessing that right now, like a lot of us are.

Change of pace for Gladstone, towards urban fantasy not entirely dissimilar in theme from Jemisin’s most recent but also very different. The City We Became x The Dark Tower, I guess. The protagonist can walk to alternate worlds, but stopped when she lost her beloved Sal and now just tries to fight off the rising rot in her own America, which is much like ours. But when her attempts to apologize to Sal’s mother land her with Sal’s niece instead, and the monster that ate Sal starts coming after her, she decides to make one final push to fix what she broke.

A complex narrative that blends urban fantasy and post-apocalyptic fiction together in the most seamless of ways. The value of found family is a huge theme here, and Max Gladstone has truly sealed his place as a wizard of the creative imagination with this book. While the beginning is a little slow, trust his process in getting you acclimated to the characters and the setting, and then bask in the atmosphere that is truly unique. Highly recommended for those looking for an engaging, challenging story that will open your mind to all sorts of new ideas and adventures.

Max Gladstone's forthcoming novel Last Exit is aimed straight at me.

Why me, specifically? When I turned forty last year, I had the following conversation with a friend:


Me: I hadn't planned on having a midlife crisis, but instead I got a worldwide pandemic.
Red: YOU OVERACHIEVER!!!



This was hilarious--and it's the precise set of baggage that the characters of Last Exit carry. The age; the scholarship to an elite East Coast college (Last Exit is about Yale, and I went to a small liberal-arts college whose students prided themselves on being smarter and working harder than the Ivy League trust fund kids, but that just means the sweatshirts came in garnet instead of navy); the math degree driven by the lure of impossible things; the exhortations to save the world; the knowledge that the world is falling apart.

The world is ending; but the world has always been ending. The question is whose world, and whose world you think matters. Last Exit is an American novel, a big sprawling ensemble-cast American road trip novel, and the question of who exactly has been fucked how badly by the continuation of America is never far from the surface.

Flip things around, try the active voice: will a terrified person fuck things over, to keep America the same? Last Exit asks the question that way, too.

This is what the novel is about, in a grand thematic sense. But what happens? The story begins in New York City, as Zelda, a grown-up gay kid from small-town South Carolina, is preparing to apologize for losing her lover Sal. Instead of Sal's mother, she meets Sal's teenage cousin June. June is a veteran of the BLM protests; she has watched cops on horses try to kill her friends. She doesn't want Zelda's apology for failure. She wants to try again.

New York City has a solid weight; it knows what it is. But Zelda has a knack for going other places, and in less populated spots, or when people are looking away, she can walk (or ride or drive) to other possible worlds. Turn The City We Became inside out, and send it on the road to Amber.

Send it back to Montana, where Zelda fucked things up the first time.

Bring the team back together: Sarah (a doctor, married, a mom, an Army brat, Sarah whose sister has gone home to the reservation), Ramón (who tried to go into finance but found his soul again fixing cars), Ish (whose Silicon Valley surveillance company watches for the serpent eating the heart of the world), Zelda, and June (who looks like Sal, and isn't). Retrace the steps of the last adventure, to the Green Glass City, and the tower where they met the princess.

Meanwhile, something is following our friends: the reason that the world is ending, growing tangible. Last Exit has a lot of horror in its DNA. Things are twisted. Bodies are twisted into non-Euclidean geometries. People die.

But the scariest thing isn't non-Euclidean geometry, is it? It's other people.

Bring the team back together. It's time to save a world.