Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing View of Earth
Review: It is too bad that this series is out of print. I recently picked up this book and W.C. VII, Ace in the Hole, from a used book store. For all those who don't know this universe, basically aliens in the 1940's use a genetic virus to manipulate DNA in humans. For every one person that gets a "Superpower", an Ace, there are 10 who get Jokers, an unique disfigurement, and for every Joker, there are 10 deaths. Aces High, the second book in the series, deals with an invasion of the Swarm Mother, an intellegent "Yeast" as Tachyon, a char from the book tells it. The characters are interesting and real, displaying real emotions and falabilities. Please, rerelease the whole series!
Rating:
Summary: very entertaining
Review: Might be more non fiction in this book than you think
Rating:
Summary: Fans of GRRM need not apply
Review: My reason for writing this review is the others have missed the mark by a mile. They are all fans of George R.R. Martain's other more fantasy oriented work. This series is wildly removed from them. Of the entire line the 1st three are the absolute best. Only the 3rd book is realy one compleat story. The 1st 2 books are a collection of short stories. This simple fact seems to have escaped all the other reviewers. After words the series slowly degrades, as they all do, but there are still gems. It never gets bad just average at worst. If you are a fan of comic book heros and want to see a very well executed, realistic look at them this is the place to be. Now if they would just relase some new ones and get Allen Moore to write a story.
Rating:
Summary: A Royal Flush
Review: Over a dozen years ago I received the first two Wild Cards books as a birthday present. I read the first one, enjoyed it, but wasn't so sure about the series. But I already had the second one, so I might as well give it a shot, right? What a difference a second chance made.Wild Cards Volume 2 (Aces High) is, for me, where the Wild Cards series really began. Unlike the first book, which is a series of introductory and mostly unconnected plots, this one features several central plotlines as the storylines all begin to converge. An alien race known as the Swarm is heading for Earth. The Astronomer, leader of the Masons, is preparing for his own conquest. And when one of your greatest defenders is a pimp whose powers only activate when he engages in tantric sex, well, you're in big trouble. There's so much great stuff in this book it's hard to leave any of it out. Lewis Shiner's "Pennies from Heaven" establishes the Astronomer as a real threat, setting the stage for both this and the next book. Walter Jon Williams's "Unto the Sixth Generation" is one of the cornerstones of the book, both introducing the Swarm into the Wild Cards universe, as well as Williams's robotic hero Modular Man. Several other stories introduce new, very-long-running characters; Walton Simons's "If Looks Could Kill" brings aboard the very dangerous James Spector (aka Demise). "By Lost Ways" has Pat Cadigan bring aboard Jane Dow, the Water Lily who really would be happy to just slink into the background and whose story is more important than one might think at first... Last but not least, George R.R. Martin's "Jube" story twists and turns its way through the book, uniting the short stories almost effortlessly. Old favorites still abound, of course. Roger Zelazny's "Ashes to Ashes" is a hysterical romp through Jokertown as the ever-unpredictable Croyd tries to go on a simple seek-and-locate mission with predictably disastrous results. George R.R. Martin's "Winter's Chill" has Tom Tudbury discover that being an Ace doesn't make your life great at all; in fact, sometimes it can downright ruin it. Melinda M. Snodgrass and Victor Milan coordinate their stories "Relative Difficulties" and "With A Little Help From His Friends" as Dr. Tachyon and Dr. Trips have to join forces (not once but twice) to deal with Tachyon's not-very-happy relations. John J. Miller's "Half Past Dead" is both an epilogue to the Swarm story as well as continuing the story of Yeoman. There are very, very few books in the Wild Cards series where every single story hits a home run, but this is one of them (the next book, Jokers Wild, also manages to do this). If you were on the fence after the first book, trust me--this is the one you definitely can't miss.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid stuff from Martin et al...
Review: The third book in the "Wild Cards" series by George R.R. Martin (editor), this is a "shared world" series, where various authors get together and write in the same world. The world is one where an alien virus was dumped into the air shortly after WWII, and still randomly infects people nearly forty years later.
The virus - called the Wild Card for its very random results - proliferated in earth's atmosphere. First, nine in ten people who contract the Wild Card virus "draw the Queen of Spades," and die. Of the survivors, nine in ten people "draw a Joker," and end up hideously disfigured. Of the non-Joker survivors, some draw a "deuce," and get a power or ability that's pretty much useless ("I can change my hair colour at will!"), but many who survive as non-jokers "draw an Ace," and gain super-powers. The massively telekinetic Turtle, the projective teleporter Popinjay (who I really liked in this book), the any-lizard shapeshifter Kid Dinosaur - these are some of the Aces. They're solid, fun to read, and quite well drafted.
This story all takes place in one day, and the novel is very well sewn together (especially given the different tones and styles of the various authors) and has a very complicated and complex interwoven plot. Kudos to Martin for wrapping it up so well.
This forty years later is the anniversary and what is likely to be the largest "Wild Card Day" celebration ever - except one recurring villain is using this day to kill off all the Aces who bested him in the previous books... Who will survive?
As Martin is well known for in his "A Song of Fire and Ice" series - there are no holds barred in these books - heroes die. And horribly. Very solid stuff.
'Nathan
Rating:
Summary: Solid stuff from Martin et al...
Review: The third book in the "Wild Cards" series by George R.R. Martin (editor), this is a "shared world" series, where various authors get together and write in the same world. The world is one where an alien virus was dumped into the air shortly after WWII, and still randomly infects people nearly forty years later.
The virus - called the Wild Card for its very random results - proliferated in earth's atmosphere. First, nine in ten people who contract the Wild Card virus "draw the Queen of Spades," and die. Of the survivors, nine in ten people "draw a Joker," and end up hideously disfigured. Of the non-Joker survivors, some draw a "deuce," and get a power or ability that's pretty much useless ("I can change my hair colour at will!"), but many who survive as non-jokers "draw an Ace," and gain super-powers. The massively telekinetic Turtle, the projective teleporter Popinjay (who I really liked in this book), the any-lizard shapeshifter Kid Dinosaur - these are some of the Aces. They're solid, fun to read, and quite well drafted.
This story all takes place in one day, and the novel is very well sewn together (especially given the different tones and styles of the various authors) and has a very complicated and complex interwoven plot. Kudos to Martin for wrapping it up so well.
This forty years later is the anniversary and what is likely to be the largest "Wild Card Day" celebration ever - except one recurring villain is using this day to kill off all the Aces who bested him in the previous books... Who will survive?
As Martin is well known for in his "A Song of Fire and Ice" series - there are no holds barred in these books - heroes die. And horribly. Very solid stuff.
'Nathan
Rating:
Summary: Solid stuff from Martin et al...
Review: The third book in the "Wild Cards" series by George R.R. Martin (editor), this is a "shared world" series, where various authors get together and write in the same world. The world is one where an alien virus was dumped into the air shortly after WWII, and still randomly infects people nearly forty years later.
The virus - called the Wild Card for its very random results - proliferated in earth's atmosphere. First, nine in ten people who contract the Wild Card virus "draw the Queen of Spades," and die. Of the survivors, nine in ten people "draw a Joker," and end up hideously disfigured. Of the non-Joker survivors, some draw a "deuce," and get a power or ability that's pretty much useless ("I can change my hair colour at will!"), but many who survive as non-jokers "draw an Ace," and gain super-powers. The massively telekinetic Turtle, the projective teleporter Popinjay (who I really liked in this book), the any-lizard shapeshifter Kid Dinosaur - these are some of the Aces. They're solid, fun to read, and quite well drafted.
This story all takes place in one day, and the novel is very well sewn together (especially given the different tones and styles of the various authors) and has a very complicated and complex interwoven plot. Kudos to Martin for wrapping it up so well.
This forty years later is the anniversary and what is likely to be the largest "Wild Card Day" celebration ever - except one recurring villain is using this day to kill off all the Aces who bested him in the previous books... Who will survive?
As Martin is well known for in his "A Song of Fire and Ice" series - there are no holds barred in these books - heroes die. And horribly. Very solid stuff.
'Nathan
Rating:
Summary: Wild Cards Rock!!
Review: The wild series is awesome (for the most part) a few of the book are [bad] but this one ROCKS! In fact the first 8 books rock, and so does number 12, (and anything in between with Croyd Crenson aka "The Sleeper") but the other ones kind of drag on....as a rule avoid The one written by Snodgrass like the Plauge...no scrap that...avoid it like the Wild Card Virus... But this book is 5 stars, and the different styles from the authors make for a unique read... plus some wicked Butt-kicking from Brennan never hurts... Buy this series!
Rating:
Summary: a hit, a palpable hit...
Review: There are those who have complained that the stories in this book aren't complete, but seem like they're just beginning. This complaint is valid, but the reasoning is inaccurate. Look at the Wild Cards series as comics books told in narrative rather than picture form. A regular comic book series doesn't usually have a complete tale, without clues to the future, and neither does this book. Some of these stories are setups to larger stories, and believe me, that ain't bad. I have read all sixteen books, and in my opinion, while some of the stories ARE weaker than others, the whole is much bigger than the sum of its parts. The fact is that I grew to care about these characters. I wanted to know more about them, and that need to know drew me deeper and deeper as the series progressed. Now that the series is being re-released, I can honestly say that if you are comic book fan in search of more serious fare, where even the so-called "good guys" can have some unpalatable personality traits, than the wild cards series is for you. If you don't want to blow the bucks for a brand spanking new one, than get one used. I will say that if you dismiss this series without at least trying ONE book, you are missing out on the next level of superheroics. Try Vol.1 out. If you don't end up loving Croyd (the Sleeper), I'll eat my hat!
Rating:
Summary: Great reprint
Review: This is a reprint of the first book in the Wild Cards series. When I first read the original many, many years ago, I became absolutely enthralled with the characters and the unique style of storytelling. The Wild Cards series is made up of predominantly "Mosaic Novels", meaning that each novel is comprised of short stories written by different writers, each from the point of view of their own characters in the Wild Cards universe, but all the short stories taken together comprise one whole META-story, if you will. When I finished this first book, I began a frantic search to find the rest of the series (they were out of print before I had even read the first book) that took me several years. And, to my surprise, I found that this book, as amazing as it was, wasn't even one of the best in the series! But, it's very important, as it portrays the events that seperate the Wild Cards universe from our own reality, and therefore is ALMOST essential to fully experience the Wild Cards. Most of the series I had ended up borrowing and have never been able to find for sale, so I was overjoyed when I found out they were reprinting it. The reprints contain some really nice art to illustrate the tale as you go along (the best art I have seen of the Wild Cards so far), and they make this book worth the purchase, even if you already own the original printing.
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