JOKERS WILD

Rating:
Summary: Good but Disappointing
Review: Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild is a novel, written by different authors. Each tells the story of one character: Melinda Snodgrass -roulette and her attempts to murder Tachyon. Leanne Harper - the Bag lady, bagabond Walton Simons - Demise, the black queen who survived Lewis Shiner - The annoying Fortunato, pimp in an endless quest against all sorts of things. John Miller - Wraith, a thief who can moce through walls. Edward Bryant - Sewer Jack, an Aligator man who's a friend of Bagabond. and, the highlight of the book, as well as most of the others: George R R Martin - tale o Hiram Worchester, the owner of the acclaimed ACES HIGH, a true anti hero.

Basically there are two plot lines - Wraith steals a note book from Kien, a minor villan from Wild Cards 2 and 3, and lots of characters get involved in the attempt to reach them. This is a 'McGavin' of the worst kind, though there are some nice twists to the tale, and after all this is a parody of Comic books. The other plot involves the Astronomer, who summoned TIAMAT in ACES HIGH. He wishes revenge on all the aces who attacked his Mason in that book. All these events happen during 'Wild Card Day', September 15, when NYC is filled with Jokers, Aces and tourists, and Hiram Worchester puts a huge party in 'Aces High', his restaurant( not to confuse with ACES HIGH, the second wild card book).

sound interesting? Well, it is, but it's also really confusing. Written by 7 authors, it follows 7 different tales, and they don't combine into a single one all too well. Oh, it's often exciting, but its difficult to follow, especially as some of the writers( Martin, Snodgrass), are far more powerful then some of the others( though they aren't the only talented ones, of course).

Another flaw of the book( a complain, rather), is that none of the main repeat characters are favorites of mine. I've loathed Fortunato from the moment I've first read of him, and while he improves occasionally here, he's not someone who's tale I particularily enjoy. But at least his stories feature the cool Astronomer( A true Comic villan, though I would have liked him to interact with the heros a little more) and other aces. Sewer Jack and Bagabond deal only with each other, and with equally dull and bizarre DAs and Mobsters.

Overall it's nice but I don't see the great varriety and uniquness of the first 2 books. Its neither a dark tapestry of interesting, if uneven stories like WILD CARDS, or a comics book with an edge story like ACES HIGH. Its just a highly readable, if disjoint, action novel.

I liked it, but I hope the next ones will be better.