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Wild Cards #21
Fort Freak: A Wild Cards Novel
Soon to be a show on Hulu!
Rights to develop Wild Cards for TV have been acquired by Universal Cable Productions, the team that brought you The Magicians and Mr. Robot , with the co-editor of Wild Cards , Melinda Snodgrass as executive producer.
In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived, mutated into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin (called "the American Tolkien" by Time ), is the tale of the history of the world since then―and of the heroes among the one percent.
Now, in the latest Wild Cards mosaic novel, we get to know the hard-bitten world of Manhattan's Fifth Precinct―or "Fort Freak," as cops and malefactors alike call the cop-shop where every other desk sergeant, detective, and patrol officer is more than human.
Featuring original work by writers such as Cherie Priest, author of the bestselling Boneshaker ; Paul Cornell, Hugo–nominated comic book and Doctor Who writer; David Anthony Durham, winner of 2009's John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; and many others, Fort Freak is one of the strongest offerings yet in the ongoing Wild Cards project.
The Wild Cards Universe
The Original Triad
#1 Wild Cards
#2 Aces High
#3 Jokers Wild
The Puppetman Quartet
#4: Aces Abroad
#5: Down and Dirty
#6: Ace in the Hole
#7: Dead Man’s Hand
The Rox Triad
#8: One-Eyed Jacks
#9: Jokertown Shuffle
#10: Dealer’s Choice
#11: Double Solitaire
#12: Turn of the Cards
The Card Sharks Triad
#13: Card Sharks
#14: Marked Cards
#15: Black Trump
#16: Deuces Down
#17: Death Draws Five
The Committee Triad
#18: Inside Straight
#19: Busted Flush
#20: Suicide Kings
The Fort Freak Triad
#21: Fort Freak
#22: Lowball
#23: High Stakes
The American Triad
#24: Mississippi Roll
#25: Low Chicago
#26: Texas Hold 'Em
Rights to develop Wild Cards for TV have been acquired by Universal Cable Productions, the team that brought you The Magicians and Mr. Robot , with the co-editor of Wild Cards , Melinda Snodgrass as executive producer.
In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived, mutated into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin (called "the American Tolkien" by Time ), is the tale of the history of the world since then―and of the heroes among the one percent.
Now, in the latest Wild Cards mosaic novel, we get to know the hard-bitten world of Manhattan's Fifth Precinct―or "Fort Freak," as cops and malefactors alike call the cop-shop where every other desk sergeant, detective, and patrol officer is more than human.
Featuring original work by writers such as Cherie Priest, author of the bestselling Boneshaker ; Paul Cornell, Hugo–nominated comic book and Doctor Who writer; David Anthony Durham, winner of 2009's John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer; and many others, Fort Freak is one of the strongest offerings yet in the ongoing Wild Cards project.
The Wild Cards Universe
The Original Triad
#1 Wild Cards
#2 Aces High
#3 Jokers Wild
The Puppetman Quartet
#4: Aces Abroad
#5: Down and Dirty
#6: Ace in the Hole
#7: Dead Man’s Hand
The Rox Triad
#8: One-Eyed Jacks
#9: Jokertown Shuffle
#10: Dealer’s Choice
#11: Double Solitaire
#12: Turn of the Cards
The Card Sharks Triad
#13: Card Sharks
#14: Marked Cards
#15: Black Trump
#16: Deuces Down
#17: Death Draws Five
The Committee Triad
#18: Inside Straight
#19: Busted Flush
#20: Suicide Kings
The Fort Freak Triad
#21: Fort Freak
#22: Lowball
#23: High Stakes
The American Triad
#24: Mississippi Roll
#25: Low Chicago
#26: Texas Hold 'Em
576 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 21, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
August 25, 2016
Well, this was a pleasant surprise. After reading a less-than-impressive short story of Martin's in a zombie-themed collection, I have never really been interested in the stuff he would rather do than work on the behemoth flagship series that I am now convinced he secretly hates. But I had a signed copy of this fall into my lap a few years ago, and happened across it again recently, so I figured I’d give it a try. Despite my skepticism, I was hooked within a few pages, and stayed engaged the whole way through.
The Wild Cards series presupposes an alternate universe where an alien virus is unleashed over New York that kills 90% of those who contract it. As for the rest, most are “blessed” with mutations and deformities of various type and severity (these unfortunates are colloquially referred to as jokers), while a select few are endowed with superpowers (otherwise known as deuces or aces, depending on the power). As with previous entries, this book is a series of novellas and short stories that are sliced into alternating chapters which build upon one another and are edited into a single narrative. This particular narrative focuses on “Fort Freak,” the police precinct of Jokertown. After what seems to be a questioning gone wrong, a confidential informant is dead and a Jokertown cop is seriously wounded. The suspect, a snake-bodied teenager with a venomous tongue, is a witness to what really happened, and he relies on a beleaguered public defender and a priest with a dark past to protect him from crooked cops and a frightening vigilante. Meanwhile, a ram-headed detective on his last stretch before retirement takes one last crack at a maddening old case, and dredges up secrets that someone is desperate to keep buried.
The book is about as weird as you would expect it to be from the setting’s description, especially if you’ve never read any of the Wild Cards books before. But underneath the carnival of oddities and grit-stained superheroes is a straightforward noir tale, and a pretty good one, at that. The tone varies, as one would expect from a short story collection, but as jarring as that change could occasionally get, I didn’t find the book nearly as uneven as I expected. The main story thread by Cherie Priest is expertly written, and the sideplots and character studies by the other contributors weave seamlessly in and out of it, coming together in an ending that could have been masterminded by a single author. Even the most egregious and unnecessary of these digressions— a love interest with a heavy focus on ménage à trois— is written fairly well, and fits within the general world and mood of the book.
After the sprawling, unedited mess that was the most recent two Song of Ice and Fire books, this tightly plotted and expertly written collection is like a breath of fresh air. Of course, my skepticism still holds sway; despite Martin’s name in enormous letters on the cover, he didn’t actually write anything in this collection, and his editing credit is accompanied by a humble little “assisted by Melinda Snodgrass” (one of the contributing authors, and also the person tapped to develop the film treatment of the Wild Cards universe), so I'm forced to wonder how much he really had to do with this particular book. Still, the setting is based on a superhero mythos he helped create through a tabletop game that he used to run, so it’s another example of why he remains one of my favorite authors: whatever other flaws he has as an author, he can tell a hell of a story.
This book is a dark horse favorite. I am definitely going to seek out the rest of the Wild Cards collection and start from the beginning.
The Wild Cards series presupposes an alternate universe where an alien virus is unleashed over New York that kills 90% of those who contract it. As for the rest, most are “blessed” with mutations and deformities of various type and severity (these unfortunates are colloquially referred to as jokers), while a select few are endowed with superpowers (otherwise known as deuces or aces, depending on the power). As with previous entries, this book is a series of novellas and short stories that are sliced into alternating chapters which build upon one another and are edited into a single narrative. This particular narrative focuses on “Fort Freak,” the police precinct of Jokertown. After what seems to be a questioning gone wrong, a confidential informant is dead and a Jokertown cop is seriously wounded. The suspect, a snake-bodied teenager with a venomous tongue, is a witness to what really happened, and he relies on a beleaguered public defender and a priest with a dark past to protect him from crooked cops and a frightening vigilante. Meanwhile, a ram-headed detective on his last stretch before retirement takes one last crack at a maddening old case, and dredges up secrets that someone is desperate to keep buried.
The book is about as weird as you would expect it to be from the setting’s description, especially if you’ve never read any of the Wild Cards books before. But underneath the carnival of oddities and grit-stained superheroes is a straightforward noir tale, and a pretty good one, at that. The tone varies, as one would expect from a short story collection, but as jarring as that change could occasionally get, I didn’t find the book nearly as uneven as I expected. The main story thread by Cherie Priest is expertly written, and the sideplots and character studies by the other contributors weave seamlessly in and out of it, coming together in an ending that could have been masterminded by a single author. Even the most egregious and unnecessary of these digressions— a love interest with a heavy focus on ménage à trois— is written fairly well, and fits within the general world and mood of the book.
After the sprawling, unedited mess that was the most recent two Song of Ice and Fire books, this tightly plotted and expertly written collection is like a breath of fresh air. Of course, my skepticism still holds sway; despite Martin’s name in enormous letters on the cover, he didn’t actually write anything in this collection, and his editing credit is accompanied by a humble little “assisted by Melinda Snodgrass” (one of the contributing authors, and also the person tapped to develop the film treatment of the Wild Cards universe), so I'm forced to wonder how much he really had to do with this particular book. Still, the setting is based on a superhero mythos he helped create through a tabletop game that he used to run, so it’s another example of why he remains one of my favorite authors: whatever other flaws he has as an author, he can tell a hell of a story.
This book is a dark horse favorite. I am definitely going to seek out the rest of the Wild Cards collection and start from the beginning.
December 27, 2011
The more Wild Cards books that I read, the more that I realize these are what the TV show Heroes wishes it could have been. I liked two out of three books of the re-launch trilogy, and those were books that were about the high-flying, high-powered aces who were off saving people in large numbers, and saving the world in turn.
Fort Freak reminds us there's more to the world than that. Here we are in Jokertown, a chunk of New York City that, in the Wild Cards universe, has come to be inhabited by a wide variety of those for whom the wild cards virus gave only weird physical deformities. These are the jokers, and they have been flocking to this place for something like 65 years.
As is typical for a Wild Cards novel, we get a smattering of adventures told through mosaic short stories by different authors. The name GRRM is prominently on the cover as editor, but he did not contribute any stories to the volume. Given that the interior of the book adds that he was "assisted by Melinda Snodgrass", it's probably fair to wonder just how much he was involved in this book. Really, though, this doesn't matter, because it's still a good story.
The characters in Fort Freak are mostly the jokers, people who are just trying to have an ordinary life but happen to have, say, goat horns sticking out of their head, leading to the nickname Ramshead. Or Father Squid, who has come to run the Our Lady of Perpetual Misery church over the years, or the vigilante Oddity, who's three people spliced together into one. The eponymous Fort Freak is the 5th precinct police station, where reside good cops and bad, aces, deuces, jokers and nats all thrown together.
The central story involves the aforementioned Ramshead, a cop getting close to retirement, who's trying to solve the one case that's always haunted him. Others are swept up in different concerns. These are all stories that have been told before with other trappings, and that's okay. The framed fugitive who's on the run from the cops is a lot cooler when the lower half of his body is that of a giant snake and he can poison people with his tongue. The misunderstood Internal Affairs cop literally has a rat's face. Weird is par for the course here, and for a reader that makes it fun, because this weirdness is constantly presented to your imagination in the writing.
If I have one complaint about Wild Cards it's probably when they throw in really weird threesomes for no other reason than that they can. When you can have a joker chick with like nine nipples who's constantly emitting pheromones getting it on with some kind of dancer ace with awesome kinetic powers I guess that temptation is too great for a writer to resist.
Fort Freak reminds us there's more to the world than that. Here we are in Jokertown, a chunk of New York City that, in the Wild Cards universe, has come to be inhabited by a wide variety of those for whom the wild cards virus gave only weird physical deformities. These are the jokers, and they have been flocking to this place for something like 65 years.
As is typical for a Wild Cards novel, we get a smattering of adventures told through mosaic short stories by different authors. The name GRRM is prominently on the cover as editor, but he did not contribute any stories to the volume. Given that the interior of the book adds that he was "assisted by Melinda Snodgrass", it's probably fair to wonder just how much he was involved in this book. Really, though, this doesn't matter, because it's still a good story.
The characters in Fort Freak are mostly the jokers, people who are just trying to have an ordinary life but happen to have, say, goat horns sticking out of their head, leading to the nickname Ramshead. Or Father Squid, who has come to run the Our Lady of Perpetual Misery church over the years, or the vigilante Oddity, who's three people spliced together into one. The eponymous Fort Freak is the 5th precinct police station, where reside good cops and bad, aces, deuces, jokers and nats all thrown together.
The central story involves the aforementioned Ramshead, a cop getting close to retirement, who's trying to solve the one case that's always haunted him. Others are swept up in different concerns. These are all stories that have been told before with other trappings, and that's okay. The framed fugitive who's on the run from the cops is a lot cooler when the lower half of his body is that of a giant snake and he can poison people with his tongue. The misunderstood Internal Affairs cop literally has a rat's face. Weird is par for the course here, and for a reader that makes it fun, because this weirdness is constantly presented to your imagination in the writing.
If I have one complaint about Wild Cards it's probably when they throw in really weird threesomes for no other reason than that they can. When you can have a joker chick with like nine nipples who's constantly emitting pheromones getting it on with some kind of dancer ace with awesome kinetic powers I guess that temptation is too great for a writer to resist.
July 12, 2014
This relatively late installment in the long-running (and at least twice-rebooted) Wild Cards series won't make much sense if you're coming into it cold... there's a lot of previous (alternate) history here, with which your familiarity is simply assumed. If you're not even sure where Jokertown is, or why it'd be appropriate for its police precinct headquarters to be nicknamed "Fort Freak," then this is not the place to start finding out. In this review, I am also going to assume that you are already familiar with the Takisian "wild card" virus released over Manhattan in 1946, and its subsequent effects on human beings, as detailed in Wild Cards (1987) et seq.
The copy of Fort Freak I read happens to have been (it says here) an Advance Uncorrected Proof, with a plain white cover—not the finished version, which means that I won't be engaging in my usual spelling and grammar nerdery, even though I ran into numerous proofreading errors... those were probably corrected—most of them, anyway—for the published work.
What probably didn't get changed was the sexism—that would have been extremely hard to root out, as it pervades this whole volume. In some ways, the Jokertown portrayed in Fort Freak is as open and tolerant of diversity as one might expect from a community where almost everyone is differently differently-abled (which is to say, there's a lot of friction—these are human beings, after all, whatever their peculiarities—but also a lot of mutual respect for people who aren't always shaped like people)... but in other ways it's still the same old, as they say, sausage-fest.
Or, to put it more formally, the male gaze thoroughly dominates this "mosaic novel," from its first chapter to the very end, even in the segments written by women.
Take that first chapter, "The Rat Race," by Cherie Priest. It starts with the arrest of an involuntarily naked woman, as observed by veteran cop Leo Storgman while he's on the phone with his rather shrewish daughter Melanie, who's trying to get him to move to a Joker retirement community in Florida—an uncomfortable conversation that's interrupted when Leo recognizes a different woman's ass from across the room. When she turns towards him, her cleavage confirms that she is Leo's old friend and sometime paramour Wanda Moretti...
And so it goes.
Eventually, horny old Leo (who's literally as well as figuratively horny—his ram's horns mark him inescapably as a joker, albeit a lightly-affected one) does get around to investigating something other than Wanda's anatomy. He's desperate to resolve one last case, a thirty-year-old murder that Leo's sure was pinned on the wrong guy. Storgman's obsession with what went down at the Rathole in 1978 is the thread that binds Fort Freak together, in fact, while the book's individual stories wander off to bring back old friends like the Oddity, Croyd Crenson and Father Squid, and to introduce new and powerful characters like the Infamous Black Tongue, half-man, half-snake; the thousand-nippled prostitute Minal, whose pheromonal power comes close to making her an ace, or at least a deuce; and Kavitha, whose dance-manifested force fields are definitely acelike.
To its credit, Fort Freak does get some things right. For one thing, it's about damn time that one of the Wild Cards books focused on Jokertown and its denizens, who after all outnumber aces ten-to-one. For another, the characters and their powers do end up being well-integrated into the overall story—I won't say this book's seamless, but it does a pretty good job of hiding the places where it was patched together. I suspect a lot of that integrity is due to Melinda Snodgrass, who's credited here as Martin's assistant.
So... in the end, for good and for ill, this is another Wild Cards book. There's plenty of snappy banter, super-powered battles, descriptions of exotic ace powers and joker anatomy, and the like—but it doesn't break much new ground. If, like me, you've stuck around for the entire series, you won't be sorry you've read it. If you're looking for something new, though... well, go back and find the first few instead, and see if you like 'em.
If you get hooked on the stuff that way, though, don't blame me... series editor George R.R. Martin's own ace power has always been to tell (or at least organize) a damned good story.
The copy of Fort Freak I read happens to have been (it says here) an Advance Uncorrected Proof, with a plain white cover—not the finished version, which means that I won't be engaging in my usual spelling and grammar nerdery, even though I ran into numerous proofreading errors... those were probably corrected—most of them, anyway—for the published work.
What probably didn't get changed was the sexism—that would have been extremely hard to root out, as it pervades this whole volume. In some ways, the Jokertown portrayed in Fort Freak is as open and tolerant of diversity as one might expect from a community where almost everyone is differently differently-abled (which is to say, there's a lot of friction—these are human beings, after all, whatever their peculiarities—but also a lot of mutual respect for people who aren't always shaped like people)... but in other ways it's still the same old, as they say, sausage-fest.
Or, to put it more formally, the male gaze thoroughly dominates this "mosaic novel," from its first chapter to the very end, even in the segments written by women.
Take that first chapter, "The Rat Race," by Cherie Priest. It starts with the arrest of an involuntarily naked woman, as observed by veteran cop Leo Storgman while he's on the phone with his rather shrewish daughter Melanie, who's trying to get him to move to a Joker retirement community in Florida—an uncomfortable conversation that's interrupted when Leo recognizes a different woman's ass from across the room. When she turns towards him, her cleavage confirms that she is Leo's old friend and sometime paramour Wanda Moretti...
And so it goes.
Eventually, horny old Leo (who's literally as well as figuratively horny—his ram's horns mark him inescapably as a joker, albeit a lightly-affected one) does get around to investigating something other than Wanda's anatomy. He's desperate to resolve one last case, a thirty-year-old murder that Leo's sure was pinned on the wrong guy. Storgman's obsession with what went down at the Rathole in 1978 is the thread that binds Fort Freak together, in fact, while the book's individual stories wander off to bring back old friends like the Oddity, Croyd Crenson and Father Squid, and to introduce new and powerful characters like the Infamous Black Tongue, half-man, half-snake; the thousand-nippled prostitute Minal, whose pheromonal power comes close to making her an ace, or at least a deuce; and Kavitha, whose dance-manifested force fields are definitely acelike.
To its credit, Fort Freak does get some things right. For one thing, it's about damn time that one of the Wild Cards books focused on Jokertown and its denizens, who after all outnumber aces ten-to-one. For another, the characters and their powers do end up being well-integrated into the overall story—I won't say this book's seamless, but it does a pretty good job of hiding the places where it was patched together. I suspect a lot of that integrity is due to Melinda Snodgrass, who's credited here as Martin's assistant.
So... in the end, for good and for ill, this is another Wild Cards book. There's plenty of snappy banter, super-powered battles, descriptions of exotic ace powers and joker anatomy, and the like—but it doesn't break much new ground. If, like me, you've stuck around for the entire series, you won't be sorry you've read it. If you're looking for something new, though... well, go back and find the first few instead, and see if you like 'em.
If you get hooked on the stuff that way, though, don't blame me... series editor George R.R. Martin's own ace power has always been to tell (or at least organize) a damned good story.
June 21, 2024
The 21st Wild Cards novel kicks off the Mean Streets triad. This is one of the strongest volumes so far, on par with Aces Abroad, Card Sharks, and Death Draws Five. The series has always been at its best when it focuses on Jokertown and its angry, deformed denizens. There are three through-plots that run through the stories—the Rathole shooting, the blackmailer Joe Twitch, and a string of random telekinetic burglaries.
“The Rook” by Melinda Snodgrass - F. X. Black, son of John Black (who was killed by Fortunado in Jokers Wild), learns the ropes as a beat cop in Fort Freak. This story sets the noir tone for the new triad—crime, suffering, & injustice in Jokertown!
“The Rat Race” by Cherie Priest — Ramshead reopens a cold case, the murders at the Rathole diner in Dec ‘78. Another tragic tale of drugs, stolen money, mob hits, and a cop on the take. This story forms the interstitials that connect all the other stories together. It introduces Button Man (a former mobster who grows exquisite mushrooms on his skin) and Maggie Graves (who prematurely ages anything she touches). It also references Melanie, the crystalline statue that Croyd Crenson keeps in his closet. Melanie’s story has never been told; this is the only reference to her other than the one in “Concerto for Siren and Serotonin” in Down and Dirty.
“Faith” by John Jos. Miller — Father Squid still struggles to come to terms with the death of his fiancée Lizzie thirty years ago. Features a surprise cameo from Cardinal Contarini from Death Draws Five.
“Snake Up Above/Snake in the Hole/Snake on Fire” by David Anthony Durham — Introduces Infamous Black Tongue, who is on the run after being accused of attacking a police officer. Features the return of Spasm and Twitch from Inside Straight.
“And All the Sinners Saints” by Victor Milan and Ty Franck — Public Defender Flipper tries to keep Black Tongue off Death Row, and the IAB investigator Ratboy investigates two dirty cops Puff and Angel for the Twitch shooting.
“Sanctuary” by Mary Anne Mohanraj — The many-nippled prostitute Minal seeks refuge with Ramshead’s nat partner Michael after she is attacked by gangsters. This raises new romantic opportunities with Michael’s girlfriend Kavitha, aka the ace light dancer Natya.
“Hope We Die Before We Get Old” by Stephen Leigh -- The return of Oddity! One of the personalities, John, is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Oddity is uncontrollable when John is in the ascendancy. Their only chance may be the Trump Virus, which is now improved to a 40% cure rate. This story wraps up Oddity's story but maybe not Patty's.
“More!” by Paul Cornell — Abigail Baker is introduced as a minor character in “The Rook”, but she has a very slick ability: she picks up the powers of any aces in close proximity. Next door, Croyd just woke up with power to duplicate any object (or animal or person) he touches. This is a madcap comedy in the vein of Roger Zelazny’s early Wild Card yarns.
“The Straight Man” by Kevin Andrew Murphy — Introduces Slim Man who can go 2-D and thus slip through any crack or else slice like a razor. He is on the trail of Magpie (last seen in "The Tower of Gold and Amber" in One-Eyed Jacks), who has a history dating all the way back to Dr. Tod’s lair.
“The Rook” by Melinda Snodgrass - F. X. Black, son of John Black (who was killed by Fortunado in Jokers Wild), learns the ropes as a beat cop in Fort Freak. This story sets the noir tone for the new triad—crime, suffering, & injustice in Jokertown!
“The Rat Race” by Cherie Priest — Ramshead reopens a cold case, the murders at the Rathole diner in Dec ‘78. Another tragic tale of drugs, stolen money, mob hits, and a cop on the take. This story forms the interstitials that connect all the other stories together. It introduces Button Man (a former mobster who grows exquisite mushrooms on his skin) and Maggie Graves (who prematurely ages anything she touches). It also references Melanie, the crystalline statue that Croyd Crenson keeps in his closet. Melanie’s story has never been told; this is the only reference to her other than the one in “Concerto for Siren and Serotonin” in Down and Dirty.
“Faith” by John Jos. Miller — Father Squid still struggles to come to terms with the death of his fiancée Lizzie thirty years ago. Features a surprise cameo from Cardinal Contarini from Death Draws Five.
“Snake Up Above/Snake in the Hole/Snake on Fire” by David Anthony Durham — Introduces Infamous Black Tongue, who is on the run after being accused of attacking a police officer. Features the return of Spasm and Twitch from Inside Straight.
“And All the Sinners Saints” by Victor Milan and Ty Franck — Public Defender Flipper tries to keep Black Tongue off Death Row, and the IAB investigator Ratboy investigates two dirty cops Puff and Angel for the Twitch shooting.
“Sanctuary” by Mary Anne Mohanraj — The many-nippled prostitute Minal seeks refuge with Ramshead’s nat partner Michael after she is attacked by gangsters. This raises new romantic opportunities with Michael’s girlfriend Kavitha, aka the ace light dancer Natya.
“Hope We Die Before We Get Old” by Stephen Leigh -- The return of Oddity! One of the personalities, John, is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Oddity is uncontrollable when John is in the ascendancy. Their only chance may be the Trump Virus, which is now improved to a 40% cure rate. This story wraps up Oddity's story but maybe not Patty's.
“More!” by Paul Cornell — Abigail Baker is introduced as a minor character in “The Rook”, but she has a very slick ability: she picks up the powers of any aces in close proximity. Next door, Croyd just woke up with power to duplicate any object (or animal or person) he touches. This is a madcap comedy in the vein of Roger Zelazny’s early Wild Card yarns.
“The Straight Man” by Kevin Andrew Murphy — Introduces Slim Man who can go 2-D and thus slip through any crack or else slice like a razor. He is on the trail of Magpie (last seen in "The Tower of Gold and Amber" in One-Eyed Jacks), who has a history dating all the way back to Dr. Tod’s lair.
February 1, 2019
A recent entry in the long-running wild Cards shared-world series. A police procedural with superhuman cops and criminals, in the usual gritty style of this series. I found this a bit long, and the main story arc didn't work for me as well as the short stories along the way. The shared-world format with a small cast of cops at the precinct also led to the same characters being introduced again and again and again by different authors which became tiring.
March 26, 2021
I almost enjoyed this more as a detective novel than a wild cards novel. It's not quite Pelcanos or Ellroy but it's better than anything James Patterson has ever done.
March 23, 2012
Given the option, I'd call this one a 3.5. I've been reading the series since it first appeared, and this seems to be less cohesive than most of the others. I really enjoyed Cherie Priest's connecting story and Stephen Leigh's contributions, but on the other hand the big-tongued snake guy and the dancer didn't do much for me. Perhaps it's because most of the other books have concerned vast interstellar (or at least global) concerns, while this one is set firmly in a Jokertown police station, and a cold-case murder investigation. Still, the Oddity/Father Squid sections are worth the price of admission on their own. I hope another volume follows soon.
January 16, 2022
The Wild Cards novels are a favorite of mine. Started many years ago, before Game of Thrones, by George RR Martin, the books have been at times anthologies that tell a linked story, or novel length tales on their own. This is book 21 of a very involved world, so even more than usual, I really strongly suggest you start at the beginning of the series. Without that, it's a little like watching Spider-Man: No Way Home without having seen any other Spider-Man movies, so you can't appreciate what they did on many levels.
Jokertown, New York City. Home of the deformed, the downtrodden, the ones much of the world wish didn't exist. This collection of interwoven tales bring back some characters that have been around a long time (Father Squid, The Sleeper, Oddity) and some new ones (Tinkerbill, Black Tongue, Ramshead). Fort Freak, from the title, is the police precinct in Jokertown, staffed by nats, jokers, and a few aces, dealing with the regular variety of crimes from any big city, but also the ones that clearly are brought about by super powers.
There's a strange variety of thefts, serial nudity by unwilling women, a looming gang war between the Demon Princes and their rivals, the Werewolves, and disappearing kittens. Detective Leo Storgman, Joker name Ramshead, is nearing forced retirement for age and can't let go of the mass murders in a diner called the Rathole several decades ago.
As we see old familiar faces and some new ones, the story moves from back then to the present (2010 for this book). Additional complications include a young woman who takes the stereotype of the unlikable and self-absorbed actress to a new level, a couple that find themselves in a threesome that's handled remarkably maturely, the complications of senility on someone with superpowers (I wrote a short story about that years ago), crooked cops, and the struggles of a good lawyer and an officer from Internal Affairs, who no one likes.
The new characters and powers are creative and well-executed, the continuing stories of old friends are done well, and the different tales, as they alternate throughout the book, show different angles on the events as the book moves from August to December.
I really enjoy this word and series, and strongly recommend you start at the beginning.
Jokertown, New York City. Home of the deformed, the downtrodden, the ones much of the world wish didn't exist. This collection of interwoven tales bring back some characters that have been around a long time (Father Squid, The Sleeper, Oddity) and some new ones (Tinkerbill, Black Tongue, Ramshead). Fort Freak, from the title, is the police precinct in Jokertown, staffed by nats, jokers, and a few aces, dealing with the regular variety of crimes from any big city, but also the ones that clearly are brought about by super powers.
There's a strange variety of thefts, serial nudity by unwilling women, a looming gang war between the Demon Princes and their rivals, the Werewolves, and disappearing kittens. Detective Leo Storgman, Joker name Ramshead, is nearing forced retirement for age and can't let go of the mass murders in a diner called the Rathole several decades ago.
As we see old familiar faces and some new ones, the story moves from back then to the present (2010 for this book). Additional complications include a young woman who takes the stereotype of the unlikable and self-absorbed actress to a new level, a couple that find themselves in a threesome that's handled remarkably maturely, the complications of senility on someone with superpowers (I wrote a short story about that years ago), crooked cops, and the struggles of a good lawyer and an officer from Internal Affairs, who no one likes.
The new characters and powers are creative and well-executed, the continuing stories of old friends are done well, and the different tales, as they alternate throughout the book, show different angles on the events as the book moves from August to December.
I really enjoy this word and series, and strongly recommend you start at the beginning.
November 17, 2023
I had heard that the books in the Wild Cards series work as stand-alone stories, hence the decision to start at number 21 (the first one I happened to stumble across in a charity shop). That definitely seems to be true; I found I didn't need any background knowledge about the series that wasn't supplied in the blurb. I get the impression that some of the characters must have appeared in previous books - something about how they're referred to makes me think they're not jut established people in the city, but established characters in the universe. Past events are referenced in a way that makes me think long-time readers will recall reading about them first-hand.
The book itself had some great points and some issues. I loved the idea of it - a novel constructed out of multiple authors work is an intriguing idea, and it has some advantages. When you follow different characters doing different things, the whole atmosphere changes entirely. There was also a lot of creativity on show, not just with the character's appearances and characters, but in how they interact with their world.
The problems I found were that some writer's styles suited me better than others, and switching between them within the same story made that stand out. Also, while there was some really creative ideas in the book, there were also a few cliches, and not cliches used for effect, or built upon - just cliches for the sake of it. Perhaps this is the downside to multiple people working on the same story: some elements get boiled down to the lowest common denominator.
I will pick up other Wild Cards books as and when I see them, because I enjoyed this one enough to be curious. I'm not about to go and order books 1-20 straight away though.
The book itself had some great points and some issues. I loved the idea of it - a novel constructed out of multiple authors work is an intriguing idea, and it has some advantages. When you follow different characters doing different things, the whole atmosphere changes entirely. There was also a lot of creativity on show, not just with the character's appearances and characters, but in how they interact with their world.
The problems I found were that some writer's styles suited me better than others, and switching between them within the same story made that stand out. Also, while there was some really creative ideas in the book, there were also a few cliches, and not cliches used for effect, or built upon - just cliches for the sake of it. Perhaps this is the downside to multiple people working on the same story: some elements get boiled down to the lowest common denominator.
I will pick up other Wild Cards books as and when I see them, because I enjoyed this one enough to be curious. I'm not about to go and order books 1-20 straight away though.
April 7, 2018
LOVED IT. Ah the sheer pleasure of quite unexpectedly finding a good book quite by chance. We had coffee together, we sat under trees, we curled up at the end of crap days. The question then becomes whether the romance can continue...
I picked this up as I walked through the library simply because it has George RR Martin blazoned across the front. Sometimes, books like these are truly crap; a famous name as a figurehead editor and multiple authors writing their own bits and pieces. For me, I suspect Martin has done an excellent job of ensuring that each chapter is a separate character p.o.v. but at the same time these characters are woven into multiple other chapters and potentially have subsequent chapters of their own again. This was a great police procedural / crime / noir novel with a unique parallel timeline twist. There are multiple stories (personal and crime related) that successfully weave through the book despite the different authors involved.
I came into the book blind and although knowing some of the back story may have helped, there were enough hints woven in that I was able to work out the nats/Jokers/Aces deal and it didn't matter that I hadn't read the previous books. Some of the characters (like Oddity) may have appeared previously but it wouldn't surprise me if most of the cops are new. Delighted to now look up the rest of the series and try to guess how it may fit (or differ) with the tone of this one.
I picked this up as I walked through the library simply because it has George RR Martin blazoned across the front. Sometimes, books like these are truly crap; a famous name as a figurehead editor and multiple authors writing their own bits and pieces. For me, I suspect Martin has done an excellent job of ensuring that each chapter is a separate character p.o.v. but at the same time these characters are woven into multiple other chapters and potentially have subsequent chapters of their own again. This was a great police procedural / crime / noir novel with a unique parallel timeline twist. There are multiple stories (personal and crime related) that successfully weave through the book despite the different authors involved.
I came into the book blind and although knowing some of the back story may have helped, there were enough hints woven in that I was able to work out the nats/Jokers/Aces deal and it didn't matter that I hadn't read the previous books. Some of the characters (like Oddity) may have appeared previously but it wouldn't surprise me if most of the cops are new. Delighted to now look up the rest of the series and try to guess how it may fit (or differ) with the tone of this one.
January 23, 2025
Wild Cards a la 87th Precinct.
Certainly this is one of the best Wild Card books in the series. It provides something of a fresh start, as the big "stars" of the most recent entries into the series appear here only as very minor characters. The police officers of Jokertown are the ones in the spotlight, as they strive to keep the peace between rival gangs, solve a series of vexing thefts, and clear a cold case of which The Sleeper may have been a witness.
I enjoyed all the stories and sketches in this book, with the exception of one weak entry.
Unfortunately, a list of the characters is not included. I appreciate those Wild Card books that list all the characters, with all of each character's names, along with the character's original creator. Most of the characters are called by many names; it can get confusing. The Sleeper makes an important appearance, but no mention of Roger Zelazny. That's low rent.
Certainly this is one of the best Wild Card books in the series. It provides something of a fresh start, as the big "stars" of the most recent entries into the series appear here only as very minor characters. The police officers of Jokertown are the ones in the spotlight, as they strive to keep the peace between rival gangs, solve a series of vexing thefts, and clear a cold case of which The Sleeper may have been a witness.
I enjoyed all the stories and sketches in this book, with the exception of one weak entry.
Unfortunately, a list of the characters is not included. I appreciate those Wild Card books that list all the characters, with all of each character's names, along with the character's original creator. Most of the characters are called by many names; it can get confusing. The Sleeper makes an important appearance, but no mention of Roger Zelazny. That's low rent.
August 23, 2021
It's a rollercoaster. First of all the writing style in different short storys from different authors make it kind of exhausting to read. Especially in the beginning you get hammered by a lot of different characters and since it's very dark scenery with a lot of weirdness it's kind of hard to keep track how they belong to each other and which cahrachters are in which story. In between i was annoyed, reading more storys of other characters while the plot's which hooked me have been on hold. But as the Storys continues the different short storys seem to get closer to each other and it's easier to distinguish the scenerys and characters. I liked the weirdness and the kind of zynical world. In the end i got entertained, while the ending still seemed very spontanious.
November 18, 2022
This was my second time reading this book. It was my first experience with the Wild Cards universe. I found this book lying on my cot when I was in Kyrgyzstan. It looked interesting enough (and I had nothing better to do), so I read it. It got me to buy the first three Wild Card books to read. I didn't like them as much and abandoned the series. For some reason, I was compelled to read it again and buy the next two books that finish the Fort Freak Trilogy. I still enjoyed this one, but wonder if the next two books qualify as part of an internal trilogy. Everything seemed resolved. I'll still read the next two books, but I think this one may have had just enough magic for a soldier coming home after a year in Afghanistan.
September 21, 2018
I've read just a few Wild Cards books over the years, and liked them okay. I liked this one enough that I'm going to read a few more. The plots: a soon-to-retire detective decides to revisit a 30-year-old case, and digs up lots of dirt. A new young cop gets some experience. A young public defender, the same. A very young joker gets in deep trouble because of a couple of very bad cops. The cops work on a perplexing series of thefts. Father Squid has quite a past, and some of it catches up with him. And there's more. It's paced very well, and the stories each have satisfying resolutions.
July 12, 2017
I enjoyed this volume much more than the previous few. Not only did the writers have the opportunity to tell interesting stories about longstanding background characters, but they also told great stories about jokers. I guess I get sick of aces aces aces. Also, I don't read many police procedurals (any?) so that was fun for a change.
September 4, 2018
A great start to a new Triad! This book seemed like a standalone, but it starts a surprising trilogy, ending in a place I never would have expected. Introduces some great new characters (IBT) and visits some old favorites (Father Squid!)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 11, 2024
Not my favourite book from the Wild Cards Series, but still a lot of fun. As always following a handful of stories from different povs which sometimes intertwine, focusing this time on the cops and people of jokertown.
May 17, 2017
OK, serves me right, I missed the "Wild Cards" tag. For fans of this genre only.
August 16, 2017
Still satisfying, even after all these years.
May 28, 2018
One of the best of the Wild Cards series, both in terms of characterizations and plots, and in terms of clean, error-free writing (and editing).
Want to read
March 11, 2023The audacity of them to (we hope) adapt this one into TV first defies words but beggars can't be choosers
July 23, 2024
I could literally picture every fcking scene! The action was great.
The exposition was lovely.
It took me time to know who was the culprit and that's what I like in a book with a haze of mystery.
The exposition was lovely.
It took me time to know who was the culprit and that's what I like in a book with a haze of mystery.
August 22, 2024
I was hesitant at the beginning of the book because I wasn't sure how a cop specific book would be, but it was great.
October 29, 2021
A good entry in the Wild Cards franchise if you are a fan of Murder mysteries and the varied characters of Jokertown.
October 19, 2018
now i am hooked. This was such a great, easy and creative book. i was hooked after the first page.
The characters were easy to fall in love with and follow, along with the story. the author made the mental visions so easy and vivid of the surroundings and the characters actions felt so real.
i would highly recommend this author and this book.
The characters were easy to fall in love with and follow, along with the story. the author made the mental visions so easy and vivid of the surroundings and the characters actions felt so real.
i would highly recommend this author and this book.
March 31, 2014
I started reading The Wild Cards series with the first volume when I was thirteen years old. Except for three or four in the nineties, I've read them all. When I was thirteen I loved, loved, loved the shared world experience, the switching point of views and the somewhat more realistic take on superheroes (I've always been a huge comic book superhero fan). Back then I relished the tales about The Great and Powerful Turtle, The Sleeper, Golden Boy and all of the other Aces, that were the lucky ones when they drew their "Wild Card" (been infected with the alien Wild Card Virus). I didn't have as much patience for the stories centered around Jokertown and the poor 90 percent of survivors that were hideously deformed by the virus. Now that I'm a "grown-up" I'm still fascinated by the weight of responsibility super-powers brings you, but I'm even more enthralled by the tales of those who find themselves transformed (sometimes beyond recognition) and then have to carry on living in a world that isn't very tolerant of those that are different. Needless to say, I loved Fort Freak, the newest installment of the Wild Card series, that features the cops, criminals, attorneys and citizens that interact with the precinct headquartered in New York's Jokertown. The frame story is that of "Ramshead" a retiring detective (with ram's horns on his head), who is obsessed with a case from more than thirty years before that he never felt fully closed. In between we have a large number of other cases and situations that all have to do (however peripherally) with this case. We get treated to a slew of new characters such as the cops themselves (Tinkerbill and Puff the Asian-American bad cop that looks like a dragon and breaths fire) and the Infamous Black Tongue, a young Joker half-snake. We also have stories surrounding old favorites, like Oddity, the Sleeper and Father Squid. The little cameos of other characters such as Bubbles and Jube, the walrus paperseller, are great fun as well. Can you enjoy it even if you haven't read the others? Definitely, this is a stand alone story. Can you enjoy it if you aren't a big fan of superheroes? Yes, the powers are really an afterthought. Can you enjoy it if you don't even like police procedurals? Heck yes, I don't like those, and I loved this book. I was a little alarmed that this has been the last book in a number of years, but I learned that we'll have another by the end of the year and more to come after that. Good, keep them coming. Also, it is time that Wild Cards got the same TV treatment as Martin's other work. This one would have so much potential, and you could keep them coming for years and years and years...
October 29, 2016
The start of a new "trilogy" of Wild Cards novels, this focusses on the eponymous NYPD precinct station that covers the area of Jokertown. As such, there is more of a focus on jokers than usual, especially in the earlier parts of the book, although we do also see a number of new aces.
Unusually, for the start of a WC trilogy, the book is a tightly woven mosaic novel, with several plot lines running through it, in addition to the main linking story, concerning a cold case multiple homicide from the '70s. The atmosphere is also notably different, at times feeling like a regular police procedural that happens to involve people with unusual powers or appearances. That, of course, is something that may or may not appeal, but it worked for me.
A number of old characters make a re-appearance here, notably Father Squid and the Oddity, who are both viewpoint characters. Combined with the return of Jokertown itself as a setting, there's much that's familiar here to long-time readers, and less of a clear break with the past than with, say, Inside Straight (#18). Even so, since all the plotlines are new, it's not a bad jumping-in point for the series - certainly better than either of the two books that precede it, for instance.
As for the individual stories themselves, the stand-out for me was "More!" by Paul Cornell, an often comedic piece that lifts the somewhat darker tone of the rest of the book, and (unsurprisingly) manages to get a British character right for once. Plus re-introducing a certain ace that we haven't seen for a long time... Also notable, but at the opposite end of the spectrum, tone-wise, is "Hope We Die Before We Get Old" by Stephen Leigh, spread in three parts throughout the novel as the background plot unfolds, and featuring the Oddity facing a potentially tragic fate.
But, honestly, I enjoyed all of the stories, binding together to make Jokertown, its citizens and its cops, feel like a very real place.
Unusually, for the start of a WC trilogy, the book is a tightly woven mosaic novel, with several plot lines running through it, in addition to the main linking story, concerning a cold case multiple homicide from the '70s. The atmosphere is also notably different, at times feeling like a regular police procedural that happens to involve people with unusual powers or appearances. That, of course, is something that may or may not appeal, but it worked for me.
A number of old characters make a re-appearance here, notably Father Squid and the Oddity, who are both viewpoint characters. Combined with the return of Jokertown itself as a setting, there's much that's familiar here to long-time readers, and less of a clear break with the past than with, say, Inside Straight (#18). Even so, since all the plotlines are new, it's not a bad jumping-in point for the series - certainly better than either of the two books that precede it, for instance.
As for the individual stories themselves, the stand-out for me was "More!" by Paul Cornell, an often comedic piece that lifts the somewhat darker tone of the rest of the book, and (unsurprisingly) manages to get a British character right for once. Plus re-introducing a certain ace that we haven't seen for a long time... Also notable, but at the opposite end of the spectrum, tone-wise, is "Hope We Die Before We Get Old" by Stephen Leigh, spread in three parts throughout the novel as the background plot unfolds, and featuring the Oddity facing a potentially tragic fate.
But, honestly, I enjoyed all of the stories, binding together to make Jokertown, its citizens and its cops, feel like a very real place.
July 23, 2012
I have to say that so far this has been my favorite of the Wild Cards books I have read. I only picked up the Wild Cards with the first novel of the most recent cycle (Inside Straight) but have enjoyed every book. Fort Freak is a departure from the previous three books which focused one Jonathan Fortune and the Hero's of the UN Association Task Force. This book takes us to Jokertown's 5th Precinct nicknamed Fort Freak. The book starts out with the story of Detective Leo "Ramshead" Storgman, just a few months from retirement, who is persuaded to reopen a thirty year old closed case involving a multiple homicide shooting at the Rat Hole diner. Like other Wild Card novels this book contains several stories that intertwined with each other around the main story of the Rat Hole. Other stories involve a rookie Nat officer Francis "Franny" Black during his first days on the job, the ongoing feud between Jokertown’s rival gangs the Werewolves and the Demon Princes, a run in with Croyd Cranson the infamous Sleeper, a Joker dubbed The Infamous Black Tongue who goes on the run after he witnesses the actions of two dirty cops, and several others. This book also gives a lot of back-story into some of Jokertown’s better known residents including Father Squid, Charles Dutton, and the Oddity.
I really like this book. I have always been a fan of Detective Stories since I first started reading the Nero Wolfe series as a kid. At its heart this book isn't a superhero story, it's a detective story that just happens to take place in a world where superheros exist. The powers never really take the focus even for the police officers that have them. I can only hope that more books in this series are coming.
I really like this book. I have always been a fan of Detective Stories since I first started reading the Nero Wolfe series as a kid. At its heart this book isn't a superhero story, it's a detective story that just happens to take place in a world where superheros exist. The powers never really take the focus even for the police officers that have them. I can only hope that more books in this series are coming.
May 21, 2012
I remain amused that for a man who despises fanfic that George R.R. Martin continues to edit and contribute to the Wild Cards series. Basically the series grew out of Martin, and a group of fellow writers with whom he is friends, love of super heroes, a RPG they were playing, and he has made veiled comments that some of them were writing fanfic.
Fort Freak is not the strongest entry in the series. After the trilogy the previous three books provided we receive a stand alone that takes place entirely in New York. Jokertown is the section of the city occupied primarily by Jokers (those the Wild Card virus deformed, or deformed and gave minor powers to). Jokertown's police station is nicknamed Fort Freak.
Whereas previous volumes in a like setting maintained a steady story flow this one feels more like a novel that has fits and starts. Arguably Cherie Priest's The Rat Race is used as a framing device. We follow the last few months of detective Leo Sotrgman, Ramshead, career before a forced retirment (the virus made him grow ram's horns), and the events that lead him to look into a 30+ year old cold case. As we go month to month we follow his steady working through leads to find the real killer.
Out of the new writers recruited to the series Dr. Who screenwriter Paul Cornell's More is the best entry mixing action and humor with well paced writing. Priest's story would have worked better if told by itself, and the months could have been used as chapter headings.
If anything the book's editor (be it Martin or Tor Publishing) should have kept the stories by themselves, and this would have been a better book and stronger entry in the series.
Fort Freak is not the strongest entry in the series. After the trilogy the previous three books provided we receive a stand alone that takes place entirely in New York. Jokertown is the section of the city occupied primarily by Jokers (those the Wild Card virus deformed, or deformed and gave minor powers to). Jokertown's police station is nicknamed Fort Freak.
Whereas previous volumes in a like setting maintained a steady story flow this one feels more like a novel that has fits and starts. Arguably Cherie Priest's The Rat Race is used as a framing device. We follow the last few months of detective Leo Sotrgman, Ramshead, career before a forced retirment (the virus made him grow ram's horns), and the events that lead him to look into a 30+ year old cold case. As we go month to month we follow his steady working through leads to find the real killer.
Out of the new writers recruited to the series Dr. Who screenwriter Paul Cornell's More is the best entry mixing action and humor with well paced writing. Priest's story would have worked better if told by itself, and the months could have been used as chapter headings.
If anything the book's editor (be it Martin or Tor Publishing) should have kept the stories by themselves, and this would have been a better book and stronger entry in the series.
September 15, 2011
My only previous exposure to the Wild Cards series was through the short stories (really, selections) published in GRRM's Dreamsongs collections. I knew this was going to be a "mosaic novel" but what that actually meant didn't sink in till I was past the first chapter, at which point I began to fully appreciate GRRM's contribution to this book. It's one thing to edit a collection of short stories, but to have the vision to corral a bunch of sci-fi authors and have them work together to write a cohesive novel is, in my opinion, quite the accomplishment. It also makes this book less of a time-waster on GRRM's part than merely putting together an anthology instead of writing more of the original work for which he's celebrated (again, in my highly partial opinion.)
The second shouldn't-have-been-a-surprise-but-was for me was the fact that this book, more than being about people with genetic differences, was really a police procedural. I love police procedurals. At the thrift store, I will buy any Ed McBain novels I don't already own. So I was pleasantly surprised that this book merely used the Wild Cards universe as a unique setting in which to drop an absorbing mystery, sort of like Isola with powers. I was also pleased that I guessed whodunnit and why only shortly before Ramshead, our hero, did. For that, again, major kudos to GRRM, who managed to not only get a cohesive urban fantasy out of a gang of disparate writers, but also an engaging mystery, and a genre mystery at that.
I received this book gratis as part of Goodreads' First Reads program.
The second shouldn't-have-been-a-surprise-but-was for me was the fact that this book, more than being about people with genetic differences, was really a police procedural. I love police procedurals. At the thrift store, I will buy any Ed McBain novels I don't already own. So I was pleasantly surprised that this book merely used the Wild Cards universe as a unique setting in which to drop an absorbing mystery, sort of like Isola with powers. I was also pleased that I guessed whodunnit and why only shortly before Ramshead, our hero, did. For that, again, major kudos to GRRM, who managed to not only get a cohesive urban fantasy out of a gang of disparate writers, but also an engaging mystery, and a genre mystery at that.
I received this book gratis as part of Goodreads' First Reads program.
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