Turn of the Cards

Wild Cards #12

by George R.R. Martin (Editor), Victor Milán

Pursued by the CIA, the DEA, and the Wild Card mistress of the winds, Mistral, renegade biochemist Mark Meadows uses the three personalities buried in his psyche in order to outwit his pursuers.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Superheroes, Fiction, Short Stories, Alternate History, Anthologies

432 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

George Raymond Richard "R.R." Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.

Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.

In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.

As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.

In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.

Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.

Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...

Reviews

[Martin Doychinov · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Turn of the Cards" е вторият самостоятелен роман в поредицата и се развива веднага след завършилата с предишната книга трилогия за Rox. На практика, той е продължение или спин-оф на предишната самостоятена книга - "Double Solitaire", защото се развива директно след него и главният герой е един от основните персонажи в романа на Мелинда Снодграс.
Марк Медоус ака "Капитан Трипс" не ми е от любимите персонажи, или може би вече е по-правилно да пиша - не беше. Този роман наистина влага нужната дълбочина в образа на "Последно хипи", който бяга от клишето на наркомана-пацифист и влиза в това на един мирен човек, който е принуден от света (или по-точно САЩ), да извършва съвсем нехарактерни за него неща.
След като се връща на Земята от Такис, Марк Медоус е жестоко преследван от американската служба за борба с наркотиците DEA, които поради непонятна причина са решили, че е един от най-големите наркодилъри в света. Дори са взели и асото Мистрал да им помага. С тях е мистериозният Рандал Бълък (Механика), който изобщо не е балък, а обигран в международния шпионаж ас със собствени причини да иска да открие Медоус.
Марк е открит в Амстердам и започва бягство, обхващащо може би първата третина от романа и е с маршрут: Амстердам-Гърция (където е споменат един мърсящ средиземноморието български танкер)-Средния изток и накрая завършва във Виетнам.
Комунистически Виетнам предлага убежище на всички, засегнати от вируса, независимо дали са жокери или аса. Там среща Кройд Кренсън, който се е събудил като голям гущер и макар да изпитва леки неудобства и непривичен уклон към яденето на насекоми, се радва, защото студенокръвните не спят и той очаква да остане в това състояние дълго време. Двамата се присъединват към специалната "Нова Жокерна Бригада" или бригада "Нов Жокер", които се обучват за войници. Очаквано, на Марк хич не му харесва "живота в казармата", но това е най-вече поради изпълненото с насилие търсене на бунтовници, което е използвано от все по-мразещите "натовете" (хора, незасегнати от вируса) жокери да бият и убиват селяни.
Марк бяга заедно с други жокери и е открит от Механика, който иска да му помогне да започне контрареволюция. Марк не е много ентусиазиран, но разбира, че това е единствената и то - малка възможност да оцелее. Неговото амплоа на име "Лунното дете" се превръща във водач на бунтовниците, които искат да направят това, което САЩ не е успял двайсетина години по-рано - да изгонят комунистите. Все повече хора и жокери се присъединяват към него, но му се налага прекалено често да друса и да е "Лунното дете", което има сериозни последствия върху физическото и психическото му здраве.
САЩ изпращат двама специални пратеници, които да му попречат в чисто физически аспокт - асото Карнифекс и асото-жокер Crypt Kicker (напрактика неубиваем и много силен). Все по-задълбочващите се психически проблеми на Марк ще извикат един негов нов "приятел" - много по-голям и зъл от останалите.
Имам няколко забележки:
1. Можеше да е поне с едни 20% по-кратък, тъй като в средата нещата са доста приспивни и не е нужно да четем 100 страници как Марк се запознава с армейския живот и хич не му харесва и деградацията на някои от жокерите.
2. Не знам защо Мистрал участва, не мисля, че това донесе нещо повече от бележка за това каква е тя след драмата при атаката на Рокс, нейното участие в нея и в убийството на баща ѝ.
3. Книжните издания на "Tor" от поредицата не ми харесват, защото са правени с идеята да се събере най-много текст на една страница, при което от 432 в старото издание, в това са 320 и шрифтът и разстоянието между редовете са възмалки за моя вкус. Добре, че следващите (след като се самонавих да си ги купя на хартия) са на "Random House" и са по-добри в това отношение.
Иначе ми хареса романът, а сега предсои трилогията "Card Sharks"!

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll start by saying that this has been my least favorite of the Wild Card books so far. That surprised me, as it's basically a Cap'n Trips novel, and he's one of my favorites. But it was slow going, and at times downright boring as hell.

That being said, the last quarter of the book changed the anticipated two-star rating I had planned to its current four-star. Exhilarating action coupled with, I think, the most satisfactory ending in the series thus far, completely changed my outlook.

All is forgiven.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's great getting a whole novel on Cap'n Trips, and Milán does a great job of characterizing this weird, goofy, and interesting hero. It's the highlight of the book, especially the ending which results in several major changes for Mark.

Unfortunately, the plot doesn't hold up to that great character. There's too little happening in most of it, and Mark has too little agency throughout. First, he's on the run across Europe in a large section that barely matters; then, he's humping through Vietnamese jungles with a group of Jokers, and again it doesn't matter. Only the third section of the book, almost 300 pages in, offers a serious story with a serious plot, and because so much space has been wasted, it feels like we just get an outline.

Part of the problem may be that the major foe of this volume lies in the background. They won't come on stage until the Card Sharks trilogy that follows, making this a prelude to those novels, and thus unable to resolve those plot points.

But the resolution for Cap'n himself ... it's terrific.

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it's just due to having taken a lengthy break on this series, but for whatever reason I enjoyed this book more than the previous couple. I liked the setting of Vietnam, and what a lot of other people described as a slow moving plot somehow kept my attention well enough. The action and violence definitely ramped up in the last third of the book. Mark's new persona was a pretty good delivery mechanism for all that violence.

[Charlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the Wild Cards I do think this was one the better ones. Staying Europe, starting in Holland fleeing to Egypt and ending up in Vietnam.

[Jareed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start off by saying that the wild card series has a way of endearing itself to its readers considering the volume and extent to which the series has grown. Of course, the finesse of workmanship that goes with the series captivates one in further picking up the next book in the series, and that is how, I find myself writing a review for the series in this twelfth book.

The continuity by which the series' has been riddled with can be said to be one its strength and yet it too is the source of a waterloo for the series. What happens when a reader gets enthralled with a series is that we find a connection with the characters, we developed an inkling to these characters' stories and we expect a closure if not a continuation on the foundations we have been fed. We look, or rather we crave for further developments for personalities and characters we have inevitably labelled 'favorite/s' or more pretentiously identified with 'me'... or is ambitiously seen as what 'I' 'you' or 'me' would like to be. We have made it personal for this is the only process whereby one appreciates the written work. And this is precisely the reason why Turn of the Wild Cards garnered a three-star rating, or something lower if not for the Capt. Trips.

Mistral inhere for example is a misnomer. From the conclusion of the superbly done arc that was the jumper-rox-arc, she just suddenly appears pursuing Capt. Trips. Where a concise and substantial caveat could have sufficed, nothing was offered. How the hell did she get back to her body? And what of his father, Cyclone, feared dead in the previous arc. And it begs to be emphasize that in the succeeding books in the series, much of the discontinuity escalates into full blown disjointed story arc presentations, presumably (and i do hope i do stand to be corrected) due to the transfer of the right to create and publish the succeeding books to several publishing companies like TOR and IBooks.

For a person who wants to find the same continuity i am looking for, there's something to look forward to in the seventeenth book of the series Death Draws Five.

[Ylva · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a kid he’d loved comics. He’d grown up thrilling to the four-color adventures of Jetboy and the Great and Powerful Turtle–no Superman for him; he was only interested in actual aces, even though he understood that their exploits were mostly made up by Cosh Comics or whoever held the license. He had wanted, more than anything in the world, to be a Hero, like the ones he read about.
That was the spring which drove him in his long search for the Radical. It was the obsession that had shaped the expression of his personal ace. He had become not one Hero but five.

Flawed and terribly uneven as it is, the shared universe, collective novel approach is what makes WILD CARDS what it is. Jay and Tachyon are two of my favorite characters, and I still struggled with DEAD MAN’S HAND and DOUBLE SOLITAIRE (although the latter managed to win me over, but that’s more a reflection on me than it is on Melinda Snodgrass).

And then this solo novel was about Mark Meadows.

“For God’s sake, man, calmly, calmly. You look as if aliens had just abducted you aboard their starship.”
“No,” Mark said firmly, his eyes never leaving Sobel, “that happens to me all the time.”

I don’t dislike Cap’n Trips, as a concept or as a character. He has some interesting narrative threads attached to him, and it’s always fun to really get inside the head of an old-timer in this world. Mark’s a day one, and it shows in this novel. But he just isn’t quite enough to carry a whole story, that’s pretty evident from the get-go. And you can tell that Victor Milán, on some level, also knows this, because this might be the most Croyd-heavy story we’ve ever had, period. It’s as true now as it was way back in the original trilogy: when in doubt, toss the Sleeper into a cameo role, where he can fuck around in the story for a bit and ultimately have zero impact on it. And I, as any respecting WILD CARDS fan, simply cannot get enough of it.

“Certainly, Colonel,” Croyd said, and Mark had a horrible flash that he was doing as good a Peter Falk impression as his lipless lizard mouth would allow. “We’re with you all the way.”

He shook his head. “What’s going on, man? What’s going on?”
Croyd took his cigar from his mouth and surveyed the scene with fine amphetamine detachment. “Looks like Armageddon to me,” he said.

But I digress. The Sleeper is a fun treat, especially in the sections where this story really becomes a slog, but he is really just window dressing. And, as several other reviews rightly point out, this story only really becomes interesting (read: off the walls insane) in the third half. My theory for why that is, is that Milán really misses where the emotional core of this narrative should have landed.

“It all started coming back to me then. What we’d done–what the war had done–to this country, these people. And what the nats had done to us, before and after. And I looked around, man, I saw this Leo Barnett smilin’ away on the tube, and I saw my man Gregg Hartmann going down in Atlanta with Dr. Fuckin’ Tachyon’s knife sticking out of his back, and then all this shit hit with the jumpers and the Rox and everything, and suddenly it looked like it was going to be open season on wild cards any old time. And then here was the Colonel, ‘way down yonder in Vietnam, sayin’ come to me, I’ll let you be free. Let you feel like men again.”

This is a story about jokers, grasping at strings as their history continues to unravel. In a way, it isn’t all that strange that Mark should be the narrator of this: he may be an ace, but he’s a strange one even as far as they go, and his ties to Jokertown do run deep.

“Look, what happened back at Rick’s…we didn’t know you, man. Didn’t know who you were. We know now. We remember what Cap’n Trips did for Doughboy when the nats were ready to toast him, man. We don’t forget our friends.”

The trouble is that at the end of the day, this solo novel is mostly a very bizarre take on post-Vietnam War politics.

“Okay, man. You’re an ace. What do you want with me?”
“I want to help you.”
“Do what?”
“Just what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?” Unfortunately it was not a rhetorical question. Mark had no clue what he was up to. He regretted spilling the fact right out there on the mat.
“Preparing to bring down the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” Belew said.

Which, as you can imagine, does not work at all. But, hey, it wouldn’t be WILD CARDS if it wasn’t a heartwrenching, compelling idea wrapped up in layers upon layers of utter insanity.

“The Rox lives, man.”

And, if you’re a big Mark fan, it’s a pretty good send-off not only for him, but for the original WILD CARDS era as a whole. DOUBLE SOLITAIRE began that, but this is where the new age begins, with the farewell (and forgiveness) of the old.

An image burst like a bomb in his mind: himself, poised to give pain. And then, looming over him, a dozen times greater, a hundred, was Moonchild in her black and silver. And at her side stood Cap’n Trips, resplendent in his purple suit, and J.J. Flash, and Cosmic Traveler, and Aquarius–and, yes, the blond one, the dead one, and a legion of others the Monster did not know.
He raised his fists to defy them. It was a dream, a lie! The others weren’t bigger than he. They were weak, they were small. He was big. He was greater than anything.
“All you need,” the voice said, “is love.”
He roared his contempt. And the giant faces gazed down upon him, and love flowed out.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This twelfth Wild Cards book was the last of the original editions published by Bantam. It's another single-author narrative, this time by Victor Milan focusing on the character of Captain Trips, and while it's a well-written piece I always felt the strength of the series was the multi-author mosaics with multiple storylines running simultaneously. This one takes a while to really get going, but does conclude with a fast-paced and satisfying wrap-up.

[Craig Childs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Meadows has returned from Takis, only to find himself the subject of a worldwide DEA manhunt in the aftermath of the events in Jokertown Shuffle. His drug lab was raided, which resulted in the death of a cop from friendly fire. He also fought the US Secret Service while breaking his daughter out of a juvenile detention center.

Mark seeks refuge in a series of nations he believes will be friendly to a fringe socialist radical, but the modern world of the 1990's proves to be an even bigger socio-political mess than the 1960's was.

There is a lot of satire in the novel about the Reagan/Bush war on drugs. The DEA agents are incompetent, use drugs with alarming frequency, and seem to have an unlimited budget. They track Mark through Amsterdam, Italy, Greece, Iran, India, Turkey, and Vietnam. Along the way, however, Mark realizes the leftist regimes he used to support have not actually made the world a better place either:

"He wasn’t, in retrospect, sure what he’d expected to find in Amsterdam — a sort of Hippie Heaven on Earth, perhaps, with naked people chasing each other happily through the streets and screwing in the fountains to the tune of the Dead and the Lovin’ Spoonful, all seen through a blue-green scrim of pot smoke. The actuality was staid: a lot of neat reserved plump people who left their front curtains open so you could admire the crowded coziness of their living rooms — Bourgeois Paradise."

"India was not shaping up to be the way he’d imagined it. The gurus weren’t interested in you if you didn’t have your Gold Card. And riding into town at dawn two days ago on the Delhi Express from Amritsar, Mark had looked out the window to see the fields covered with hundreds and hundreds of locals, hunkering down for their morning constitutional. It looked like the whole cast of Gandhi taking a communal crap."

"The world was turning savage toward the wild cards, anyone could see that. Mark’s own flight, across space and across the Earth’s own tortured surface, was proof of that."

After three straight disappointing books, the Wild Cards series finally regains its footing with this strong (and underappreciated) solo novel from Victor Milan. Unfortunately, when this book was published in 1993, Georger R. R. Martin had already announced the series would be switching publishers. As a result, this book received little marketing push from Bantam; few people read it and it has never been republished to date.

In general, I am glad to see the books get out of New York City and examine global attitudes towards aces and jokers; there has not been enough of that since Aces Abroad. One storyline was particularly interesting: Mark and Croyd Crenson (this time in the form of a giant skink) join a platoon of the New Joker Brigade who have returned to Vietnam twenty years after the fall of Saigon, this time to serve and defend the ruling communist government.

Of course, the best part of any Captain Tripps story are his drug-fueled alter-egos:

- JJ Flash ("it a gas-gas-gas")

- Cosmic Traveler (“Say, you wouldn’t have a sister, would you? I don’t get out too often.”)

- Moonchild ("I live as I do and act as I do because I have sworn to. If I cause lasting harm, if I take life, I lose what powers I have.”)

- Aquarius (a sentient dolphin with "memories, incredibly sensual and rich, but incomprehensible, like watching a Kurosawa film in Japanese")

(Unfortunately, Starshine died in the climactic events of Double Solitaire.)

Mistral also returns in this entry. She is struggling with guilt over the fact she was jumped by Molly, who used her body to assassinate her father. (This introduces a plot hole, as it is never explained how Mistral and Molly were returned to their original bodies. The last time we saw Molly she had been captured by Turtle, but it was implied Molly jumped again into the body of a sailor on the Hudson River.)

New joker characters include Dreamer, Eraserhead, Eyeball, and The Mechanic. Carnifex and Crypt Kicker also have small returning roles, including a great fight between Carnifex and Moonchild.

The book benefits from its tight focus on a single point of view character, even though that character has four distinct personalities. The weakest scenes are those in the final act that attempt to bounce around to show a bunch of different political factions instead of staying focused on Mark's personal journey.

Mechanic provides information about a worldwide conspiracy against wild cards that is embedded in top levels of government agencies all over the globe. This sets up the coming conflict for the next triad. It also compels the normally pacifist Mark Meadows and his "friends" to lead a full scale revolution to drive the Russians and their puppet communist government out of South Vietnam once and for all. The book ends with Moonchild installed as president of this new separatist republic that she hopes will become a homeland to aces and joker refugees alike.

Next: The Card Sharks triad.

[Leonel Esteban · Rating 1 out of 5]

MURICAAAAA !!!!
Totally disappointed with this series number. In the end the author clarifies that he did not go to Vietnam and this is not a way to atone for blame ... but let's agree that we are talking about a parallel story where the Cuban revolution failed and now it turns out that South Vietnam becomes independent thanks to the help of independent Americans ... moreover, one directs them. All very disgusting. But the worst of the book and for which I only give it a star, is the naive of the whole process of "war" and "warfare". If you can't make war in a fantasy book, for time or length of the book, do not do it.

MURICAAAAA!!!!
Totalmente decepcionado con este número de la serie. Al final el autor aclara que él no fue a Vietnam y esto no es una forma de expiar culpas...pero convengamos que estamos hablando de una historia paralela donde la revolución cubana fracasó y ahora resulta que Vietnam del sur se independiza gracias a la ayuda de unos americanos independientes...es más, los dirige uno. Todo muy asqueroso. Pero lo peor del libro y por lo que solo le doy una estrella, es por lo ingenuo de todo el proceso de "guerra" y "guerrilla". Si no les da para hacer guerra en un libro de fantasía, por tiempo o largo del libro, no lo hagan.

[Ben Lund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best of the wild card stories, unless you are a big fan of Mark Meadows, because this book is all about him. It was just okay, but after the last couple stand alone books I would like to get back into the mosaic novels we started out with. That format was really nice and I think it would be good to go back to that.

[Matt G]

I was never the biggest fan of the Mark Meadows storylines, but this really fleshed him out as a character for me post-Takis. Another interesting new setting, new characters, and some old favorites to set the scene for the Card Sharks.

[Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cap'n Trips took some time to convince me that he was worthy of his own novel, but this delivers

[Kirby Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one should have grabbed me and just didn’t. I can imagine on a reread my rating will probably change.

[Colateral Damage · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book takes so long to get good. The end of the book is quite an upswing and the final scene on the runway was great but it took far too long to get there. The first third of the book is pretty much a fugitive on the run. The side story with Mistral (Helene Carlysle) can almost be thrown away, though I'm sure we'll see the tail end of that in time, the Wild Cards series has a way of doing that. Though I do have to concede that it does serve to bring character to J. Robert Belew and show us that Mistral is Mistral again and getting over her experience in Dealer's Choice.

The middle third gets us literally and figuratively stuck in the trenches, and while it does bring to light some character internal struggles it wasn't emotionally engaging enough for me till the end of this third and the beginning of the real climax of the story. The final third is where the action truly started and all of that running and introspection forged a new person, one that may not be complete but is getting there. But the madness around them isn't prevalent until near the end leaving this third almost as overstayed as the first.

While the first two thirds definitely paint a great path to where we end up in the last part of this volume I found the book lacking of that good emotional thrill ride you used to get back home in Joker Town most of the time. The final third almost made up for the poor first parts for me, what can I say I'm a sucker for a good reunion.

[Glen U · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Turn of the Cards" is the 12th book in the Wild Card series edited by George R.R. Martin. It continues its alternative history viewpoint, making use of real events that happened along the way, adding a superhero or two, and creating an entirely new scenario to follow. This book takes place in the early 1990's in Vietnam. It differs from the other Wild Card efforts, in that it was written in its' entirety by Victor Milan. Most of the previous Wild Card stories were a compendium of different authors, cobbled together by a single timeline. While the continuity of the writing is constant, the appeal of having various writing styles in this series is not there. "Turn of the Cards" is a very good story, clever, imaginative and written very well, but it does focus on one story line and one protagonist (although the protagonist does have 4 distinct entities, within himself). All in all , a very good science fiction novel and a very good read.

[André · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the Wild Cards-universe this is one of the very few novels that centers on a single character. Turn of the Cards focusses on Dr. Mark Meadows, former Cap'n Trips, after he comes back from planet Takis and now leads a life on the run from the US government and even shadier organisations. His only goal is to get back to his daughter Sprout somehow...and maybe find meaning in life on the way.

For some reason, I never enjoyed Mark Meadows / Cap'n Trips and his "special friends" that much in the past. But this book was highly entertaining. Probably one reason is that I had already read the follow-ups, but was only now able to get Mark Meadows background story through the re-release of this book. But also, it is simply a really good and entertaining read. Lots of action, politics, introspection, action, thoughts about the state of the (fictional?) world... just a really good blend.

[Kruunch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Turn of the Cards centers around the return of Mark Meadows to Earth and the resulting hunt for him from Amsterdam, through the middle east and finally culminating in his improbable leadership of the Free Peoples of Vietnam.

While I wanted to really like this book as it delves deep int0 Mark Meadows' "friends" and their interconnection, the book was just so improbable and the explanations of the "friends" so shallow that in the end this book almost made me give up on the series as I've felt that it's declined into bad trope.

While not the worst book ever, it's definitely a far cry from the excellence that the first book in the series was. It doesn't do the pathos justice imo.

[Henry Lazarus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tor has reprinted Wild Cards XII: Turn of the Cards (paper) edited by
George R. R. Martin and written by Victor Milan. In the 70's a group of writers created this hard look at super powers. A virus from Takis dropped on Earth in 1945 radically changed our past. Mark Meadows is also known has Captain Trips because his special powders let him become one of his four special friends with super powers for one hour. In the nineties he is chased to Vietnam where he gets involved in a revolution. I enjoyed rereading it.Review printed by Philadelphia Free Press

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, I thought this book was lackluster compared to the others in the series thus far. It started off strong, but about halfway through it devolved into a pantheon of acronyms, disjointed narrative, and a monotonous stroll through Capt. Trips' inner turmoils. In the end, I felt happy to be done with it, rather than wanting to learn more as I have with the previous books. Also, a contributor to my dissatisfaction was the really poor editing, or perhaps lack of any editing.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turn of the Cards (Wild Cards, #12)
by Victor Milán, Victor *
Review: Turn of the Cards, it took a long time to get into this story, I have no love of playing soldiers and slogging through Vietnam jungle was more boring than anything which I guess happened to the soldiers all the time… but near the end the meaning of the story comes through, as the lessons of the wild card series comes through.

[Charl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've just never gotten into Meadows/Capt. Trips' character. He always strikes me as just a whiner who never stands up for himself, and I'm not interested enough in him to finish the book and see if that ever changes.

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the previous one I read, but inconsistent stories.

[Drsilent · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing special about this one... It does get a little long at times. Read it mostly to know the details if the backstory which is hinted at in more recent books.

[Steven Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book, slow but once again any focus on Trips I enjoy.

[Eric Bauman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easily the least of the series to date.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better efforts for Wild Cards - and to think, if I didn't have to get through another god-awful Wild Cards sex scene, I might have gone to five stars! Alas, no.