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Wild Cards #5
Down and Dirty
Ten science fiction writers chronicle the history of Earth after it has been struck by an alien virus that has caused fantastic mutations in the survivors
592 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 1988
82 people are currently reading
1857 people want to read
About the author
George R.R. Martin
1,505 books120k followersGeorge 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...
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...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
September 26, 2015
That's more like it. This volume is a major improvement over the previous volume, which I found a bit tedious at some points. This brings the action back to New York, specifically Jokertown and environs, and the action is fast an furious, violent, bloody, and with heaping doses of death. Zelazny is as usual one of my favorites, and I love his sections. Croyd/Sleeper is a particularly complex character now, and it's impossible to say whether he is just an irregular person trying to get by as best he can, or is a villain needing to be taken down, as viewed by some of the other characters. I love how he uses every stimulant he can get his hands on to stave off the sleep and subsequent change. Bagabond continues to develop as an interesting character, as well as Water Lily, who has to suffer through some pretty tough times in this book. The backlash against the jokers parallels various neo-con attitudes occuring right now in the US, which either makes this book prescient, or just points out how much attitudes stay the same in minority subsets of the population. Oh, and how can I forget to mention the return of Modular Man, and his tormented life due to the nastiness of his creator.
August 13, 2023
In the afterword to this book, George RR Martin straight up apologizes for its somewhat confusing structure, and many, tangled plotlines. And despite my initial confusion, I get where he's coming from with that. Kind of. Because yes, the (almost) mundane gang war that goes on while a mutated version of the wild card virus strikes fear into Jokertown and both the Turtle and Dr. Tachyon wrestle with deeply personal, and mostly unrelated, dilemmas of their own as the Puppetman story is built up in the background and Ti Malice continues living through his mind controlled puppets, completely oblivious to the rest, is... Confusing. To say the least.
But I, personally, loved it. I've always chafed, just a little bit, at the Wild Cards novels that were strictly divided into short stories and kept mostly separate from one another, as well as at the mosaic novels that have a tendency to be just a touch too well thought-out and resolved for my taste. This chaotic, beautiful mess of a book is what I feel that Wild Cards should be - a story about not-quite humans living and interacting in what is not-quite our world, tangled up in all of its beautful, messy chaos.
But I, personally, loved it. I've always chafed, just a little bit, at the Wild Cards novels that were strictly divided into short stories and kept mostly separate from one another, as well as at the mosaic novels that have a tendency to be just a touch too well thought-out and resolved for my taste. This chaotic, beautiful mess of a book is what I feel that Wild Cards should be - a story about not-quite humans living and interacting in what is not-quite our world, tangled up in all of its beautful, messy chaos.
November 2, 2021
Again I still I have fun reading these books. This one deals with internal gangs in Jokertown and organized crime. That was a big piece of it and it wraps with one person being a carrier of a deadly virus. And it winds down with a city wide search.
October 16, 2022
Po bardzo dobrej "Wyprawie asów", w piątym - a zarazem drugim z trylogii, której głównym antagonistą jest Gregg Hartmann / Lalkarz - otrzymujemy kolejny znakomity tom tej specyficznej serii powieści "mozaikowych".
W "Brudnych grach" wracamy na dobrze znane tereny Nowego Jorku a zwłaszcza jej dzielnicy zamieszkiwanej przez okrutnie zdeformowane ofiary wirusa Dzikiej Karty - Dżokerowa. Oprócz tego, że tym razem staje się ona areną bezwzględnej walki mafijnych klanów, to ponownie, po ponad dwudziestu latach, uaktywnia się kolejna fala epidemii Dzikiej Karty, tym razem wirusa, który po mutacji może dotknąć również osoby wcześniej przez niego odmienione, zarówno Dżokerów, Asów, jak i zwykłych ludzi...
Twórcy zebrani pod egidą Georga R. R. Martina, ponownie pracują w niezwykłej zgodności - do tego stopnia, że gdyby nie podpisano stworzonych przez nich części książki, nie dałoby się stwierdzić, że nie pisała ich jedna osoba. Obok tego, że kolejne rozdziały składają się na część wielkiej całości, które zazębiają się w kulminacji, ani na moment nie pozwalającej oderwać się od lektury, to same w sobie stanowią niejednokrotnie etiudy, które obroniłby się, jako historie "stand-alone"... Cóż, to już piąty tom pisany pospołu przez tych autorów i to zgranie i zrozumienie charakterów i motywacji postaci stworzonych przez kolegów "po piórze", doskonale widać w tej części "Dzikich kart"...
Cieszy też z dawna oczekiwany powrót ulubionych postaci serii - Croyda / Śpiocha, Wielkiego i Potężnego Żółwia czy, wzorowanego na postaci marvelowskiego Hawkeye'a - Brennana, zwanego Yeomanem. Jest też kilka nieoczekiwanych, acz powitanych przeze mnie z ogromną radością powrotów, o których - aby nie psuć nikomu niespodzianki - nie wspomnę.
"Brudne gry", to ponownie, udana gra z motywami komiksu super-bohaterskiego, traktowanymi bardziej serio - bohaterowie są tu niezwykle ludzcy i częściej polegają w starciu z zwykłymi, życiowymi problemami i słabościami, niż w epickich pojedynkach z super-złoczyńcami. Ponadto, podobnie jak w poprzednich częściach, jest to też literatura z gatunku historii alternatywnej i na jej kartach pojawiają się wydarzenia, problemy (spirala strachu przed zarażeniem się wirusem HIV z lat 80-tych) i znane postaci epoki (tu jednym z najfajniejszych fragmentów jest jest "Drugie przyjście Buddy'ego Holly'ego", który w tym świecie nie zginął w 1959 i obserwujemy go u schyłku kariery, gdy w podrzędnych lokalach gra covery Billy'ego Idola, czy Prince'a, bo będąc w trudnej sytuacji sprzedał prawa autorskie do swoich utworów...).
Jak zwykle, książkę i serię polecam wszystkim wielbicielom komiksu i nie tylko - to również kawał dobrej literatury science-fiction. Polecam!
W "Brudnych grach" wracamy na dobrze znane tereny Nowego Jorku a zwłaszcza jej dzielnicy zamieszkiwanej przez okrutnie zdeformowane ofiary wirusa Dzikiej Karty - Dżokerowa. Oprócz tego, że tym razem staje się ona areną bezwzględnej walki mafijnych klanów, to ponownie, po ponad dwudziestu latach, uaktywnia się kolejna fala epidemii Dzikiej Karty, tym razem wirusa, który po mutacji może dotknąć również osoby wcześniej przez niego odmienione, zarówno Dżokerów, Asów, jak i zwykłych ludzi...
Twórcy zebrani pod egidą Georga R. R. Martina, ponownie pracują w niezwykłej zgodności - do tego stopnia, że gdyby nie podpisano stworzonych przez nich części książki, nie dałoby się stwierdzić, że nie pisała ich jedna osoba. Obok tego, że kolejne rozdziały składają się na część wielkiej całości, które zazębiają się w kulminacji, ani na moment nie pozwalającej oderwać się od lektury, to same w sobie stanowią niejednokrotnie etiudy, które obroniłby się, jako historie "stand-alone"... Cóż, to już piąty tom pisany pospołu przez tych autorów i to zgranie i zrozumienie charakterów i motywacji postaci stworzonych przez kolegów "po piórze", doskonale widać w tej części "Dzikich kart"...
Cieszy też z dawna oczekiwany powrót ulubionych postaci serii - Croyda / Śpiocha, Wielkiego i Potężnego Żółwia czy, wzorowanego na postaci marvelowskiego Hawkeye'a - Brennana, zwanego Yeomanem. Jest też kilka nieoczekiwanych, acz powitanych przeze mnie z ogromną radością powrotów, o których - aby nie psuć nikomu niespodzianki - nie wspomnę.
"Brudne gry", to ponownie, udana gra z motywami komiksu super-bohaterskiego, traktowanymi bardziej serio - bohaterowie są tu niezwykle ludzcy i częściej polegają w starciu z zwykłymi, życiowymi problemami i słabościami, niż w epickich pojedynkach z super-złoczyńcami. Ponadto, podobnie jak w poprzednich częściach, jest to też literatura z gatunku historii alternatywnej i na jej kartach pojawiają się wydarzenia, problemy (spirala strachu przed zarażeniem się wirusem HIV z lat 80-tych) i znane postaci epoki (tu jednym z najfajniejszych fragmentów jest jest "Drugie przyjście Buddy'ego Holly'ego", który w tym świecie nie zginął w 1959 i obserwujemy go u schyłku kariery, gdy w podrzędnych lokalach gra covery Billy'ego Idola, czy Prince'a, bo będąc w trudnej sytuacji sprzedał prawa autorskie do swoich utworów...).
Jak zwykle, książkę i serię polecam wszystkim wielbicielom komiksu i nie tylko - to również kawał dobrej literatury science-fiction. Polecam!
January 29, 2016
Excellent series. If you are into comics at all you will love these books. Very interesting plot and the shared world makes each story new, as different writers add their twist to the world. Highly recommended
September 4, 2019
Down and Dirty is the second book of the second triad in the Wild Cards series. Chronologically, it overlaps the previous book. It actually begins a few weeks before Aces Abroad and ends several months after the characters featured in that volume have returned home to New York.
In keeping with the established format, the first two books of this triad are short story collections, usually connected by the editor's interstitial material. In this case, there are no true interstitial passages, but three stories (the Turtle story, the Sleeper story, and the Tachyon story) are broken up into multiple sections that serve essentially the same function.
Several recurring characters from the earlier books don't make it out of this one alive, including one of my favorites.
"Only the Dead Know Jokertown" by John J. Miller -- Yeoman takes advantage of growing tensions between New York's Chinatown and Italian mobs to infiltrate his archenemy Kien's organized crime empire. He successfully completes two missions, including the assassination of a rival leader from an Italian family. The story introduces two new ace characters. Lazy Dragon is a skin changer who creates animals from soap carvings and origami, then sends his consciousness into those objects to bring them to life. Deadhead eats the brains of corpses in order to gain access to their memories.
"All the King's Horses" by George R.R. Martin--The Turtle is revealed to have survived his encounter with the Astronomer in Joker's Wild. However, with no working shell and no capital funds, he finally decides to sell his junkyard and get out of the hero game. I realize Turtle is one of the series' most popular characters, but I just do not seem to like his stories. He is a whiny character who lacks initiative and creativity, always a victim of circumstance.
"Concerto for Siren and Serotonin" by Roger Zelazny--Croyd Crenson gets hired by the Gambione family to find the identity of the man who controls the Asia gangs (Kien). Along the way, he runs into several of our favorite aces and jokers from around the neighborhood -- Demise, Water Lily, Cordelia, Veronica, and Tachyon. He doesn't know it, but his current incarnation of the wild card virus has cataclysmic potential -- it will earn him the new nickname Typhoid Croyd. Zelazny did not write often for Wild Cards before his death, but when he did, his stories were always highlights. His Sleeper character perhaps typifies the series more than any other besides Tachyon.
"Breakdown" by Leanne C. Harper--When Rosemary Muldoon took over the Gambione family after her father's death, she had the best intentions to legitimize their operations. However, the escalating war with Kien has consolidated all Five Families under her care, and she struggles to balance her duties as a district attorney and a don. More and more, she finds herself using her public office to protect her criminal empire and harass her competitors. When she orders a hit on Bagabond's boyfriend, it tears their friendship apart.
"Jesus Was an Ace" by Arthur Byron Cover-- The prominent Rev. Leo Barnett, having sneaked down to the edge of Jokertown one night for a tryst with an employee, gets caught in the crossfire of the mob war. The joker Quasiman shields him from a bullet, and in a fit of passion Barnett is seemingly able to raise him from the dead. This gets caught on network news cameras, which launches Barnett into a presidential campaign against Gregg "Puppetman" Hartmann. This is the author's only Wild Cards story, and it is a strong one. I enjoy the contradictions in Barnett's character. He is a fundamentalist evangelical pastor who carries on secret affairs with many women, preaches against joker rights, teaches the wild card is a curse by God, yet on a personal level he runs a mission to help jokers. His faith-healing powers may in fact signify him as an ace. He is the mirror of Hartmann, who preaches compassion and equal rights but is really a psychopath.
"Blood Ties" by Melinda Snodgrass--Tachyon works with prominent jokers Des and Chrysalis to set up a defense to protect Jokertown during the mob wars, all the while trying his control his spoiled, untrained, and extremely dangerous telepath grandson Blaise. Things go from bad to worse when a new secondary outbreak of the Wild Cards virus begins to show up in Manhattan.
"The Second Coming of Buddy Holley" by Ed Bryant--Cordelia entices an aging Buddy Holley back to the stage for an AIDS/Wild Card benefit concert. This is the first Ed Bryant story I have liked in Wild Cards. It felt out of place at first because it had only tangential connections to the other storylines, but I really enjoy the alternate universe aspect. Seeing how Holley's life might have turned out was interesting, especially when it dovetailed with the ongoing stories of C. C. Ryder and Sewer Jack.
"The Hue of a Mind" by Stephen Leigh--Direct sequel to "The Tint of Hatred" and "Puppets". A quartet of characters with very different goals form an alliance to stop Gregg Hartmann. Misha the Prophetess wants revenge for her brother's death, and she is willing to partner with jokers cursed by Allah to have it. Gimli blames Hartmann for ruining his political terrorist group, the Justice for Jokers League. Sara Morgenstern wants to know the truth about her sister's death. Polyakov, even though he has defected from the KGB, does not want an ace with unknown powers leading the USA. As usual, however, Puppetman is still one step ahead of everyone. Introduces Oddity, a new joker consisting of three people--a former menage a trois-- fighting for control of one body.
"Addicted to Love" by Pad Cadigan--Water Lily tries to help Hiram, but she is mounted by Ti Malice who forces her into acts of extreme sexual degradation and gets her addicted to her own endorphins. Despite some similarities to Robert Silverberg's famous "Passengers", this was a compelling short story from a great writer that is a nice payoff to the earlier "Beasts of Burden".
"Takedown" by Leanne C. Harper -- The noose tightens around Rosemary when her lieutenant tries to assassinate her and Bagabond abandons her.
"Mortality" by Walter Jon Williams--Modular Man is rebuilt by his mad genius creator and sent on a mission to capture The Sleeper. He teams up with a partner who sometimes goes by his ace personality Wall Walker, and other times in his joker guise Mr. Gravemold. After being dead for nearly a year, Mod Man ponders what it means to be mortal and how to cherish every moment of life while finally putting a stop to the secondary wild card infestations in New York.
"What Rough Beast" by Leanne C. Harper--The mob wars storyline is concluded. Kien takes over the city, Rosemary flees alone to exile in Cuba. This might be the end of Rosemary's arc. (According to the official website Wild Cards World, she does not appear in future books. The two authors who used her most frequently, Edward Bryant and Leanne C. Harper, both return to the series only once more after this to wrap up the Wyungare and Bagabond stories.)
In his afterward to one of the reprint editions, George R. R. Martin explains the difficulties of editing this volume and why he regrets grafting the Typhoid Croyd plotline onto a book that was intended to be about the war for New York's underground. Personally, I thought it was an imaginative idea that kept the stories from becoming too predictable.
Sure, Leanne Harper and Pat Cadigan used it as a sort of get-out-of-jail plot device--Water Lily was instantly cured of her addiction to Ti Malice, and Rosemary's assassin drew a joker at a convenient time--but there were strong narrative uses for the new virus, too. It took away the ace genius of the only man who can repair Mod Man, thus making the android effectively mortal. Seeing New York City placed under martial law provided Turtle with the impetus to keep fighting. Tachyon is now also infected, and there is no telling what will happen if and when it turns inside his brain.
The reinfection gave Water Lily a new power that takes her story in an interesting direction. She can now cure any joker deformity by having sex with the victim, a fact she is wisely trying to conceal by going completely off the grid. (Why do so many woman have sex-related powers in this world?). Maybe she will be Tachyon's eventual cure.
Next up is the four-issue Wild Cards comic miniseries from Epic Comics (1990).
In keeping with the established format, the first two books of this triad are short story collections, usually connected by the editor's interstitial material. In this case, there are no true interstitial passages, but three stories (the Turtle story, the Sleeper story, and the Tachyon story) are broken up into multiple sections that serve essentially the same function.
Several recurring characters from the earlier books don't make it out of this one alive, including one of my favorites.
"Only the Dead Know Jokertown" by John J. Miller -- Yeoman takes advantage of growing tensions between New York's Chinatown and Italian mobs to infiltrate his archenemy Kien's organized crime empire. He successfully completes two missions, including the assassination of a rival leader from an Italian family. The story introduces two new ace characters. Lazy Dragon is a skin changer who creates animals from soap carvings and origami, then sends his consciousness into those objects to bring them to life. Deadhead eats the brains of corpses in order to gain access to their memories.
"All the King's Horses" by George R.R. Martin--The Turtle is revealed to have survived his encounter with the Astronomer in Joker's Wild. However, with no working shell and no capital funds, he finally decides to sell his junkyard and get out of the hero game. I realize Turtle is one of the series' most popular characters, but I just do not seem to like his stories. He is a whiny character who lacks initiative and creativity, always a victim of circumstance.
"Concerto for Siren and Serotonin" by Roger Zelazny--Croyd Crenson gets hired by the Gambione family to find the identity of the man who controls the Asia gangs (Kien). Along the way, he runs into several of our favorite aces and jokers from around the neighborhood -- Demise, Water Lily, Cordelia, Veronica, and Tachyon. He doesn't know it, but his current incarnation of the wild card virus has cataclysmic potential -- it will earn him the new nickname Typhoid Croyd. Zelazny did not write often for Wild Cards before his death, but when he did, his stories were always highlights. His Sleeper character perhaps typifies the series more than any other besides Tachyon.
"Breakdown" by Leanne C. Harper--When Rosemary Muldoon took over the Gambione family after her father's death, she had the best intentions to legitimize their operations. However, the escalating war with Kien has consolidated all Five Families under her care, and she struggles to balance her duties as a district attorney and a don. More and more, she finds herself using her public office to protect her criminal empire and harass her competitors. When she orders a hit on Bagabond's boyfriend, it tears their friendship apart.
"Jesus Was an Ace" by Arthur Byron Cover-- The prominent Rev. Leo Barnett, having sneaked down to the edge of Jokertown one night for a tryst with an employee, gets caught in the crossfire of the mob war. The joker Quasiman shields him from a bullet, and in a fit of passion Barnett is seemingly able to raise him from the dead. This gets caught on network news cameras, which launches Barnett into a presidential campaign against Gregg "Puppetman" Hartmann. This is the author's only Wild Cards story, and it is a strong one. I enjoy the contradictions in Barnett's character. He is a fundamentalist evangelical pastor who carries on secret affairs with many women, preaches against joker rights, teaches the wild card is a curse by God, yet on a personal level he runs a mission to help jokers. His faith-healing powers may in fact signify him as an ace. He is the mirror of Hartmann, who preaches compassion and equal rights but is really a psychopath.
"Blood Ties" by Melinda Snodgrass--Tachyon works with prominent jokers Des and Chrysalis to set up a defense to protect Jokertown during the mob wars, all the while trying his control his spoiled, untrained, and extremely dangerous telepath grandson Blaise. Things go from bad to worse when a new secondary outbreak of the Wild Cards virus begins to show up in Manhattan.
"The Second Coming of Buddy Holley" by Ed Bryant--Cordelia entices an aging Buddy Holley back to the stage for an AIDS/Wild Card benefit concert. This is the first Ed Bryant story I have liked in Wild Cards. It felt out of place at first because it had only tangential connections to the other storylines, but I really enjoy the alternate universe aspect. Seeing how Holley's life might have turned out was interesting, especially when it dovetailed with the ongoing stories of C. C. Ryder and Sewer Jack.
"The Hue of a Mind" by Stephen Leigh--Direct sequel to "The Tint of Hatred" and "Puppets". A quartet of characters with very different goals form an alliance to stop Gregg Hartmann. Misha the Prophetess wants revenge for her brother's death, and she is willing to partner with jokers cursed by Allah to have it. Gimli blames Hartmann for ruining his political terrorist group, the Justice for Jokers League. Sara Morgenstern wants to know the truth about her sister's death. Polyakov, even though he has defected from the KGB, does not want an ace with unknown powers leading the USA. As usual, however, Puppetman is still one step ahead of everyone. Introduces Oddity, a new joker consisting of three people--a former menage a trois-- fighting for control of one body.
"Addicted to Love" by Pad Cadigan--Water Lily tries to help Hiram, but she is mounted by Ti Malice who forces her into acts of extreme sexual degradation and gets her addicted to her own endorphins. Despite some similarities to Robert Silverberg's famous "Passengers", this was a compelling short story from a great writer that is a nice payoff to the earlier "Beasts of Burden".
"Takedown" by Leanne C. Harper -- The noose tightens around Rosemary when her lieutenant tries to assassinate her and Bagabond abandons her.
"Mortality" by Walter Jon Williams--Modular Man is rebuilt by his mad genius creator and sent on a mission to capture The Sleeper. He teams up with a partner who sometimes goes by his ace personality Wall Walker, and other times in his joker guise Mr. Gravemold. After being dead for nearly a year, Mod Man ponders what it means to be mortal and how to cherish every moment of life while finally putting a stop to the secondary wild card infestations in New York.
"What Rough Beast" by Leanne C. Harper--The mob wars storyline is concluded. Kien takes over the city, Rosemary flees alone to exile in Cuba. This might be the end of Rosemary's arc. (According to the official website Wild Cards World, she does not appear in future books. The two authors who used her most frequently, Edward Bryant and Leanne C. Harper, both return to the series only once more after this to wrap up the Wyungare and Bagabond stories.)
In his afterward to one of the reprint editions, George R. R. Martin explains the difficulties of editing this volume and why he regrets grafting the Typhoid Croyd plotline onto a book that was intended to be about the war for New York's underground. Personally, I thought it was an imaginative idea that kept the stories from becoming too predictable.
Sure, Leanne Harper and Pat Cadigan used it as a sort of get-out-of-jail plot device--Water Lily was instantly cured of her addiction to Ti Malice, and Rosemary's assassin drew a joker at a convenient time--but there were strong narrative uses for the new virus, too. It took away the ace genius of the only man who can repair Mod Man, thus making the android effectively mortal. Seeing New York City placed under martial law provided Turtle with the impetus to keep fighting. Tachyon is now also infected, and there is no telling what will happen if and when it turns inside his brain.
The reinfection gave Water Lily a new power that takes her story in an interesting direction. She can now cure any joker deformity by having sex with the victim, a fact she is wisely trying to conceal by going completely off the grid. (Why do so many woman have sex-related powers in this world?). Maybe she will be Tachyon's eventual cure.
Next up is the four-issue Wild Cards comic miniseries from Epic Comics (1990).
April 29, 2023
Петата книга от поредицата се развива веднага (или съвсем скоро) след края на предишната и прибирането на обиколилите света хора и не-хора. В Ню Йорк едновременно си появяват два големи проблема. Избухва кървава война между Сенчестите юмруци и Мафията. Появява се нов, мутирал щам на вируса, от който не са предпазени дори и жокери и аса.
Сборникът съдържа 11 разказа, като 4 от тях ("Only the Dead Know Jokertown", "All the King's Horses", "Concerto for Siren and Serotonin", and "Blood Ties") са поместени на части между другите разкази. Честно казано, това ми дойде объркващо - ако бяха 1-2, щеше да е добре. Четири ме затрудниха да ги следя.
Около два проблема се въртят и разказите, с някои изключения, като най-вече си струва да се спомене The Second Coming of Buddy Holly (Edward Bryant). В тази алтернативна вселена, Бъди Холи не е умрял при самолетна катастрофа едва 22-годишен, а е имал време славата му да залезе, без съмнение резултат от някои доста лоши негови решения. Корделия (племенницата на Джак Робишо/Sewer Jack) работи за музикалната компания, която ще организира най-големия концерт в историята. Той ще е в помощ на болните от СПИН и жокерния вирус и ще се излъчва по целия свят. Доста як разказ, който не е особено свързан със сюжета и очевидно прави връзка с концерта Live Aid от 1995.
"Концертът..." е на Зелазни и е наистина мега-силен!
Като неосновни за книгата, но важни за цялостния сюжет на четирилогията трябва да се споменат две други сюжетни линии:
- Противопоставянето на консерватора-евангелист Лео Барнет, който ще е най-сериозната пречка пред Грег Хартман (а.к.а. Кукловода), за да бъде номиниран за кандидат-президент.
- Благодарение на Хирам Уорчестър, злият Ти Малис е пренесен в Ню Йорк, където намирането на нови 'питомци' е лесно, а има и други, дори по-ужасни удоволствия, на които да се наслади този жокер, в сравнение с който Кукловода е Дядо Коледа.
Разказите варират като качество, но като цяло нивото е над средното. Различните автори дърпат в различни посоки - тоест, предпочитата различни сюжетни линии и това нарушава кохерентността в книгата.
Сборникът съдържа 11 разказа, като 4 от тях ("Only the Dead Know Jokertown", "All the King's Horses", "Concerto for Siren and Serotonin", and "Blood Ties") са поместени на части между другите разкази. Честно казано, това ми дойде объркващо - ако бяха 1-2, щеше да е добре. Четири ме затрудниха да ги следя.
Около два проблема се въртят и разказите, с някои изключения, като най-вече си струва да се спомене The Second Coming of Buddy Holly (Edward Bryant). В тази алтернативна вселена, Бъди Холи не е умрял при самолетна катастрофа едва 22-годишен, а е имал време славата му да залезе, без съмнение резултат от някои доста лоши негови решения. Корделия (племенницата на Джак Робишо/Sewer Jack) работи за музикалната компания, която ще организира най-големия концерт в историята. Той ще е в помощ на болните от СПИН и жокерния вирус и ще се излъчва по целия свят. Доста як разказ, който не е особено свързан със сюжета и очевидно прави връзка с концерта Live Aid от 1995.
"Концертът..." е на Зелазни и е наистина мега-силен!
Като неосновни за книгата, но важни за цялостния сюжет на четирилогията трябва да се споменат две други сюжетни линии:
- Противопоставянето на консерватора-евангелист Лео Барнет, който ще е най-сериозната пречка пред Грег Хартман (а.к.а. Кукловода), за да бъде номиниран за кандидат-президент.
- Благодарение на Хирам Уорчестър, злият Ти Малис е пренесен в Ню Йорк, където намирането на нови 'питомци' е лесно, а има и други, дори по-ужасни удоволствия, на които да се наслади този жокер, в сравнение с който Кукловода е Дядо Коледа.
Разказите варират като качество, но като цяло нивото е над средното. Различните автори дърпат в различни посоки - тоест, предпочитата различни сюжетни линии и това нарушава кохерентността в книгата.
October 31, 2016
You can see the importance of worldbuilding to the Wild Cards universe from page one of this volume. It's actually set before the departure of the world tour in Aces Abroad. In fact, this volume overlaps quite a bit with the previous one. That's because things didn't stop happening in New York just because the World Tour left town. (In fact, this volume continues on with some ongoing plots from previous volumes, which was really what Aces Abroad missed.)
Only the Dead Known Jokertown (Miller: Yeoman). Miller offers another delightful tale of Yeoman. It's great to see his interactions with Chrysalis and with Wraith and to see his plot to infiltrate Kien's organization and finally do something about his long-standing vendetta. Miller also does a great job of introducing interesting new characters, especially Lazy Dragon [7/10].
Breakdown (Harper: Bagabond, Rosemary). Not my favorite author nor my favorite characters, but this is a nice focus on the Mafia-Shadowfist war from the Mafia side of things, and we get some real and interesting movement in Rosemary's plot (which will only expand in the rest of the volume). So, not bad [6+/10].
Jesus Was an Ace (Cover: Leo Barnett, Quasiman). This story is a pretty awful muddle with three separate narrative threads that seem to have no mutual interest, all spinning their wheels until the author pushes them into a narrative blow-up at the end. In retrospective, I can see that the goal was to connect the mafia and political plotlines, but it just doesn't get there in any meaningful way. It's unconvincing and unfortunately dull writing. With that said, the introduction of The Edge in New York is nice, as is the apotheosis of Barnett as a presidential candidate ... giving Puppetman someone to destroy. But the story that gets there just isn't that great. Fortunately, this is Cover's only Wild Cards story to date. [3/10].
The Second Coming of Buddy Holley (Bryant: Alligator Jack, Cordelia). Sadly, this is another story where I have no idea what I read. I mean it's all about putting together a concert and getting Buddy Holly to sing. The point of that? Its place in the Wild Cards series and in this book? It seems totally irrelevant (and kind of boring, until the very end). There's a subplot involving Alligator Jack that is better, but it mostly fades into the background, then gets suddenly rape-y in the end, making a dull story a distasteful one as well [3/10].
The Hue of a Mind (Leigh: Hartmann). This story feels like it comes out of nowhere, because it very suddenly dumps a variety of plots from Aces Abroad in the book. Fortunately, they're interesting plots, so once you've got your feet under you, it's great to see Gimli, Misha, and Polyakov come together like a Legion of Super-Villains. And of course Leigh isn't afraid to see what happens when Hartmann is confronted with this problem. A nice continuation of a major, ongoing plot [7/10].
Addicted to Love (Cadigan: Water Lily). Another story that originates with Aces Abroad. There, we met Ti Malice in an unfortunately unsatisfactory story. Here, he's put to much better use as we see a few of our favorite Aces warring with him in New York. This also really kicks off the thread of body horror that's underlay a number of Wild Cards stories, which may not be to some's liking. And, it doesn't actually finish the story. But it's a nice amplification of what's come before and a nice focus on Jane Dow [7/10].
Takedown / What Rough Beast (Harper: Bagabond, Rosemary).These are a continuation of the earlier stories by Harper and Bryant. "Takedown" gives some nice advancement to Rosemary's plot and some nice closure to a Cordelia subplot, but it's such a short snippet that there's not much room for more. "What Rough Beast" then closes things up even further, which is nice for a book that had so many different big plot threads [7/10].
Mortality (Williams: Modular Man). Modular Man returns mainly to act as a foil for Croyd. Williams is working to humanize Modular Man by making him think about mortality, and the exercise is somewhat successful, but otherwise this is a long series of fights as Modular Man finds Croyd again and again [6/10].
There are three interstitial stories in the book (not including Harper's multiple shorts, which are essentially the same thing). However, none of them is really a novel frame. Some of the interstitials are used to advance a single character's plot over time, while others are used to address different major plot points.
All the King's Horses (Martin: Turtle). This story is all about how Tom deals with the end of his Turtle career, following the horrific events of Wild Card Day (Jokers Wild). And, it's wonderful. Tom comes across as a complete human being, troubled by his past and facing his own fears. The evolution of his character is very compelling, making this the most intriguing story in the book [8+/10].
Blood Rites (Snodgrass: Tachyon). The early parts of this story deal with Tachyon's new relationship with his grandson, Blaise, and they're quite good. They really go to Tachyon's humanity and reveal a lot about who he is. Later parts of the story act as true interstitial, tying together the Typhoid Croyd plot and later even touching the Shadowfist plot. As such, they're more utilitarian, and OK but not great [6+/10].
Concerto for Siren & Serotonin (Zelazny: Croyd). Zelazny's story starts out being about Croyd working for the mob, but then trails off into chaos as Croyd becomes Typhoid Croyd. There's not much through-line here, which takes away from the story [6/10].
As a whole, the book is a bit of a mish-mash, with its combination of mob-war, politics, and Typhoid Crod. Perhaps that's not a problem in an anthology like that, but it does become a problem in a few of the stories that lean so heavily on the events of Aces Abroad, that casual readers wouldn't have any idea what's going on. Still, despite the sharp edges that lie between these plotlines, I enjoy Down and Dirty and it makes me quite interested in what comes next on a number of fronts.
Only the Dead Known Jokertown (Miller: Yeoman). Miller offers another delightful tale of Yeoman. It's great to see his interactions with Chrysalis and with Wraith and to see his plot to infiltrate Kien's organization and finally do something about his long-standing vendetta. Miller also does a great job of introducing interesting new characters, especially Lazy Dragon [7/10].
Breakdown (Harper: Bagabond, Rosemary). Not my favorite author nor my favorite characters, but this is a nice focus on the Mafia-Shadowfist war from the Mafia side of things, and we get some real and interesting movement in Rosemary's plot (which will only expand in the rest of the volume). So, not bad [6+/10].
Jesus Was an Ace (Cover: Leo Barnett, Quasiman). This story is a pretty awful muddle with three separate narrative threads that seem to have no mutual interest, all spinning their wheels until the author pushes them into a narrative blow-up at the end. In retrospective, I can see that the goal was to connect the mafia and political plotlines, but it just doesn't get there in any meaningful way. It's unconvincing and unfortunately dull writing. With that said, the introduction of The Edge in New York is nice, as is the apotheosis of Barnett as a presidential candidate ... giving Puppetman someone to destroy. But the story that gets there just isn't that great. Fortunately, this is Cover's only Wild Cards story to date. [3/10].
The Second Coming of Buddy Holley (Bryant: Alligator Jack, Cordelia). Sadly, this is another story where I have no idea what I read. I mean it's all about putting together a concert and getting Buddy Holly to sing. The point of that? Its place in the Wild Cards series and in this book? It seems totally irrelevant (and kind of boring, until the very end). There's a subplot involving Alligator Jack that is better, but it mostly fades into the background, then gets suddenly rape-y in the end, making a dull story a distasteful one as well [3/10].
The Hue of a Mind (Leigh: Hartmann). This story feels like it comes out of nowhere, because it very suddenly dumps a variety of plots from Aces Abroad in the book. Fortunately, they're interesting plots, so once you've got your feet under you, it's great to see Gimli, Misha, and Polyakov come together like a Legion of Super-Villains. And of course Leigh isn't afraid to see what happens when Hartmann is confronted with this problem. A nice continuation of a major, ongoing plot [7/10].
Addicted to Love (Cadigan: Water Lily). Another story that originates with Aces Abroad. There, we met Ti Malice in an unfortunately unsatisfactory story. Here, he's put to much better use as we see a few of our favorite Aces warring with him in New York. This also really kicks off the thread of body horror that's underlay a number of Wild Cards stories, which may not be to some's liking. And, it doesn't actually finish the story. But it's a nice amplification of what's come before and a nice focus on Jane Dow [7/10].
Takedown / What Rough Beast (Harper: Bagabond, Rosemary).These are a continuation of the earlier stories by Harper and Bryant. "Takedown" gives some nice advancement to Rosemary's plot and some nice closure to a Cordelia subplot, but it's such a short snippet that there's not much room for more. "What Rough Beast" then closes things up even further, which is nice for a book that had so many different big plot threads [7/10].
Mortality (Williams: Modular Man). Modular Man returns mainly to act as a foil for Croyd. Williams is working to humanize Modular Man by making him think about mortality, and the exercise is somewhat successful, but otherwise this is a long series of fights as Modular Man finds Croyd again and again [6/10].
There are three interstitial stories in the book (not including Harper's multiple shorts, which are essentially the same thing). However, none of them is really a novel frame. Some of the interstitials are used to advance a single character's plot over time, while others are used to address different major plot points.
All the King's Horses (Martin: Turtle). This story is all about how Tom deals with the end of his Turtle career, following the horrific events of Wild Card Day (Jokers Wild). And, it's wonderful. Tom comes across as a complete human being, troubled by his past and facing his own fears. The evolution of his character is very compelling, making this the most intriguing story in the book [8+/10].
Blood Rites (Snodgrass: Tachyon). The early parts of this story deal with Tachyon's new relationship with his grandson, Blaise, and they're quite good. They really go to Tachyon's humanity and reveal a lot about who he is. Later parts of the story act as true interstitial, tying together the Typhoid Croyd plot and later even touching the Shadowfist plot. As such, they're more utilitarian, and OK but not great [6+/10].
Concerto for Siren & Serotonin (Zelazny: Croyd). Zelazny's story starts out being about Croyd working for the mob, but then trails off into chaos as Croyd becomes Typhoid Croyd. There's not much through-line here, which takes away from the story [6/10].
As a whole, the book is a bit of a mish-mash, with its combination of mob-war, politics, and Typhoid Crod. Perhaps that's not a problem in an anthology like that, but it does become a problem in a few of the stories that lean so heavily on the events of Aces Abroad, that casual readers wouldn't have any idea what's going on. Still, despite the sharp edges that lie between these plotlines, I enjoy Down and Dirty and it makes me quite interested in what comes next on a number of fronts.
March 2, 2016
The march through Wild Cards history continues with this re-release of the fifth volume of the series, which in the present day is also the tenth volume of the series (five new books, and the fifth book to be re-released). It's not like George R. R. Martin is writing anything new, so hey, might as well repackage some books where you can put GRRM's name prominently on the cover.
Wild Cards books are so hit or miss for me. The good ones are really great, and there are others that just seem like wasted potential for this rich universe. Down and Dirty, while it had some fun parts, unfortunately falls more in the "wasted potential" territory for me. After the globe-hopping adventure of the previous volume, we zoom back in mostly on Jokertown and the wider New York City area. It is less interested in the aspects of the Wild Cards universe that I find interesting.
There are a lot of plots being serviced over the course of this volume. I think that's one of the bigger problems. There's just too much going on. For starters, it opens up with one of the more annoying things a multi-book series can do to open up its latest installment, namely, the first quarter or so of the book consists of things that were happening during the previous book.
A lot is happening and it just doesn't all connect. I mean, there's a gang war between the Mafia and joker gangs, a new breakout of the Wild Cards virus, someone has AIDS, a creature is hijacking people's minds, two very different secret aces are about to run for president in the 1988 election, Dr. Tachyon's grandson is kind of a spoiled brat with serious mental powers being as he's one-fourth Takisian.
It's a lot going on and the links between the plots are not graceful. Some things feel very disconnected from the rest, even story segments that I mostly enjoyed. Like, the Turtle is back, or at least Tom Tudbury is, because obviously he wasn't dead when we never saw a body, only he's kind of a sad sack now who is pondering selling the junkyard.
That's great. I like the Turtle. He's one of my favorite aces of these early books, and the early-period GRRM writing of him is great. You kind of forget with the way the Song of Ice and Fire series has totally bogged down, but he's a fantastic writer who brings these characters to life. Is it perhaps a bit too on-the-nose with Tudbury being from worn-down Bayonne, New Jersey, from which I believe GRRM also hails? Well, sure. But it's still good.
It also doesn't really link up with the rest of the narrative, despite the fact that it's ongoing with little bits throughout the volume.
Another favorite, Croyd "The Sleeper" Crenson, is more of a linchpin character for the book. Everything about Croyd being on the page is great. The wit and the misery as rendered by Zelazny is the biggest thing missing from the newer books. It's like you almost can't even have a Wild Cards book without the Sleeper kicking around. He is the ultimate wild card.
Even some of the big plots just seem to be heavily disconnected from one another. Like there's this apocalyptic gang war supposedly raging, people getting murdered left and right, jokers, aces being taken out, and there's ALSO increasing panic for some apparent new wild card strain... but then people are also just casually going about their business, like Reverend Leo Barnett carrying out an affair, Puppetman/Gregg Hartmann creepily doing his thing, and a joker/AIDS benefit concert featuring Bruce Springsteen and Buddy Holley (the latter of whom, it turns out, is a secret ace). When these things even nominally connect to one another, it still doesn't really feel like they're all happening in the same story, despite the fact that it's basically all happening within the confines of New York City over a span of eight months or so.
Some of these things seem more like they are there to set up the next book's plot (the election featuring Barnett and Hartmann, I suppose) rather than advance this book's plot. I guess that's part of the gig of a comic-like novel series, but I don't know... I'd like it to be more graceful. It didn't help that many of the segments involved multiple POV characters - the Mafia-y stuff had all of Bagabond, Rosemary, and Cordelia to get through.
It is interesting to view them kind of as historical artifacts in a way. Would it even occur to you, today, to connect the plight of AIDS victims with jokers? And yet in the early days of that outbreak one imagines it must have been similar indeed - the not understanding, the fear of the other, the rejection and the confusion. I was alive for this to happen and yet it feels like it must have been so long ago.
The particular e-book version that I read was rife with copy editing flubs - obviously extra words and letters and punctuation that does not belong. Not like, one on every page, but often enough that I think I noticed at least ten over the course of the book. Get it together!
Enjoyable parts throughout, but ultimately tonally disconnected, and narratively disconnected, for that matter, both overall and within specific installments at times. It's worth it to read more of the Sleeper, the Turtle, Modular Man, and other good ones... mostly.
I like the Wild Cards series even through its disappointing parts - how can you not like the trials and tribulations of a group of people who get powers, deformities, or both from an alien virus and the way they get through the world 40+ years on where this is more normal for humanity? It is a fantastic concept, but, reading the actual books, you can definitely see why it existed in the obscure depths of the SF/F fandom until interest in older GRRM works increased. I have written this about Wild Cards books before and will probably write it again.
Wild Cards books are so hit or miss for me. The good ones are really great, and there are others that just seem like wasted potential for this rich universe. Down and Dirty, while it had some fun parts, unfortunately falls more in the "wasted potential" territory for me. After the globe-hopping adventure of the previous volume, we zoom back in mostly on Jokertown and the wider New York City area. It is less interested in the aspects of the Wild Cards universe that I find interesting.
There are a lot of plots being serviced over the course of this volume. I think that's one of the bigger problems. There's just too much going on. For starters, it opens up with one of the more annoying things a multi-book series can do to open up its latest installment, namely, the first quarter or so of the book consists of things that were happening during the previous book.
A lot is happening and it just doesn't all connect. I mean, there's a gang war between the Mafia and joker gangs, a new breakout of the Wild Cards virus, someone has AIDS, a creature is hijacking people's minds, two very different secret aces are about to run for president in the 1988 election, Dr. Tachyon's grandson is kind of a spoiled brat with serious mental powers being as he's one-fourth Takisian.
It's a lot going on and the links between the plots are not graceful. Some things feel very disconnected from the rest, even story segments that I mostly enjoyed. Like, the Turtle is back, or at least Tom Tudbury is, because obviously he wasn't dead when we never saw a body, only he's kind of a sad sack now who is pondering selling the junkyard.
That's great. I like the Turtle. He's one of my favorite aces of these early books, and the early-period GRRM writing of him is great. You kind of forget with the way the Song of Ice and Fire series has totally bogged down, but he's a fantastic writer who brings these characters to life. Is it perhaps a bit too on-the-nose with Tudbury being from worn-down Bayonne, New Jersey, from which I believe GRRM also hails? Well, sure. But it's still good.
It also doesn't really link up with the rest of the narrative, despite the fact that it's ongoing with little bits throughout the volume.
Another favorite, Croyd "The Sleeper" Crenson, is more of a linchpin character for the book. Everything about Croyd being on the page is great. The wit and the misery as rendered by Zelazny is the biggest thing missing from the newer books. It's like you almost can't even have a Wild Cards book without the Sleeper kicking around. He is the ultimate wild card.
Even some of the big plots just seem to be heavily disconnected from one another. Like there's this apocalyptic gang war supposedly raging, people getting murdered left and right, jokers, aces being taken out, and there's ALSO increasing panic for some apparent new wild card strain... but then people are also just casually going about their business, like Reverend Leo Barnett carrying out an affair, Puppetman/Gregg Hartmann creepily doing his thing, and a joker/AIDS benefit concert featuring Bruce Springsteen and Buddy Holley (the latter of whom, it turns out, is a secret ace). When these things even nominally connect to one another, it still doesn't really feel like they're all happening in the same story, despite the fact that it's basically all happening within the confines of New York City over a span of eight months or so.
Some of these things seem more like they are there to set up the next book's plot (the election featuring Barnett and Hartmann, I suppose) rather than advance this book's plot. I guess that's part of the gig of a comic-like novel series, but I don't know... I'd like it to be more graceful. It didn't help that many of the segments involved multiple POV characters - the Mafia-y stuff had all of Bagabond, Rosemary, and Cordelia to get through.
It is interesting to view them kind of as historical artifacts in a way. Would it even occur to you, today, to connect the plight of AIDS victims with jokers? And yet in the early days of that outbreak one imagines it must have been similar indeed - the not understanding, the fear of the other, the rejection and the confusion. I was alive for this to happen and yet it feels like it must have been so long ago.
The particular e-book version that I read was rife with copy editing flubs - obviously extra words and letters and punctuation that does not belong. Not like, one on every page, but often enough that I think I noticed at least ten over the course of the book. Get it together!
Enjoyable parts throughout, but ultimately tonally disconnected, and narratively disconnected, for that matter, both overall and within specific installments at times. It's worth it to read more of the Sleeper, the Turtle, Modular Man, and other good ones... mostly.
I like the Wild Cards series even through its disappointing parts - how can you not like the trials and tribulations of a group of people who get powers, deformities, or both from an alien virus and the way they get through the world 40+ years on where this is more normal for humanity? It is a fantastic concept, but, reading the actual books, you can definitely see why it existed in the obscure depths of the SF/F fandom until interest in older GRRM works increased. I have written this about Wild Cards books before and will probably write it again.
July 7, 2012
It's pretty tough going as is to pithily summarise the fifth book in an ongoing series, but it's extraordinarily difficult with Down And Dirty because there is a LOT going on in the Wild Cards universe as this novel unfolds. So the wild card virus changed the world as we know it in the first book, aliens invaded in the second, aces and jokers banded together to battle street gangs and the Astronomer in the third, and a semi-diplomatic convoy of aces and jokers took a world tour in Book 4. You'd be forgiven for wondering where this fifth book goes from here - after all that has come before, there are so many possible plots and story threads that can be followed.
The biggest problem with Down And Dirty is that it tries very valiantly to pick up all these disparate threads and weave them into a coherent whole. There is so much going on in the book - the longest in the entire series thus far - that the characters who open the novel disappear for hundreds of pages and lots of stories, only to pop up near the very end when you've long forgotten that they'd kicked off the whole shebang in the first place.
It also doesn't help that this novel doesn't initially seem to have a central focal point on which all the stories can converge - it starts out smack dab in the middle of the gang wars that have raged throughout the preceding novels, then stumbles into apparently unlinked stories about Tachyon settling down with his grumpy grandson Blaise and Thomas Tudbury a.k.a. The Turtle continuing to experience extreme existential angst about his (in)ability to wield his telekinetic powers outside of his now-shattered shell. Familiar characters such as were-gator Jack Robicheaux appear to help resurrect alive-in-this-universe Buddy Holly's music career.
The central thread only comes clear much later in the book: the story is actually one of mutation and unexpected, horrifying change - because the one wild card victim who is constantly reinfected by the virus in his sleep has himself gone viral... And is now bringing with him another strain of wild card that affects even stable aces and jokers and either kills them or turns them into something more than they were before. Yup: turns out it's a story about Typhoid Croyd and the mayhem he leaves in his wake as he cuts an increasingly paranoid path through Manhattan.
To be fair to the extremely hardworking editor (Monsieur Martin himself) and his contributing authors, the narrative is never jarringly inconsistent. In fact, even though the timeline of this novel sort of overlaps with the fourth book (telling the stories of the several aces and jokers who didn't join Senator Gregg Hartmann on his world tour), there is little confusion over characters who feature heavily in both novels. When Typhoid Croyd finally emerges as the link holding all the stories together, the narrative continuity across different stories is again impressive. The main characters' emotional arcs provide a strong anchor for the otherwise scattershot novel, with tales starring The Turtle, Dr Tachyon and Croyd Crenson broken up into chapters and mixed in with the stories starring other protagonists like Water Lily, Modular Man, Robicheaux, his great friend and erstwhile bag lady Bagabond and their unexpected ties to the Mafia (via the conflicted Rosemary Muldoon) and media (through Jack's go-getting niece Cordelia).
By this point in the series, you'd have identified your favourite characters and writers, and I did really enjoy watching Roger Zelazny spin a story for poor, crazy Croyd as he thinks himself hunted across the entire book (for good reason, this time). Thomas Tudbury is always good for a bout of navel-gazing self-doubt, and Tachyon's new grandson continues to provide us insight into our alien protagonist and the ways his culture and mores clash with those of the planet he's chosen to inhabit.
Of particular note are the two stories featuring Water Lily (Addicted To Love by Pat Cadigan) and Modular Man (Mortality by Walter Jon Williams). Both Cadigan and Williams tell a full, complex story about their ace protagonists while tying them into the overarching storyline. Jane Dow's fledgling flirtatious relationship with Croyd has untold complications for her life - but only after she's had her own life-changing experience as she tries to go to the aid of Aces High proprietor Hiram Worchester and finds herself inadvertently, inextricably hooked on a very unusual drug. Mod Man remains that mirror to humanity - an artificially constructed being who has to try to come to terms with mortality when his temperamental creator brushes up against a certain someone in the corridor.
When it comes down to it, this fifth Wild Cards book remains stuffed full of great ideas, great characters and great stories. Yes, it's a bit unwieldy narrative-wise, pushing the political campaign story you'd have expected after Hartmann's world tour to the sidelines (although anti-joker preacher Leo Barnett does make his proper story debut AND stake his claim to the presidency here). But it's still an incredibly fun read and probably a far sight better than you'd expect of any shared universe anthology series about superpowered beings...
The biggest problem with Down And Dirty is that it tries very valiantly to pick up all these disparate threads and weave them into a coherent whole. There is so much going on in the book - the longest in the entire series thus far - that the characters who open the novel disappear for hundreds of pages and lots of stories, only to pop up near the very end when you've long forgotten that they'd kicked off the whole shebang in the first place.
It also doesn't help that this novel doesn't initially seem to have a central focal point on which all the stories can converge - it starts out smack dab in the middle of the gang wars that have raged throughout the preceding novels, then stumbles into apparently unlinked stories about Tachyon settling down with his grumpy grandson Blaise and Thomas Tudbury a.k.a. The Turtle continuing to experience extreme existential angst about his (in)ability to wield his telekinetic powers outside of his now-shattered shell. Familiar characters such as were-gator Jack Robicheaux appear to help resurrect alive-in-this-universe Buddy Holly's music career.
The central thread only comes clear much later in the book: the story is actually one of mutation and unexpected, horrifying change - because the one wild card victim who is constantly reinfected by the virus in his sleep has himself gone viral... And is now bringing with him another strain of wild card that affects even stable aces and jokers and either kills them or turns them into something more than they were before. Yup: turns out it's a story about Typhoid Croyd and the mayhem he leaves in his wake as he cuts an increasingly paranoid path through Manhattan.
To be fair to the extremely hardworking editor (Monsieur Martin himself) and his contributing authors, the narrative is never jarringly inconsistent. In fact, even though the timeline of this novel sort of overlaps with the fourth book (telling the stories of the several aces and jokers who didn't join Senator Gregg Hartmann on his world tour), there is little confusion over characters who feature heavily in both novels. When Typhoid Croyd finally emerges as the link holding all the stories together, the narrative continuity across different stories is again impressive. The main characters' emotional arcs provide a strong anchor for the otherwise scattershot novel, with tales starring The Turtle, Dr Tachyon and Croyd Crenson broken up into chapters and mixed in with the stories starring other protagonists like Water Lily, Modular Man, Robicheaux, his great friend and erstwhile bag lady Bagabond and their unexpected ties to the Mafia (via the conflicted Rosemary Muldoon) and media (through Jack's go-getting niece Cordelia).
By this point in the series, you'd have identified your favourite characters and writers, and I did really enjoy watching Roger Zelazny spin a story for poor, crazy Croyd as he thinks himself hunted across the entire book (for good reason, this time). Thomas Tudbury is always good for a bout of navel-gazing self-doubt, and Tachyon's new grandson continues to provide us insight into our alien protagonist and the ways his culture and mores clash with those of the planet he's chosen to inhabit.
Of particular note are the two stories featuring Water Lily (Addicted To Love by Pat Cadigan) and Modular Man (Mortality by Walter Jon Williams). Both Cadigan and Williams tell a full, complex story about their ace protagonists while tying them into the overarching storyline. Jane Dow's fledgling flirtatious relationship with Croyd has untold complications for her life - but only after she's had her own life-changing experience as she tries to go to the aid of Aces High proprietor Hiram Worchester and finds herself inadvertently, inextricably hooked on a very unusual drug. Mod Man remains that mirror to humanity - an artificially constructed being who has to try to come to terms with mortality when his temperamental creator brushes up against a certain someone in the corridor.
When it comes down to it, this fifth Wild Cards book remains stuffed full of great ideas, great characters and great stories. Yes, it's a bit unwieldy narrative-wise, pushing the political campaign story you'd have expected after Hartmann's world tour to the sidelines (although anti-joker preacher Leo Barnett does make his proper story debut AND stake his claim to the presidency here). But it's still an incredibly fun read and probably a far sight better than you'd expect of any shared universe anthology series about superpowered beings...
January 1, 2013
I blame jaybird1977 for my addiction to thise series, and he will pay. Oh yes, he will. Basically, around the time of WWII, an alien virus was let loose over New York, and spread around the world. Called the 'Wild Card' virus, the effects are quite random. Nine out of ten people draw the "black queen" and die. Of the survivors, nine out of ten draw a "joker" and end up deformed in some massive way. Of those one in a hundred survivors who draw neither, they might draw an "ace" (and basically end up with super-powers) or a "deuce" (and end up with not-so-super powers).
In this collection, a mafia vs. gangs war has broken out in 'Jokertown' where most of the deformed Jokers live, a ghetto in New York, and between the mafia, the gangs, the aces and jokers involved, things get ugly. There is also the continuation of two other plots - the sincerely disturbing Ti Malice, the hate-mongering Reverand Leo Barnett, and the hidden Ace Gregg Hartman, whose powers of manipulation are pulling him further and further towards presidency. The cast of characters are just as solid as ever, and I, for one, was very happy to see the return of the Turtle, my favourite character to date.
Solid stuff, with a nice ending that makes you twinge for the next in the series, which I shall order post haste...
In this collection, a mafia vs. gangs war has broken out in 'Jokertown' where most of the deformed Jokers live, a ghetto in New York, and between the mafia, the gangs, the aces and jokers involved, things get ugly. There is also the continuation of two other plots - the sincerely disturbing Ti Malice, the hate-mongering Reverand Leo Barnett, and the hidden Ace Gregg Hartman, whose powers of manipulation are pulling him further and further towards presidency. The cast of characters are just as solid as ever, and I, for one, was very happy to see the return of the Turtle, my favourite character to date.
Solid stuff, with a nice ending that makes you twinge for the next in the series, which I shall order post haste...
April 1, 2013
As are most of the books in this series, the book was a a lot of fun to read and very enjoyable. An improvement over its predecessor, Aces Abroad, which dragged in spots, this book was almost uniformly great.
My only quibble was with the chapter describing the organization of the Wild Card/AIDS benefit concert and the courting of Buddy Holley. Reading an account of the logistical difficulties organizing a real benefit concert might have some interest; reading about the logistical difficulties of a fictitious one, not so much. And the words of praise for "Buddy Holley" sounded a bit too much like old fogies trying to praise the music of their youth.
That said, the rest of the book was excellent and I highly recommend it to fans of the series.
My only quibble was with the chapter describing the organization of the Wild Card/AIDS benefit concert and the courting of Buddy Holley. Reading an account of the logistical difficulties organizing a real benefit concert might have some interest; reading about the logistical difficulties of a fictitious one, not so much. And the words of praise for "Buddy Holley" sounded a bit too much like old fogies trying to praise the music of their youth.
That said, the rest of the book was excellent and I highly recommend it to fans of the series.
November 10, 2019
Down and Dirty (Wild Cards #5)
by George R.R. Martin (Editor / Author), Melinda M. Snodgrass (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Edward Bryant (Contributor), Stephen Leigh (Contributor), Pat Cadigan (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Walter Jon Williams (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), John J. Miller (Contributor), Roger Zelazny (Contributor) , Arthur Byron Cover (Contributor), Leanne C. Harper (Contributor)
Wow very complicated story weaving intrigue politics and gang wars into one story, very dynamic.
by George R.R. Martin (Editor / Author), Melinda M. Snodgrass (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Edward Bryant (Contributor), Stephen Leigh (Contributor), Pat Cadigan (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Walter Jon Williams (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), John J. Miller (Contributor), Roger Zelazny (Contributor) , Arthur Byron Cover (Contributor), Leanne C. Harper (Contributor)
Wow very complicated story weaving intrigue politics and gang wars into one story, very dynamic.
April 24, 2015
This volume of the wild cards series was far better than Aces Abroad. I loved the way the different short stories overlapped with each other despite being about separate things, what also made this a great read was the re-introduction of some of my favourite characters namely the Turtle who's continuing story arcs were awesome and ended well in the last chapter of his story, also was the return of the Modular Man who was enjoyable to once again read about.
I always look forward to reading these volumes.
I always look forward to reading these volumes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
January 7, 2015With George RR Martin at the helm, the Wild Cards series was never going to be all sunshine and light. But as the title suggests, this volume is particularly grim, containing as it does gang war, two plagues, mind control, corporate malfeasance, Snotman, heartbreak, corruption of noble ideals, and Bono.
July 9, 2008
DIRTY DEED DONE DIRT CHEAP WE BUILD WE FIGHT WE DRINK WE THINK WE KILL KILL FOR THE THRILL OF THE SENSATION SO DECADENT PETER ROCK CAMPBELL MAGGIO YA BITCH ASS MONKEY GREASWE4 BALL FUCK CRASH LUVS SLEEPER PLEASE BITCH YOU LET A ISLAMIST FUK YAS MY GOD HIS DICK MUST HAVE BEEN TINY -YANA TOYBER
March 18, 2013
Great gang war story and great Sleeper story!
November 26, 2019
Down and Dirty is a bit of an odd duck, with some stories taking place at the same time as the world tour of Aces Abroad while others take place after. There are mafia plotlines, political plotlines with the Puppetman, and a bit of an internal struggle for both Tachyon and the Turtle. As with any of the short story collections, there's a wide variety of stories, for better and for worse.
Individual stories:
Only the Dead Know Jokertown: Yeoman is surprisingly interesting and I'm intrigued by his developing relationship with Wraith. The actual crime families storylines are not my favorite, but I do like the characters.
All the King's Horses: The story of the Turtle (one of my favorite characters) after the events of Jokers Wild. Seeing Tom as independent from the Turtle and investigating all the baggage and PTSD that can come from clashing super heros is fascinating. A good story, split into parts throughout the book.
Concerto for Siren and Serotonin: Croyd/The Sleeper is another one of the most interesting stories of the Wild Cards series. It's always interesting to see what new powers and trouble he'll have and with the added trouble of stimulants driving him more and more mad the longer he stays awake... It's a crazy story (and a fun title). The Typhoid Croyd story is a bit odd as well, but interesting. How do you stop and contain someone that powerful who may not be in entire control of themselves? Without killing them...
Breakdown: Bagabond is one of my favorite characters, Rosemary is one of my least. I don't really care for the Mafia storylines. It feels out of time (despite the fact that the Mafia is still active in organized crime even today in some cities, particularly in the Northeastern US) and despite the feeling of 'people doing the right thing for the wrong reasons', I can never quite getting as far as rooting for Rosemary. So it goes.
Jesus Was an Ace: Connects the plotlines more or less and gives Barnett as a counterpoint to Puppetman. But a weak story.
Blood Ties: Tachyon is not my favorite character, but there's little to doubt that he's the very core of the Wild Cards series. It is interesting to see some of the more 'human' aspects to his character. And playing him off his part human grandson (who might actually be more powerful) is fascinating.
The Second Coming of Buddy Holly: This is actually one of my most liked stories in the series so far, especially the absolutely bizarre final concert by Buddy Holly. It builds and builds through the story and I am rooting for things to all come together the entire time. On the other hand, it barely relates to anything else going on at best, so doesn't really 'fit' with the rest of the stories. Also, the last rapey scene at the end... could have just not been a thing.
The Hue of a Mind: Man Puppetman is creepy. Seeing a variety of 'evil' Jokers and Aces come together is interesting. The way this entire book treats homosexuality is... odd at best. Something of a product of the times?
Addicted to Love: Ti Malice is the perfect example of dark and creepy, body horror type stories that you get sometimes in these stories. It's terrifying to realize just what Ti can do to Hiram and Jane and no one realizes enough to help them. Oy.
Takedown: So ends one of the subplotlines at least. I like Bagabond.
Mortality: Modular Man! I'm glad he's not gone forever and it's actually pretty interesting to see an exploration of what it means to be humanity and think about mortality--from the point of view of an otherwise theoretically immortal android. Also lots of crazy fight scenes and interactions of various Wild Card powers.
Individual stories:
Only the Dead Know Jokertown: Yeoman is surprisingly interesting and I'm intrigued by his developing relationship with Wraith. The actual crime families storylines are not my favorite, but I do like the characters.
All the King's Horses: The story of the Turtle (one of my favorite characters) after the events of Jokers Wild. Seeing Tom as independent from the Turtle and investigating all the baggage and PTSD that can come from clashing super heros is fascinating. A good story, split into parts throughout the book.
Concerto for Siren and Serotonin: Croyd/The Sleeper is another one of the most interesting stories of the Wild Cards series. It's always interesting to see what new powers and trouble he'll have and with the added trouble of stimulants driving him more and more mad the longer he stays awake... It's a crazy story (and a fun title). The Typhoid Croyd story is a bit odd as well, but interesting. How do you stop and contain someone that powerful who may not be in entire control of themselves? Without killing them...
Breakdown: Bagabond is one of my favorite characters, Rosemary is one of my least. I don't really care for the Mafia storylines. It feels out of time (despite the fact that the Mafia is still active in organized crime even today in some cities, particularly in the Northeastern US) and despite the feeling of 'people doing the right thing for the wrong reasons', I can never quite getting as far as rooting for Rosemary. So it goes.
Jesus Was an Ace: Connects the plotlines more or less and gives Barnett as a counterpoint to Puppetman. But a weak story.
Blood Ties: Tachyon is not my favorite character, but there's little to doubt that he's the very core of the Wild Cards series. It is interesting to see some of the more 'human' aspects to his character. And playing him off his part human grandson (who might actually be more powerful) is fascinating.
The Second Coming of Buddy Holly: This is actually one of my most liked stories in the series so far, especially the absolutely bizarre final concert by Buddy Holly. It builds and builds through the story and I am rooting for things to all come together the entire time. On the other hand, it barely relates to anything else going on at best, so doesn't really 'fit' with the rest of the stories. Also, the last rapey scene at the end... could have just not been a thing.
The Hue of a Mind: Man Puppetman is creepy. Seeing a variety of 'evil' Jokers and Aces come together is interesting. The way this entire book treats homosexuality is... odd at best. Something of a product of the times?
Addicted to Love: Ti Malice is the perfect example of dark and creepy, body horror type stories that you get sometimes in these stories. It's terrifying to realize just what Ti can do to Hiram and Jane and no one realizes enough to help them. Oy.
Takedown: So ends one of the subplotlines at least. I like Bagabond.
Mortality: Modular Man! I'm glad he's not gone forever and it's actually pretty interesting to see an exploration of what it means to be humanity and think about mortality--from the point of view of an otherwise theoretically immortal android. Also lots of crazy fight scenes and interactions of various Wild Card powers.
January 13, 2023
As a gang war breaks out across the Jokertown ghetto, a new mutated version of the wild card virus strikes New York causing more deaths and transformations. Now the local Aces and Jokers find themselves fighting on two fronts just to stay alive.
After the globe-trotting escapades of the previous volume, Martin and friends return us to New York and some fan favorite characters. It's great to see the Sleeper, Turtle, Bagabond, and others take the stage again. Like that earlier installment, this is a series of inter-related short stories, this time detailing the events around the gang war. We actually pick up with some characters during the events of the last book before everything moves forward in the timeline. Continuity is becoming a big part of this series now and each story builds on the previous like a literary house of cards. There are a number of stories that are serialized throughout this book, meaning they're kind of broken up in chapters between other stories. We've seen a little of that previously in the series, but this time Martin intertwines three different stories throughout the book.
Disappointingly, the gang war story is really more of a background to this overall mosaic. Only a few stories really spotlight that storyline. The good news is the wild card virus outbreak and the escalating political intrigue more than make up for any lack in the gang war story. I found myself more interested in those plotlines as the book went on. There are also some very personal journeys for the Turtle and Dr. Tachyon in this book that really had me looking for the next chapter relating their stories.
Most of the stories were very engaging and kept me actively turning pages. I felt Edward Bryant's "The Second Coming of Buddy Holley" was a bit of a weak point for me. Not only did the story not really fit into any of the storylines, but Cordelia Chaisson doesn't seem to make for a great protagonist. This is two books in a row where I hit a bump on stories focusing on her. I didn't think I was going to enjoy "Jesus was an Ace" by Arthur Byron Cover, but it really did give me a great insight into Reverend Leo Barnett. I'm sure there are bigger things in store for that character in future books.
Overall, this was a better and more interesting read than the last one. While there was a bit of jumping around between stories, it still kept me interested and wanting to read more. My head was spinning at possibilities and I can't wait to see what the gang has in store for the future!
After the globe-trotting escapades of the previous volume, Martin and friends return us to New York and some fan favorite characters. It's great to see the Sleeper, Turtle, Bagabond, and others take the stage again. Like that earlier installment, this is a series of inter-related short stories, this time detailing the events around the gang war. We actually pick up with some characters during the events of the last book before everything moves forward in the timeline. Continuity is becoming a big part of this series now and each story builds on the previous like a literary house of cards. There are a number of stories that are serialized throughout this book, meaning they're kind of broken up in chapters between other stories. We've seen a little of that previously in the series, but this time Martin intertwines three different stories throughout the book.
Disappointingly, the gang war story is really more of a background to this overall mosaic. Only a few stories really spotlight that storyline. The good news is the wild card virus outbreak and the escalating political intrigue more than make up for any lack in the gang war story. I found myself more interested in those plotlines as the book went on. There are also some very personal journeys for the Turtle and Dr. Tachyon in this book that really had me looking for the next chapter relating their stories.
Most of the stories were very engaging and kept me actively turning pages. I felt Edward Bryant's "The Second Coming of Buddy Holley" was a bit of a weak point for me. Not only did the story not really fit into any of the storylines, but Cordelia Chaisson doesn't seem to make for a great protagonist. This is two books in a row where I hit a bump on stories focusing on her. I didn't think I was going to enjoy "Jesus was an Ace" by Arthur Byron Cover, but it really did give me a great insight into Reverend Leo Barnett. I'm sure there are bigger things in store for that character in future books.
Overall, this was a better and more interesting read than the last one. While there was a bit of jumping around between stories, it still kept me interested and wanting to read more. My head was spinning at possibilities and I can't wait to see what the gang has in store for the future!
April 26, 2018
(audiobook re-read)
First time hitting this one since I read it first as a teenager. It's got some structural problems, which Martin laments in his 2001 Afterword. I found some of the characterization to be off (Water Lily and Sewer Jack), and some of the story lines just didn't work (I Did Not Care about Rosemary Muldoon, Bagabond or Cordelia).
And yet... I kept listening, sitting int he car after I got where I was going to listen to just a little more. It still hooked me. The Croyd and Modular Man stuff is solid.
The reading is all over the place. Adrian Paul might be someone's choice to play Yeoman for the optioned TV adaptation, but his accent is entirely wrong for a man from Texas by way of New Mexico and Vietnam. Paul's female voices are also fairly awful.
I missed the name of the voice actor doing Water Lily's chapters, but whoever it was did not manage to sight read. There were sudden stops mid-sentence where there was clearly an end of line on the page of her script, and none of the lines really had emotion.
On the other hand, every time the reader for the Croyd chapters (Raphael Sbarge, I think?) was great, and I sank into my seat and relaxed every time I heard him say "Concerto for Siren and Seratonin".
I've had issues with Roy Dotrice's Game of Thrones narration, but here he does quite well. Which may just be the difference between him reading a few chapters vs. having a 94 year old man narrate a 50 hour doorstop.
Sean Astin's Turtle actually works because I kept picturing the actor in the role, and it clicked hard enough that I am probably going to picture him as the Turtle from here on.
Absolutely none of the readers, though, can get anywhere near a Cajun accent. Attempts range from "Outrageous Euro French" to "Vaguely Southern".
Special revulsion for the Tachyon chapters here. I had forgotten how much I hated the character of Blaise, and knowing the he's going to be around for a good chunk more of these is giving me pause. I know I'm going to hit a point in my reread where I will stop, and skip ahead to the ones published in the 21st century, so how much Blaise and Tachyon soap opera whiny angst can I endure?
I at least need to get to the Leaper Trilogy, though, so on we go...
First time hitting this one since I read it first as a teenager. It's got some structural problems, which Martin laments in his 2001 Afterword. I found some of the characterization to be off (Water Lily and Sewer Jack), and some of the story lines just didn't work (I Did Not Care about Rosemary Muldoon, Bagabond or Cordelia).
And yet... I kept listening, sitting int he car after I got where I was going to listen to just a little more. It still hooked me. The Croyd and Modular Man stuff is solid.
The reading is all over the place. Adrian Paul might be someone's choice to play Yeoman for the optioned TV adaptation, but his accent is entirely wrong for a man from Texas by way of New Mexico and Vietnam. Paul's female voices are also fairly awful.
I missed the name of the voice actor doing Water Lily's chapters, but whoever it was did not manage to sight read. There were sudden stops mid-sentence where there was clearly an end of line on the page of her script, and none of the lines really had emotion.
On the other hand, every time the reader for the Croyd chapters (Raphael Sbarge, I think?) was great, and I sank into my seat and relaxed every time I heard him say "Concerto for Siren and Seratonin".
I've had issues with Roy Dotrice's Game of Thrones narration, but here he does quite well. Which may just be the difference between him reading a few chapters vs. having a 94 year old man narrate a 50 hour doorstop.
Sean Astin's Turtle actually works because I kept picturing the actor in the role, and it clicked hard enough that I am probably going to picture him as the Turtle from here on.
Absolutely none of the readers, though, can get anywhere near a Cajun accent. Attempts range from "Outrageous Euro French" to "Vaguely Southern".
Special revulsion for the Tachyon chapters here. I had forgotten how much I hated the character of Blaise, and knowing the he's going to be around for a good chunk more of these is giving me pause. I know I'm going to hit a point in my reread where I will stop, and skip ahead to the ones published in the 21st century, so how much Blaise and Tachyon soap opera whiny angst can I endure?
I at least need to get to the Leaper Trilogy, though, so on we go...
June 23, 2025
This was a pretty good entry in the series that seemed to suffer from some plotting/pacing issues.
At the end of the newer editions GRRM talks about the struggles to make the collection work and he was critical of the things I noticed.
This book has a lot going on, almost too much. There is a turf war between all the heavy hitters in the organized crime syndicates, a hunt for someone spreading a new mutation of the wold card virus that is killing aces(and jokers), and a few plot lines that follow characters I don't like 😂.
Zelazny was cookin' in this collection alongside GRRM and Melinda Snodgrass.
I had a fun time with this one and I look forward to reading the other two books in this triad.
(the audiobook is mediocre due to a few of the narrators dragging the good ones down so listener beware)
At the end of the newer editions GRRM talks about the struggles to make the collection work and he was critical of the things I noticed.
This book has a lot going on, almost too much. There is a turf war between all the heavy hitters in the organized crime syndicates, a hunt for someone spreading a new mutation of the wold card virus that is killing aces(and jokers), and a few plot lines that follow characters I don't like 😂.
Zelazny was cookin' in this collection alongside GRRM and Melinda Snodgrass.
I had a fun time with this one and I look forward to reading the other two books in this triad.
(the audiobook is mediocre due to a few of the narrators dragging the good ones down so listener beware)
June 1, 2021
Esta quinta entrega mejora respecto a la anterior, los personajes ya son conocidos y se avanza más en la acción. A pesar de un principio más bien lento la trama va cogiendo velocidad para llevar a un final frenético. Se vuelve al Nueva York ya conocido, con los protagonistas anteriores, los que se presentan en el volumen cuarto y algunos más que aparecen. Es una serie en la que conviene no encariñarse demasiado con ningún personaje. Hay buenos a los que les salen cosas mal y malos a los que les salen cosas bien; hay malos que hacen cosas buenas y buenos que hacen cosas malas; y sobre todo, no hay casi nadie bueno o malo al cien por cien.
Se sigue notando la diferencia entre unos autores y otros, que es uno de los principales problemas de escribir una historia a muchas manos.
Se sigue notando la diferencia entre unos autores y otros, que es uno de los principales problemas de escribir una historia a muchas manos.
April 18, 2023
Un tremendo repunte de la saga de Wild Cards con este quinto libro, fácilmente uno de mis favoritos. A diferencia de otras entregas, esta vez se manejan dos líneas argumentales a medias (la guerra entre mafias por el control de Jokertown y el resurgimiento de una nueva variante del virus original) de forma algo torpe, pero fácilmente se compensa con unos muy buenos trabajos, no solo de nuevos personajes sino sobre todo por el regreso de algunos clásicos que dábamos ya por desaparecidos. En ese sentido el relato de Martin "All the King's Horses" me pareció increíble y por sí solo justifica el hype para el sexto volumen. Caerá seguro.
December 11, 2017
The stories in this volume are great if not a little disjointed. The contents of the book, I would give 3.5 or 4 stars, but the performance of the readers is so terribly uneven. Felicia Day, Scott Brick and a few others give good performances but the performances for Mortality was so absolutely wrong for the feel of the story it was god awful. The narrators for Bloodties, and Jesus Was An Ace were not much better. I listened to much of the book at fast speed to just get through the poor narration.
December 18, 2021
The last book in the series to feature Roger Zelazny as a writer, but what a send-off - it makes Croyd the central figure in the story for the first and last time, but reading Martin's afterword in which he dissects the book's creation, it's all too easy to see the flaws he mentions. The gang war that drives the first third or so of the novel is resolved more or less off panel, and a LOT of characters experience some serious reverses in this book. Plus, the whole plot line of the Turtle only barely intersects the rest of the book, and it makes you wonder why it's even here.
December 1, 2017
I love the wild cards series and I think this might be one of my favourites thus far. some of the best characters, stories and twists yet!
lots of action, horror and sci fi themes as the story focuses on the New gang war, a mutation of the virus and the emergence of Puppetman as a presidential candidate.
some of my favourite characters returned in this book (I won't spoil) and it all looks at for a great pay off in Ace in the Hole (the final book in this triad)
lots of action, horror and sci fi themes as the story focuses on the New gang war, a mutation of the virus and the emergence of Puppetman as a presidential candidate.
some of my favourite characters returned in this book (I won't spoil) and it all looks at for a great pay off in Ace in the Hole (the final book in this triad)
June 23, 2021
My first in the series of Wild Card... probably would be the last one also. Like the idea of different writers collaborating to create stories in the same universe, strong character driven narrative and the exciting possibilities that such huge & diverse talents brings to the writing table.
Maybe I am not able to like the whole universe itself. Not planning to delve deeper into it for the time being.
I am out.
Maybe I am not able to like the whole universe itself. Not planning to delve deeper into it for the time being.
I am out.
February 2, 2018
The book feels a bit disjointed in the middle with explaining "Typhoid Croyd" as I found some events seeming like they happened without a whole lot of description. As I'm reading an older version, perhaps the newer version has an additional chapter to help explain the transition. Regardless, this book is engaging and touches back with a number of characters essential to the Wild Cards universe.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 28, 2019
Para mí ha sido el libro más tedioso de la saga, demasiadas historias, no había mucha cohesión entre ellas, unas muy aburridas y otras de relleno, la única historia que salva este libro es la de Croyd y la que quizás tenga buen seguimiento la de Jane, seguida de la de Tom.... No volvería a leer este libro
March 28, 2019
A bit frustrating, this fifth in the series had some of the best writing and story arcs so far, but also some of the worst conclusions of those arcs. Only four stars for those resolutions, and for arcs broken a little too frequently which made for an at times confusing read. Still, as a major part of the series as a whole, Recommended.
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