Point Books During Wild Cards (Wild Cards #1)

Original Title: Wild Cards
ISBN: 1596872829 (ISBN13: 9781596872820)
Edition Language: English
Series: Wild Cards #1
Literary Awards: Locus Award Nominee for Best Anthology (1987)
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Wild Cards (Wild Cards #1) Paperback | Pages: 432 pages
Rating: 3.7 | 11147 Users | 935 Reviews

Present About Books Wild Cards (Wild Cards #1)

Title:Wild Cards (Wild Cards #1)
Author:George R.R. Martin
Book Format:Paperback
Book Edition:Anniversary Edition
Pages:Pages: 432 pages
Published:December 1st 2007 by iBooks (first published December 1st 1986)
Categories:Fantasy. Science Fiction. Fiction. Short Stories. Comics. Superheroes. Anthologies

Ilustration Conducive To Books Wild Cards (Wild Cards #1)

A kind editor pointed GRRM my way when he decided to have a Wild Cards book set in the UK and wanted more British authors on board. Actually as a dual national I'm half American, but I've spent 90%+ of my life here.

Anyway, Wild Cards is a franchise spanning 30+ years in real time and 60+ years in book time, and sprawls over 23 (& counting volumes).

The good thing is that although all that alternate history and the cast of characters are there to be used, most of the books (all of which comprise a collection of short stories) stand well on their own, as do the stories within them.

And the underlying idea of the whole thing can be delivered in a couple of lines.

In 1940(ish) an alien virus is released. It infects a few thousand or tens of thousands then fades away, with new outbursts down the years. 90% of those catching it die, 9% are horribly deformed, and 1% are largely untouched but gain super powers. Simple!

So, in preparation for writing my 15,000 word story for Knaves Over Queens, book 27, I read book 1.

It's set in the 40s, 50's and 60s, following the aftermath of the first outbreak and the progress of some of those new "super heroes" along with the social impact of their activities and of the far more numerous "Jokers" (those who end up sick and deformed) who form a persecuted underclass and mostly live in ghettos.

There is a focus on real American political events of the period, re-imagined through the lens of the virus. The political ramifications and events are not discarded but build through the series, giving it a persistent and realistic history that is absent in other superhero franchises where the board is reset regularly and consequences largely forgotten.

The political focus can make this first book rather dry, especially for younger readers for whom time has moved the events from recent(ish) history to something more distant and academic.

I found the quality of the short stories to be enormously variable. This is true of many anthologies, and I guess of many collections of books you might randomly pull off the shelf.

It's been a while since I read it so I can't go into detail. I remember GRRM's own contribution as being very entertaining, and that the story by the late Roger Zelzany (whose books I like a lot) left me somewhat disappointed. But that's part of the joy of collections, the authors can experiment and you never know what to expect. You get highs with the lows and it's definitely worth giving it a try.

You're not committing to a 30 book series here, since armed with the basics you can dive into any of the volumes as you please. It's an exciting and highly imaginative project with some very different takes on the whole superhero (& villain) idea. Well worth it.

And of course the volume my story appears in is a must read!



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Rating About Books Wild Cards (Wild Cards #1)
Ratings: 3.7 From 11147 Users | 935 Reviews

Piece About Books Wild Cards (Wild Cards #1)
Wild CardsThis collection of shor t stories is generally good, though, there are some things that bother me about it, but the quality of writing and much of the content are things that I like in stories, especially short stories, as are the subjects highlighted by the writing. Its not all done as I prefer however. Ill get into that shortly. The premise of Wild Cards is that an advanced (in some ways) alien culture had become aware of earth and, because earthlings had similar physiology to

Amazing plot, but I didnt like the execution.I absolutely loved the story (which is why I gave it 4 stars). It reminded me of The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson, which is one of my favourite series of all time. People with supernatural powers, Government, X-Men+Chronicle. What more do you need?For a while it was exactly what I wanted it to be. It was perfect, things were developing slowly. It was an atypical story (Im talking about the alternative history and the way the powers manifested

Just to be a completest, I read the three stories added to the 2010 re-release of Wild Cards.Good stuff, for the most part. They don't really add a lot to the volume, but they're a decent inclusion. "Ghost Girls Take Manhattan" was a very good story on its own. That didn't surprise me, as I'm a fan of Carrie Vaughn's writing already.

A kind editor pointed GRRM my way when he decided to have a Wild Cards book set in the UK and wanted more British authors on board. Actually as a dual national I'm half American, but I've spent 90%+ of my life here.Anyway, Wild Cards is a franchise spanning 30+ years in real time and 60+ years in book time, and sprawls over 23 (& counting volumes).The good thing is that although all that alternate history and the cast of characters are there to be used, most of the books (all of which



Two things have kept me from reading this series for quite some time:1) The "mosaic" novel aspect: I felt that switching authorial voices every chapter would dilute the storytelling.2) I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy "superhero" stories without the sequential art.For reservation number 1, it wasn't the switching authorial voices that bothered me, it was the lack of a narrative through-line. And reservation number 2 ended up being a non-issue.This linked collection of short stories set in a

I first heard of this book a few years ago when I read GRRM: A RRetrospective which included one of George R. Martins contributions to the first volume. Ever since that little glimpse I was hooked and wanted to read more. Finally I got my hands on a copy.Wild Cards is set in an alternate reality which broke away in the 1940's just after WW2. An alien virus was released over Manhattan which could affect people in one of 3 ways - kill them (90%), mutate them into a deformed creature (called a