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Title: Aces High (Wild Cards, Volume 2) by George Martin ISBN: 0-7434-2391-7 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (20 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: a hit, a palpable hit...
Comment: There are those who have complained that the stories in this book aren't complete, but seem like they're just beginning. This complaint is valid, but the reasoning is inaccurate. Look at the Wild Cards series as comics books told in narrative rather than picture form. A regular comic book series doesn't usually have a complete tale, without clues to the future, and neither does this book. Some of these stories are setups to larger stories, and believe me, that ain't bad. I have read all sixteen books, and in my opinion, while some of the stories ARE weaker than others, the whole is much bigger than the sum of its parts.
The fact is that I grew to care about these characters. I wanted to know more about them, and that need to know drew me deeper and deeper as the series progressed. Now that the series is being re-released, I can honestly say that if you are comic book fan in search of more serious fare, where even the so-called "good guys" can have some unpalatable personality traits, than the wild cards series is for you. If you don't want to blow the bucks for a brand spanking new one, than get one used. I will say that if you dismiss this series without at least trying ONE book, you are missing out on the next level of superheroics.
Try Vol.1 out. If you don't end up loving Croyd (the Sleeper), I'll eat my hat!
Rating: 4
Summary: One big, essential prologue
Comment: Wild Cards is a great series. This, of course, is not by far the best book in the series; as it mainly serves as a 400 page introduction; but for such an involved and sprawling saga, perhaps such a thing was necessary. The huge back story had to be chronicled, and there was little other way to introduce such a large gallery of significant characters other than to devote chapters to each without getting into a consecutive story. Even so, this book sets certain events in motion that DO eventually put it into the bigger picture and link this with the two following books as somewhat of a trilogy. Overall, very well written, great characters, and Martin edits it exquisitely; making this shared, multi-author book seem like it was all done by one person.
Rating: 4
Summary: Solid stuff from Martin et al...
Comment: The third book in the "Wild Cards" series by George R.R. Martin (editor), this is a "shared world" series, where various authors get together and write in the same world. The world is one where an alien virus was dumped into the air shortly after WWII, and still randomly infects people nearly forty years later.
The virus - called the Wild Card for its very random results - proliferated in earth's atmosphere. First, nine in ten people who contract the Wild Card virus "draw the Queen of Spades," and die. Of the survivors, nine in ten people "draw a Joker," and end up hideously disfigured. Of the non-Joker survivors, some draw a "deuce," and get a power or ability that's pretty much useless ("I can change my hair colour at will!"), but many who survive as non-jokers "draw an Ace," and gain super-powers. The massively telekinetic Turtle, the projective teleporter Popinjay (who I really liked in this book), the any-lizard shapeshifter Kid Dinosaur - these are some of the Aces. They're solid, fun to read, and quite well drafted.
This story all takes place in one day, and the novel is very well sewn together (especially given the different tones and styles of the various authors) and has a very complicated and complex interwoven plot. Kudos to Martin for wrapping it up so well.
This forty years later is the anniversary and what is likely to be the largest "Wild Card Day" celebration ever - except one recurring villain is using this day to kill off all the Aces who bested him in the previous books... Who will survive?
As Martin is well known for in his "A Song of Fire and Ice" series - there are no holds barred in these books - heroes die. And horribly. Very solid stuff.
'Nathan
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Title: Wild Cards IV : Aces Abroad (Wild Cards) by George R. R. Martin, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Tom Mandrake ISBN: 0743452410 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Wild Cards (Legendary) by George R. R. Martin, Edward Bryant, Leanne C. Harper, Stephen Leigh, Victor Milan, John J. Miller, Lewis Shiner, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Howard Waldrop, Walter Jon Williams ISBN: 0743475208 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: Wild Cards V: Down & Dirty by George Martin ISBN: 0743445449 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Wild Cards Volume Two : The Legendary Series (The Legendary Series) by George R. R. Martin ISBN: 0743479343 Publisher: I Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Dead Man's Hand (Wild Cards, No 7) by George Martin ISBN: 0553285696 Publisher: Spectra Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1990 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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