Just a post ago I mentioned about seeing four Wild Cards books over at Fully Booked - Greenbelt, right?
Well, by golly gush, it seems though that all four have ended up as under my possession.
As evidenced by the book pile on the right, my first Wild Cards book, aptly entitled Wild Cards I, is now over its lonesome as it is joined by four other WC titles -- as previously enumerated -- Inside Straight, Busted Flush, Suicide Kings, and Fort Freak. The first three form a trilogy of sorts which, I deemed from Wild Cards Online, to be how these books are done, most of the time. And the WC novels are described as mosaic novels -- each chapter of the novel of one book is written by a different author resulting in varying styles and tones but these differing chapters are woven into one cohesive plot (with numerous sub-plots and twists and turns).
Wild Cards I was more an anthology than a novel as it's a novice's introduction to George R.R. Martin and Co.'s WC universe where an alien race releases a virus at the end of World War II and this virus affects humanity in four ways -- a big chunk of those infected die, 9% get turned to malformed creatures called Jokers, while a minuscule 1% become super-powered beings called Aces.
What makes Wild Cards engaging from the onset (I've only finished Wild Cards I and still working on Fort Freak but I could say I'm hooked) is that it's set in the real world, albeit, an alternate world whereby the JFK assassination and World War II are real events but of course, the introduction of the wild card virus changes history. It's a "what-if" universe.
Twenty-one WC books have already been released since the first in 1997 and these books follow the exploits of Aces, Jokers, and the WC universe as a whole from the initial days of what is Wild Card Day (the day the virus was released) in 1946 until the present time. What is appealing with the Wild Cards universe is that time moves -- people, Joker, and Aces die to be replaced by others. Of course, there are those Aces and Jokers who seem to live forever.
In Wild Cards I, I've read things like Aces High, a club for super-powered Aces, but in Fort Freak it is mentioned that this club is no longer existing. Personalities like Dr. Tachyon who was quite present in many of the stories in the first WC book seems to be non-existent in Fort Freak (still mid-way through the book!) and it is mentioned in the latest volume that Chrysalis, a popular bar-owning joker in WC I, has her bones interred under Father Squid's church.
Like I said earlier, time moves in the Wild Cards universe and that makes the series grounded and more believable despite it being a "what-if".
Being a late-comer to the series, I feel that I need a lot of catching up to do. Unfortunately, not all the previous books are readily available in local bookstores. But the news is TOR, which currently has the rights to publish the WC books, has started re-issuing the earlier volumes alongside newer WC releases (the four WC books I recently scooped up are part of the new releases). TOR has already released Wild Cards I (with three new bonus stories) as well as Aces High. According to news, TOR will be re-issuing the earlier volumes until Deadman's Hand (Volume 7). Hopefully though, they'll also be re-issuing them until Volume 17. And hopefully, all these would reach the shores of the P.I.
With GRRM quite popular these days with his A Song of Ice and Fire books and his Game of Thrones TV series, interest is surely picking up for the Wild Card series. There's also news from GRRM himself that there are plans to bring the WC series to TV and film as well.
