| Title | : | Lowball (Wild Cards, #22) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0765331950 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780765331953 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2014 |
Edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin and acclaimed author Melinda M. Snodgrass, Lowball is the latest mosaic novel in the acclaimed Wild Cards universe, featuring original fiction by Carrie Vaughn, Ian Tregillis, David Anthony Durham, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Mary Anne Mohanraj, David D. Levine, Michael Cassutt, and Walter John Williams.
Perfect for old fans and new readers alike, Lowball delves deeper into the world of aces, jokers, and the hard-boiled men and women of the Fort Freak police precinct in a pulpy, page-turning novel of superheroics and mystery.
Lowball (Wild Cards, #22) Reviews
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I've been reading the "Wild Cards" series since I was about 17 years old. I don't care to comment on just how long ago that was, but it remains, in my opinion, one of the richest, most interesting and best executed examples of "shared world" storytelling or as it sometimes called a "mosaic novel" around today.
Readers of the series will delight in seeing the appearance of old favorites ("The Sleeper") as well as new characters. Given that the novel is comprised of the work from several individual contributors I'm always AMAZED at the consistent quality of the continuity and the utter process which must go into such a creation.
The sense of joy and (sometimes) nostalgia I get from reading anything Wild Cards is well represented in "Lowball" the latest of the series. While a couple of the portions were a little on the weak side at times, the beauty and genius of the mosaic approach essentially lifts the overall enjoyment. Sort of a gestalt novel, I suppose.
I very much enjoyed this work and look forward to reading more. -
My Video Review:
https://youtu.be/ZPI0gyKX-U4 -
3.5 stars!
Read for the Quarterly Book Club 3rd Quarter Read 2016 - HEROES AND VILLAINS
I've really enjoyed this series since I first read the first Wildcards anthology. It's a little unconventional in terms of story and also style of organization, but it's very interesting. This one gets 3.5 stars because it's not my favourite. I have liked other Wild Card books better - Suicide Kings was a favourite, and a number of the earlier novels (even though the themes of some aren't exactly modern, BUT time era wise, perfect).
What has always brought me back to each Wild Card novel is the very fact that the world is fascinating. I love how each author and George R. R. Martin (And Melinda M. Snodgrass) edits each story together seamlessly. It's not like your usual anthology where there's one story after another. In the Wild Card books, and Lowball following the same trend, there are (basically) four main povs (one way of looking at it). The characters in each of these stories make up the main bulk of the book, with the main plot of the story mainly alternating between these four stories:
-“The Big Bleed” by Michael Cassutt
-“Those About to Die” by David Anthony Durham
-“Galahad in Blue” by Melinda M. Snodgrass
-“Ties That Bind” by Mary Anne Mohanraj
Inserted in between are one-shot stories that bring back old characters or introduce new characters involved in small subplots for the main story:
-“Cry Wolf” by David D. Levine
-“Road Kill” by Walter Jon Williams
-“Once More, for Old Time’s Sake” by Carrie Vaughn
-“No Parking… “ by Ian Tregillis
I really liked "No Parking" simply it brings back one of my favourite heroes! - Rustbelt - the guy isn't all that sharp, but his heart is in all the right places, which makes him total hero material. He's a man of metal, completely incapable of not destroying one thing or another by accident because of overapplied pressure. He had a bigger role in previous books, and basically only cameos (if one could call it that) in "No Parking". Carrie Vaughn's story also brought back some old favourites! Specially Earth Witch, whom I remember from Suicide Kings? (I believe?) Or was that the Gardner? One of them worked with Rustbelt. Anyway, I really enjoyed that short (long) story, it was awesome.
One of my favourite characters in Lowball was the main character in Galahad in Blue - Detective Francis (Franny) Black - BUT I really hate his girlfriend, and I wanted him to DUMPED her. Her reasons SUCKED all round. I suppose I liked Franny because he's the poor kid who wanted and didn't want his promotion, and yet, was doing everything he needed to do to do his job well even though he was limited by so many of his own shortcomings.
The World. By the way, I thought I should mention this. Essentially, this series is an anthology work of alternative history since the 80s (maybe 70s, I have forgotten the exact decade), which includes some major historical events. Like most superpower/paranormal stories, this includes some kind of genetic affliction. In this case, there was an alien virus released, causing the world's population to get sick and evolve superpowers. For those who come out looking human with a superpower, they're considered "Aces". But for those who have some sort of physical deformity, and potentially a useless-to-none superpower, they're known as "Jokers" (Scuse me if I've mixed up the details by accident, it's been a while since I've read the last book, and most of what I've written here is the refreshment I got from reading Lowball.) Jokers are discriminated again, while Aces are generally revered. I love also how detailed the world has gotten, and how inset the lives of the heroes and villains are in this world - including reality shows and political organisations. It's fascinating, and I love it.
The Ending
I AM SO FREAKING BUMMED AT THE ENDING OF THIS BOOK. I wasn't entirely in love with the story in this book, but it was also quite interesting as a mystery novel. Not much hero/villain stuff going on in this one - not like previous books, but I think (and this is because my memory is thin atm) it's because the whole series is organised in sets of threes (I think or fours), where the first book introduces and sets up a plot, running on from the previous, while the following continues, etc. Anyway, I should have probably reread the previous books, but it's been awhile and I was a little too excited to read something like this now.
ANyway, I'm bummed because the ending of this book left NO SATISFYING CONCLUSION, which means, against everything that prevented me from giving this book 5 stars, I want to read the next one! -
Like the previous book in the Wild Cards series, Fort Freak, Lowball focuses on the cops and the poor, deformed residents of Jokertown. In this book, jokers are going missing and except for a young cop looking to prove himself, the authorities are unwilling to investigate. This means that the jokers and other wild cards take matters into their own hands. The deeper they get, the higher the stakes get and the seedier the search becomes.
Like the previous books in this long-running series, the stars are the characters: the aces and jokers drastically changed by the Wild Card virus. Characterization and interaction are both mostly good. Most of the stories are good, though like Fort Freak I didn’t care for all the contributing authors. Cassutt’s writing has just never worked for me. And in Mohanraj’s story, a character makes a rather stupid decision that felt like it was done purely for drama.
Unfortunately, there also seemed to be an editing problem. While some of the stories are good, the whole was less than the sum of its parts. Stories by Vaughn and Tregillis were well written, but they featured characters from the previous series Committee “triad” and it felt like they were only included in order to carry the plot forward.
The plot was one of the weakest parts of the book. It took a little while to get going and felt a bit like a B-movie/TV story. It’s also a bit thin and while it mostly gets resolved by the end of the book, the reader suddenly gets a strange cliffhanger ending.
So all in all, Lowball is a decent Wild Cards book, but not a very satisfying one. It has good characters and interactions; however, the B-movie/TV plot feels a bit stretched. And while some of the stories are good, the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
Rating: 7/10.
http://thedecklededge.blogspot.com/20... -
Lowball edited by George R.R. Martin
Mysterious crimes have been occurring in Jokertown. Jokers have been reported disappearing at an alarming rate for unknown reasons. Father Squid decides to seek help in solving the charade by recruiting Marcus, a young African-American man, normal enough from the waist up, however below the waist is a twenty foot scaled serpents tale. The SCARE agency soon becomes involved. Agent Stuntman Jamal, an Ace whose power is being able to bounce back from damage that would severely injure or kill the average human being, begins his street tactics to find hidden answers to many unanswered questions. Fort Freak precinct station is a domicile to a handful of underfunded cops who try their damnedest to keep peace in an increasingly strange and troublesome city. Witnesses come forward and a full blown investigation unparalleled to any other begins its strange path to justice. Their examination slowly uncovers the horrific truth behind the immoral corruption motivating the gathering of brave Nats, Aces, and Jokers who unite to capture and punish the guilty so the innocent may once again walk, slither, and bounce down the streets of picturesque Jokertown.
George R.R. Martin has gathered a handful of talented and award winning authors to tell the stories of these fictional wonders thrown into the real world. This creative idea from the mind of Martin begins shortly after World War II. A devastating alien bomb has exploded near our planet unleashing a unusual gene virus on the population. The result causes superhuman powers and at times physical and mental disfigurements among certain individuals who are known as Aces and Jokers. Beginning with these historical events of 1946 these authors such as Melinda M. Snodgrass, David D. Levine, and Carrie Vaughn are now in control of past, present, and future developments. The Wild Cards series have established itself with a whopping 21 volumes. Lowball, volume 22, continues the action fantasy of this superworld. Over twenty writers continue to create and institute their own superheroes, attaching them to amazing and bizarre story lines. This provides the reader a world filled with vivid colorful characters that provide a non stop imagery of physical distortion. This endless entertainment is a gift from George R.R. Martin and friends. -
Wild Cards books are very hit or miss, and even the ones that hit are pure genre cheese. That's why they're so much fun, though. Lowball is a hit for me, for all that it seems confused at times about what kind of book that it is.
Lowball is another Fort Freak-centered Wild Cards novel, picking up after the book of the same name with some, though not all, of the same characters. Marcus, the Infamous Black Tongue, makes a return, and really all you need to do to get me to like a book is give me a heart-of-gold vigilante type of dude who is from Baltimore, oh, and also, the lower half of his body is a snake and his tongue can deliver doses of venom. Awesome.
Unfortunately, my least favorite part of Fort Freak, Detective Stevens, also known as the guy who spent most of that book having threesomes with the dancer ace and the other, different kind of dancer joker, is also back, but blessedly there's little of the threesomes and the parts where you can't avoid him, well, they're few and far between. Stevens has not much to do with the A-plot of the book at all.
What passes for stars here are Detective Black and Marcus. Black is a nat and the son of a policeman who was also a nat and also served at Fort Freak. "Unresolved daddy issues," as he tells another character. At one point, Black reflects for some reason on the day that the Astronomer and Fortunato dueled in the skies, which he remembers because it was the day his father died. As fate would have it, that was the very last book I read before this. It was
Jokers Wild. I don't remember any police officers named Black. I guess I should have paid closer attention. I didn't like that particular book much. It was a miss.
The A-plot involves missing jokers, because it turns out people are being kidnapped and wouldn't you know, the police brass don't give a shit. That is the nature of police brass in fiction, and probably real life too. If no one misses the missing, there's no crime there, right? But Black, bless him, is real po-leece, and though he resembles Jimmy McNulty very little, he is drawn in to this quixotic chase he has been ordered to stop pursuing, oh, but let's just call this Fed buddy (Stuntman, making a return from the first of the American Hero/Committee trilogy books) and see what they can rustle up under the radar.
As a multi-author novel, it's a lot of parts of several different short stories broken up and then strung together, but there are a few that are presented without interruption. The first of these is pretty great, the story of the medical examiner of Jokertown who everybody assumes is a joker (it's not clear whether he is) and he really, really likes rockets a lot. There's also the joker/ace who can draw characters into life and he uses them to be a series of Peeping Toms.
Then there are the parts that make me wonder if this book is sure that it knows what it wants to be. What I liked about the Fort Freak book is that it was this trip into a different world from the high-flying aces of the previous trilogy. Jokertown is definitely a different sort of place, and this was more along the lines of some hard-boiled detective stuff.
Fun as it was to read the drunken misadventures as Curveball, Earth Witch, and Drummer Boy plowed through some plot, what do they bring to your world of tentacles and elephant heads and hooves and everything else? It was nice to check in on them, but they felt like they belonged in a different book. Same with Rusty, whose story I also enjoyed, because how can you not like the slightly dim but exceptionally heroic guy whose skin is metal and who, well, rusts things? He blunders his way into the mess as well, reminding me very much of a D&D character I once played who was an elf paladin but basically had Rusty's personality and intellect.
This is Black's story, and IBT's and Father Squid's and Stevens' (grudgingly) and the other cops and jokers' story. Or that's what I thought it was until all the aces dropped in, charming as their parts were on their own.
For all of its occasional faults and despite/because of its cheesiness, I enjoy the heck out of a good Wild Cards book and this one was one of the good ones. Oh, and as with Fort Freak, though George R. R. Martin's name is prominently on the cover (edited by) none of his writing is featured within. I respect the hustle. Everybody is trying to make that dollar. -
Not the strongest WC book. I wonder sometimes if some of the authors are writing their parts for a target audience of teenage boys - what else explains the way that their characters act? Thankfully the good parts are really good.
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While I think this installment was a slight improvement over Fort Freak, it fails to get a four star review for one reason, and the reason might be beyond editors George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass' control.
The ending obviously leads into the next book(actually probably two parts of the ending). Years ago Peter David commented, back when he was more active online, that publishers/editors were pretty much demanding a three book pitch before even considering serious discussion about a contract. Yet, I would think both the editor's own reputation, plus the series reasonable success, would have prevented such a three book requirement here.
Well, I'm going to say I'm wrong. Just like when the series was brought back with the American Hero/Committee/Africa trilogy now we have one that begins in Jokertown before taking us (the reader) across the world again.
The Carrie Vaughn and Ian Tregillis installments are the strongest both for their writing and characterization. I'm hopeful that both of these writers and their characters will return for the conclusion of this story. Enough plot points were left open for that to be a possibility.
As for some of the other characters Francis Xavier Black's portrayal seemed off by the end, and Stuntman's didn't quite it the mark. And neither did Kavitha's.
Don't misunderstand me. If you like prose super hero fiction I still believe this is the go-to series for you as a reader. It is just that I feel slightly cheated by not having the main story completed completed in this volume and it could have been. -
...Lowball is a solid entry into the Wild Cards series. I think it more or less delivers what established readers have come to expect from the series. Like pretty much all of the previous books in this series I've read, it doesn't entirely escape the problems that arise when so many writers work on a single project. The fact that it isn't the work of one author keeps showing and that doesn't always do the novel good. That being said, I thought Lowball was quite an entertaining read, with occasional flashes of very good writing. If you can forgive it the B-movie plot I think you could do worse than pick this one up. It left me hoping Martin and Tor aren't going to make us wait another three years for the next volume.
Full Random Comments review -
This was my second WIld Cards novel (the other being the first), so I can't compare it with any of the other 20 books in between-- if that must be a grain of salt with which to take this review, then do so. It was pretty enjoyable-- I particularly liked the integration of the sections into a single narrative, rather than presenting them as distinct stories. But I found it frustrating that the characters I thought most compelling-- the joker/truck hybrid, the police sketch artist whose drawings come to life-- more interesting than the characters who end up dominating the story. I know WC came first, but as with the first book, I can't help but compare it less than favorably with some of its heirs, most notably Astro City. Nevertheless, though, a fun read.
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This most recent Wild Cards novel centers almost exclusively on the characters and setting from the previous book, Fort Freak, the Jokertown police precinct, and ends with something of an annoying cliff-hanger. The series has always tended to alternate between multi-volume arcs that are more localized to New York and those that span the globe (and, back in the good old days, occasionally the galaxy), and Lowball is the middle volume of one such. My favorite part of this volume was Carrie Vaughn's nostalgic visit with the characters that were featured in the prior trilogy, the American Hero contestants who went on the form The Committee, and it was also good to know that Zelazny's Sleeper is still around after all these years.
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You simply can not enter a stream of 22 novels on #22 and hope to follow/like it, despite what flyleaf says. This seems to be a clever concept, but the fact remains that it is very clear that the novel is a series of sketches brought together with a common story line. Sometimes multiple authors work, sometimes not. I plan to circle back and try the first book in the series to see if suddenly this series clicks for me as the editors are first rate.
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From just after World War II forward, life is different on this Earth. The alien Wild Card virus introduced unimaginable changes, as those exposed to it either died (90%), became monsters of some kind (Jokers, 9%), or gained comic book superhero powers (Aces, 1%). World history changed from that point forward, as Earth struggled to deal with people with powers and the knowledge that there is inteligent life out there, and it's not necessarily friendly.
Jokertown is the section of New York City where the deformed tend to gather, and Fort Freak is the perpetually overwhelmed 5th Precinct that serves this area that most prefer not to think about. Now Jokers are going missing and not many really care enough to notice, let alone do something about it. An unlikely group of police, aces, and jokers slowly become involved as more and more vanish. Among those drawn into the case are the former reality tv star Stuntman, the powerful and near-invulnerable joker/ace Rustbelt, Jokertown's protector, the snake-man Infamous Black Tongue, parking enforcement officer Darcy (Don't call me a meter maid!), Otto Ghoul Gordon, coroner with secret hobby he prefers to keep hidden, Francis Xavier Black, nat (normal) officer among Jokers who draws ire from a recent promotion while trying to live up to his father's legend, and many more.
Who is behind the disappearances? Where are the Jokers going and what's happening to them? Does anyone care? Can the NYPD, SCARE (Special Committee for Ace Resources and Endeavors), and the powerful ace group from the UN known as the Committee actually manage to work together?
I really enjoy this series, and this is another great installment. My only complaints particularly are that many Wild Cards books have a listing of characters, which can be really useful, and this one doesn't. I also don't really love that the arguably heroic characters are either obviously kind of dumb or ridiculously naive.
Be warned, while I don't think
George RR Martin actually writes much of these at this point, his harshness to characters is definitely reflected here. If you want everyone to have a happy ending, this isn't the series for you. Me, I'm ordering the next one.
This is also one of the few, maybe only, Wild Cards novels I can recall ending in a cliffhanger. -
originally posted at:
http://thebookplank.blogspot.com/2014...
If you have been following this blog you know that I am a very big fan of the Wild Card series, I have reviewed already several books and short stories for the blog. When I read the story Joker's Wild I learned that later this year, November to be exact, a new addition would be released, Lowball. I have been counting down the days until it's release and it was well worth the wait. Wild Cards is such a cool universe to read and it has been strongly going on for 22 books already. And as I always say when I review a Wild Cards story, forget Marvel's superheroes, instead embrace those of Wild Cards, they have much more depth and development going on in their characters. These kind of story should be made into a movie, I know Michael Bay must be able to make this into a blockbuster.
In the Wild Cards series it must be noted that every three books there is a new sort of series. ALl the books are in relation to each other but every trilogy has a different storyline. Lowball is the second book in such a trilogy, a trilogy that started with Fort Freak. Now this story arc brought something new to the Wild Cards scene as before there was a heavy focus on the Aces and Jokers were described as horribale beings, with Fort Freak a light was cast on Jokertown, a safehaven for Jokers, though it wasn't all roses and sunshine as it is quite a dire setting in Jokertown. Again we follow several events in the manhattan jokertown precinct.
Even though Lowball is the second book in the series you can read this story very well without having read Fort Freak. Ok so what is the sory about? Several weird things have been happening in and around jokertown, most notable have been of yet unexplainable disappearances of several very jokers, and not just any jokers, but jokers with an impact. Since this is a case of high importance and the police isn't really doing much about it, Father Squid recruits the help of IBT, Infamous Black Tongue, also called by his real name Marcus, who is like a centaur except has a snake body, pretty awesome.But with weird and unexplainable evidence piling up it becomes more and more of a pressing matters and there is only one organization in the Wild Cards universe that is very well suited to help out with this. SCARE, which is an acronym for Special Committee for Ace Resources and Endeavors, think in the lines of the FBI or CIA but then all aces. Now there is one important player here whom, if you read the reboot series has made quite an impact, Jamal Norwood, who also goes by the handle of Stuntman. Jamal has the gift of a virtually indestructible body, able to "bounceback" after getting hit, he can survive everything. As the investigation furthers all parties involved start to make some startling conclusion that really turn around the storyline. It soon comes to show that there is something and someone big behind the disappearances that has a specific goal in mind. One great aspect of the books is that the story doesn't cave with being a second book in the series, the story is brought forward in the hands of some new and old characters, jokers and aces alike, creating a very cliffhanger moment in the end. When you finish Lowball you can only part with a feeling that everything that happened was being used to set something big in motion.
I already mentioned that there are new and old characters; jokers and aces that you meet along the way. Yes I have a few favorites so far in the series and to my surprise I found them back in the storyline, some Aces that featured in the first reboot trilogy and in the series American Hero make a nice entrance here. The premise of the story was solely based on Jokers but reading about Drummerboy, Stuntman, Earth Witch and Curveball. These I have gotten to know through and through in the earlier stories but they definitely left an impact and was great to see their involvement once over. Now there were also some characters I was less familiar with, like Father Squid, the Infamous Black Tongue, Marcus, and Eddie. From these all I really enjoyed reading Eddie's part, he is a weird guy, has deformities and is thereby limited in his movements. The only thing he does on a regular basis is use his powers to draw images on a sketch pad that he is able to call to life and be his ears and eyes, the latter being the most important part as it allows him to snoop around. Well there have been sightings of a peeping tom in Jokertown, so who could this be? As a kind of duality, Eddie is sometimes employed by the Jokertown Precintct as a sketch artist... now these things seem to start to interfere with each other. The other characters those of Father Squid and Marcus help to bring more insights into what is actually happening and this is far from pretty at all... ALl in all awesome characters, but come to think of it I wouldn't have thought otherwise.
Now one thing where I always give high praise is the connections of these Wild Cards books, it must be hard writing a book by yourself but having nine authors writing one story in a book, that must be a hard task but once again the stories really flow very nicely into each other making it feel like that just one author wrote them. Of course you can read that some author write differently but on the whole it's very good. I have been a big fan of David Anthony Durham's Acacia Trilogy and his story Those About to Die definitely left his marks, very glad to see that he joined the Wild Card Trust!
So far I have read a lot of action in the Wild Card series but this trilogy, which started in Fort Freak and continues in this book, Lowball shows a completely different side of the glamour that is accompanied with being an ace. This does coincide with the different stories, but I was impressed with the overall setting of the story that each author managed to bring to the forefront. Jokertown isn't a pretty place to live in and this become very obvious. Though the setting is very grim and bleak there is something strange, alluring and mysterious to Jokertown, must also be partially owed to the inhabitants.
Lowball for me is a winner through and through, I have been counting down the days until there would be another full length book released and I devoured it in one sitting. The characters are memorable and the setting of the story is continuing to give a certain uniqueness. Even though the series has been going on for twentytwo books so far, there is never a dull moment to be found. As I already said I am a bit tired of the Marvel adaptations but I just cannot get enough of the Wild Cards universe. High quality and should be on everyones reading list. Lowball does leave the series on a cliffhanger, and with everything that happened in this second book just somehow feels like there will an big conclusion waiting to unfold. Bring on the next please! -
It was difficult to finish Lowball. First of all, I didn't remember a lot of the characters that were supposed to be well known. That's on me. Second of all, a lot of pages were dedicated to the personal life of one or another, including family squabbles and marriage proposals and all that. I don't know about you, but myself I didn't need or want to read that. It made the book feel boring and lifeless. But the worse sin of the book was that it was unbalanced.
Melinda Snodgrass describes action that happens in the middle of Jokertown, a small area of New York populated with jokers, people affected by an alien virus that changed them into impotent ugly monsters, then extends it to the outskirts and eventually other countries, involving as hero characters: a local police officer, a SCARE agent, his old friends, local jokers who are slightly aces (aces have advantages conferred to them by the infection) and - did I mention - their significant others, mothers in law, etc. The scope keeps shifting from aces and law enforcement agencies that are paralyzed for no real reason to regular people who somehow do more than anybody else, from international intrigue to very local issues. Some of the stuff that happens bears no real relevance to the main plot.
The book eventually became a bit more focused and the action started to pick up. And when I was finally getting to the point where something was going to happen and closure was close, the book ended. What the hell happened? Not even an epilogue. Abruptly everything ends with a cliffhanger that you can't even understand and credits roll. The next part of the "triad" of books seems to be High Stakes. I will read it, too, because I want to read the Wild Cards books in their entirety, but to be honest, I don't think I even enjoyed Lowball. -
Disclaimer - this is only the second Wild Cards novel that I've read. I really enjoyed 'Fort Freak' but I didn't enjoy Lowball as much. I felt the stories and genre feel were more cohesive with 'Fort Freak'. In saying that, Lowball might be popular with long running readers of the series since it presumably is making references to characters and events that happened a long time ago. This book is also less focused on Jokertown. The action ranges to other counties, cities, countries and brings in the SCARE agency (which probably means more to existing readers).
There is an overarching story about the kidnappings in Jokertown but the range of characters and locations means it doesn't have as tight a feel. I was also a bit disappointed that some of the characters that were interesting (like the sketch artist and Lupo) drop off the radar while other characters like Michael & family are included for (an admittedly interesting) view on their sex & family life but not for substantial plot reasons. I also found Stuntman to be a really boring character and investigator (which is a shame since he ended up being pretty central). I did like Gordon the Ghoul getting his own story in this novel.
Unlike Fort Freak, Lowball is not a standalone novel and the 'ending' goes straight on to Highball. -
With so many authors and so many parallel story-lines, it's inevitable that you're going to prefer some parts over others. I was disappointed with Croyd Crenson's appearance. His small story really didn't need to be in the story as it didn't advance the plot or impact on the characters involved with him. It seems like he was shoehorned in so that one of the fan-favourites makes an appearance. Like Jube and Lupo, he doesn't seem to belong to this new Wild Cards universe so much as a flashback to the old stories.
Another thing that bothered me was that the gladiators seemed especially angry, as if they were being emotionally manipulated by an external source, but no revelation was forthcoming on that front. All-in-all a worthwhile read. I'm surprised it took me so long to finally pick it up, and also how long it took me to finish. -
Creative and fun with some great dialogue but too many characters and characteristics to keep straight. The Cry Wolf section by David D. Levine was one of my favourites and I would like to have read more about him. The other authors writing about Jamal, Franny, Marcus, Gordon, Michael .... were talented as well but I found I was being required to supply the continuity and I was too lazy to start a scratch pad of notes to do that. To be fair though, I would become frustrated with the tangents and lay it down but then be drawn back so perhaps if I had persevered and read it in a more continuous manner it would have rated higher.
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Not a bad book, but not a great follow up to the far superior Fort Freak. I didn't Michael and his harem then, and I don't like him now. IBT and Franny had good stuff. The finale picked up what was a bit of a slog earlier. I did wish the monster truck Joker had been used more. It definitely ended strongly. I hope it pays off in the third book of the trilogy within the Wild Cards series. I doubt it'll be strong enough to entice me to read more Wild Cards books.
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30 years later and the Wild Cards are still going strong. These are just as good as the originals, and I love the references to early stories. I hate seeing characters I know well die, but death is a part of life.
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Creative but many characters to take in.
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The unevenness of the writing in this one was, on balance, bad, but at least it was a quick read and ended on a cliffhanger
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Not sure what number this is in the Wild Cards series ... 22? 23? Over twenty anyhow. I've read most of them. They seem to come out in trilogies so I suspect this is the start of another threesome featuring the same group of central characters. Which isn't to say it's altogether free of prehistory.
I certainly remember DB (Drummer Boy), Curveball, Earth Witch, Rustbelt, Ghost and a couple of others from the unfortunate sequence based on Survivor or some such. Almost turned me off Wild Cards. Do seriously get tired of giggly, yet somehow ever so sensitive (melodramatic?, sanctimonious?) millennials giving each other hugs and kisses, spouting OMG every third sentence and basically being indistinguishable from one another, nor any of their other equally shallow, hollowed-out "friends".
Fortunately that doesn't happen as often as it did in the last threesome. Indeed, it mostly sticks to Carrie Vaughn's bottom of the foot contribution.
Yes. it's another ensemble piece in the form of a mosaic novel. Has contributions from at least six different writers, none of them named George RR Martin despite his top billing on the cover. Second billing goes to his longtime co-editor Melina Snodgrass, who does contribute a sequence that's copyright by Lumina Enterprises LLC.
Presumably they get together, draw up story ark then bring in Wild Card writers to flesh it out according to preset parameters. I'm guessing that it falls to Snodgrass to oversee the project, tying it together and filling in the inevitable gaps with her contribution to the whole enterprise, the ten-part "Galahad in Blue".
There's a great deal of yawn-inducing soap opera in this book. That may pass as character development these days but most of it just seems perfunctory, uninspired and not particularly relevant to the storyline. The Ghost character, for example, hardly does anything but what she does do, well ...
It's a shame about Ghost really. She only appears in one sequence, and then only as a secondary character, but she has lots of potential. How can you not be intrigued with a psychopathic preteen with nifty abilities and a thing for sharp blades.
Hers is arguably the best story in a not bad batch. One hopes Ian Tregillis, a writer I've appreciated previously, is holding out for a great whack of an upcoming installment featuring her. Too bad Rustbucket isn't the best lead, though he did good work in an earlier Wild Cards book, set in Africa, where-in he met and ending adopting Ghost.
Overall a bit of a police procedural set in Jokertown. Typically, in addition to incompent copes and their idiotic supervisors, that means guns, lots of them. Some of the writers come up with a few nicely grotesque Jokers with some decent ancillary talents. The pacing is lively and variations of a couple of the chase sequences will probably appear in the next Captain America or Batman movie.
Seems to me the Aces are mostly recycled, though. We've seen teleporters before, almost everywhere we go in the grim-dark, fantasy sub-genre these days. Plus, the shape-shifting, paranoiac Sleeper, Croyd Crenson, does a couple of cameos as a presumed tribute to Jack Kirby's Thing from Marvel's Fantastic Four. (Which for many started the whole superhero/supervillain bandwagon that my own Phantacea Mythos jumped on in 1977.)
Have to say I'm looking forward to what I assume will be two more books in this threesome. There's something very familiar about one of the unnamed characters who survives Lowball and if it's who I think it is I may have to go to the library for some some early Wild Card books as my collection has suffered from two many moves and trade-ins at the secondhand bookstore.
Three out five stars but nevertheless recommended if only for its promise of what's to come.
View all my reviews -
This is the second book in the Fort Freak triad of the Wild Cards series. It features a diverse cast of characters that are all loosely related by the overarching mystery of jokers rapidly going missing. The main characters mostly originate from Fort Freak and the American Hero/Committee trilogy. This novel really closely follows the tone and themes introduced in Fort Freak.
Reading this really changed the way I felt about Fort Freak. Fort Freak could have been a great stand alone and I honestly didn't know how they were going to expand that book into a trilogy. This book makes it clear that Fort Freak existed to help the reader bond with the important characters in this book and to introduce the main themes. With this outlook, I feel that Fort Freak was marginally less successful than I first thought, because I enjoyed that books plot more than I really connected to the characters that were brought back in this novel.
Anyway though, I was pretty darn engaged and the plot was pretty thoroughly interesting. I love the reintroduction of my fave Committee hero, Rustbelt. I loved the continuation of many of the personal stories that occurred in Fort Freak (Franny's ambitions, Michael's love life). Mostly though, I FREAKING LOVED the last sentence. I feel like the next book is gonna give us a Cabin in the Woods type of deal. So stoked.
4.5 stars -
There is little denying that Game of Thrones has made George R R Martin a household name. The books and the television show are massively, insanely popular and rightly so. I’ll admit that though I thoroughly enjoy my visits to Westeros, and all of its political machinations, I have always had more of a soft spot for Martin’s other magnum opus, the Wild Cards books. Since the late nineteen eighties, this ongoing series of mosaic novels, that Martin edits with Melinda M Snodgrass, has cleverly reinvented the superhero genre on a regular basis. Smart, often bitingly satirical and insightful, this series has managed to so many thing at once. It’s always impressive when genre fiction achieves that most difficult of tasks, to be both entertaining and topical in the same breath.
The Wild Cards novels, like the comic books they expertly play homage to, have had their own golden and silver age and are now we’re bang up to date in the twenty first century. As ever, the majority of the action takes place in New York, specifically on the streets of Jokertown, the one place where the less fortunate victims of the virus can live something close to a normal life. Slap bang in the middle of all this mayhem, the detectives of the local police precinct try to keep some extremely unusual residents under control.
Where Lowball excels, as with the other Wild Cards novels, is in telling the stories of ordinary people who are forced to live in most unusual of circumstances. It doesn’t matter if you’re a natural (untouched by the virus), an ace (a super-powered hero or villain), or a joker (those who don’t quite make the ace grade), each and every person has to get by in a world where the extraordinary can and does happen.
As multiple authors are involved in the book, each get the opportunity to write their own story and weave that into the larger narrative. It’s great stuff. There were are plethora of highlights scattered throughout that always raised a smile. It’s the little things that have always managed to set these novels apart in my opinion. Moments like discovering a joker who just happens to have the same name as my favourite band, or spotting references to jokers and aces from other novels in the series (Croyd Crenson and Carnifex for the win!). These unexpected Easter eggs are a delight to discover.
One word of warning, if you’ve never read a Wild Cards novel before this probably isn’t the place for you to start. Bare minimum, I would suggest that you read the first book in the series. It acts as the perfect introduction to this shared universe. Once you know the rules there are twenty one other novels, including Lowball, to devour. It really is worthwhile understanding the huge history and intricate backstories that so many talented authors have helped to craft.
There have been rumours of a Wild Card movie floating around for a while now. I’ve heard that Melinda M Snodgrass is directly involved, and that can only bode well. To say I am excited by the prospect of this may be the biggest understatement I have ever made. Moving the Wild Cards to the screen, big or small, could be truly wondrous. I’d love to see it happen. There are so many characters and stories, including the ones in this novel, which I would happily kill to see brought to life. -
So, way back in the 80's and 90's, there was a proliferation of books that were compilations of stories around a certain theme. There was Thieves' World, where all the stories took place in and around a town called Sanctuary (by the way, those at my D&D table: from Sanctuary comes the Vulgar Unicorn, but not the Horeshoe Road Inn; that one's all mine), and there was the Escape from Hell books that collected stories from famous evil people in Hell trying to get the hell out, so to speak. Wild Cards novels were novels in that same vein, but in the super hero genre. Folks, Wild Cards was Watchmen to me before I discovered Watchmen (just Wikipediad it and both series began about the same time). That is, Wild Cards looked at the human side of super heroes and showed them foibles and all.
So, a bit of background for the Wild Cards universe, just so you can understand it: It all began when Jet Boy fought the alien invaders over New York in the 40's and an alien virus was unleashed. The virus killed 90% of those with whom in came in contact. Of the remaining 10%, 90% were turned into hideous deformed creatures while 10% gained cool super powers. This wild card effect (called turning your card), therefore, turned people into Jokers or Aces (or you drew the Black Queen and were out of the game). There were a number of collections of short stories before the editors began piecing together a mosaic narrative. That is, the stories nowadays often feature multiple authors writing about their creations and the story fits together as a whole. There have been several mosaic novels out; this is the most recent.
In this story, we find that someone is abducting Jokers, but no one (save the Jokers themselves) cares. Enter Father Squid, the church presence in Jokertown (modern day Bronx, I believe) in New York. He pushes for an investigation and convinces Marcus (the Infamous Black Tongue--a Joker with a snake lower half and human upper half and a really long poisonous tongue) to help him look. At the same time, police officer Francis (Franny) Xavier Black is promoted to detective (way too early everyone in the department feels) and is given the case to investigate. Mainly because no other detective will touch it. Eventually, Infamous Black Tongue and Father Squid disappear, Detective Black hooks up with Jamal Norwood (the Stuntman because he can bounceback from injuries quickly--except in this novel he is sick with something that seems to have taken away his talent), a government agent, and the detective and agent actually beat some leads out of people. And then the story gets interesting...
I thought the story hung together well. Mr. Martin (who needs to put this up and work on the next book in the Song of Ice and Fire, dammit) and Ms. Snodgras did a superb job driving the authors in the same direction and keeping consistent characterization. And, I am sure the authors have had a few years of this, too, to get to know the characters and understand the story line. This is a good read, with enough background that you do not necessarily need to have read the previous books to pick up the main thread of what has happened in the past. This story is self-contained, so in order to understand it, you definitely do not need to have read the previous books. It will help, but is not absolutely necessary. -
The most recent volume in the *really* long-running GRRM series (and heavens but it's hilarious watching all the whiny, entitled little shits hating on these while they await Winds of Winter with such spectacular lack of grace). Also, the last one to come out before the news that Wild Cards is following ASoIaF to TV (news I learned just after I started reading Lowball). In many respects it would be a lot easier for said adaptation to start with the modern books than head back to the story's beginnings; this volume ties those modern books' threads together, being in many respects a straight sequel to Fort Freak's oddball procedural, yet also folding in some of the stars of the 'American Hero' triad.
Lowball's lead plot was slightly spoiled for me by having recently seen the blurb for the next book, High Stakes, which totally gives away the resolution of the main mystery here (why are Jokers, especially the tough ones, disappearing from the streets of New York?). Still, there are plenty of other plot strands to occupy the assorted cops, freaks and superpowers (categories which are by no means mutually exclusive), and the fun of these books has always been at least as much about the richness of the world and the roundedness of its people as it has been about the sometimes rickety frameworks off which the books hang. So yes, at times I knew what was coming (and not always just because of that spoiler - in other places it was simply telegraphed). In others, though, I was completely blindsided (the thread following the Michael, Kavitha and Minal romance was a particular emotional rollercoaster). And thank goodness I won't have my own Winds of Winter wait to find out what happens next, because the final cliffhanger is a doozy.
