Wild Cards
Edited by George R.R. Martin.
The alien virus arrived on Earth just after World War II – and the world was never the same. For those who become infected, three are two results: death, or transformation. And depending on the recipient, death is sometimes the preferable outcome. Only a few lucky ones become superhuman "aces" as a side effect of the virus; the rest are turned into horrible, gruesome "jokers." It's a strange and wonderful, terrible and terrifying world where anything can go. A world that, in a twist of fate, could lie just outside your door.
Contents:
- Prologue by George R. R. Martin
- Thirty Minutes Over Broadway! by Howard Waldrop
- The Sleeper by Roger Zelazny
- Witness by Walter Jon Williams
- Degradation Rites by Melinda M. Snodgrass
- Interlude One by George R. R. Martin
- Shell Games by George R. R. Martin
- Interlude Two by George R. R. Martin
- The Long, Dark Night of Fortunato by Lewis Shiner
- Transfigurations by Victor Milán
- Interlude Three by George R. R. Martin
- Down Deep by Edward Bryant and Leanne C. Harper
- Interlude Four by George R. R. Martin
- Strings by Stephen Leigh
- Interlude Five by George R. R. Martin
- Comes a Hunter by John J. Miller
- Epilogue: Third Generation by Lewis Shiner
- The Science of the Wild Card Virus: Excerpts from the Literature by Victor Milán
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born 1948 in Bayonne, New Jersey), is an American author and screenwriter of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. He majored from Norhwestern University in 1970.
Martin sold his first science fiction story in 1971 and has been writing professionally since then. He spent ten years in Hollywood as a writer-producer, working on various television series and feature films. In the mid ‘90s he returned to prose, his first love, and began work on his epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. He has been in the Seven Kingdoms ever since. Whenever he’s allowed to leave, he returns to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with lovely Parris, and two cats named Augustus and Caligula, who think they run the place.
Wild Cards
Into a world hungry for peace, comes a spaceship ferrying chaos...
An alien bomb is detonated above the planet, shedding an indiscriminate gene virus on an Earth barely recovered from the horrors of World War ll. The result: Wild Cards. ACES blessed with superhuman powers and JOKERS cursed with bizarre physical and mental disfigurements.
This is their story.
Wild Cards consists of thirty books — series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
