Aces High
Edited by George R.R. Martin.
30 years later, the victims of the gene-altering "Wild Cards" virus face a new nightmare. From the far reaches of space comes The Swarm, a deadly menace that could very will destroy the planet. Aces and Jokers must form an uneasy alliance and prepare for a battle they must not lose. When a group of SF's most imaginative writers discovered they shared a secret love of the larger-than-life heroes of the four-colour comics and Saturday matinee serials, they gave each other a challenge: What would our world be like if these superhuman heroes and villains had been real flesh-and-blood men and women who lived through this century's most turbulent history?
In WILD CARDS 2, the year is 1970. The place is New York City, home of Aces High, the glamourous lounge atop the Empire State Building, and Jokertown, the squalid residence of the city's underclass. The victims of the Wild Card Virus are no longer new and strange, but neither are they accepted by a world that still fears them. But as the '80s dawn, all eyes are drwn to the skies, and the Wild Cards may be the planet's only hope, as an abomination called the Swarm arrives to threaten Earth.
Contents:
- Pennies from Hell by Lewis Shiner
- Jube: One by George R. R. Martin
- Unto the Sixth Generation: Prologue by Walter Jon Williams
- Jube: Two by George R. R. Martin
- Ashes to Ashes by Roger Zelazny
- Unto the Sixth Generation: Part One by Walter Jon Williams
- Unto the Sixth Generation: Part Two by Walter Jon Williams
- Jube: Three by George R. R. Martin
- If Looks Could Kill by Walton Simons
- Jube: Four by George R. R. Martin
- Unto the Sixth Generation: Epilogue by Walter Jon Williams
- Winter's Chill by George R. R. Martin
- Jube: Five by George R. R. Martin
- Relative Difficulties by Melinda M. Snodgrass
- With a Little Help From His Friends by Victor Milán
- Jube: Six by George R. R. Martin
- By Lost Ways by Pat Cadigan
- Mr. Koyama's Comet by Walter Jon Williams
- Half Past Dead by John J. Miller
- Jube: Seven by George R. R. Martin
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 twenty-nine books, and the series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
