Wild Cards: Deuces Down edited by George RR Martin
01/12/2002 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

Pub: iBooks. 324 page hardback. Price: £12.99 (UK), $23.00 (US) and $35.00 (CAN). ISBN: 0-7434-4505.

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Take a card. Any Wild Card as long as it's not any of the Aces or Jokers this time. Deuces are trumps.

Well, sort of, as some familiar faces turn up from time to time this time as well. After an absence of 7 years and 15 books spread through two publishers Stateside, the 'Wild Cards' mosaic series is back with another publisher.

When I first started reading this series over 15 years back, I thought the first book was good, the second better and I was applauding by the third. I was that way throughout the series from then on.

George RR Martin and various writers got together on Friday nights and from their chin-wags, concocted a super-being reality based on our reality. Each writer involved could have their own characters - separately copyrighted as I recall or at least, couldn't be used by other writers in the group without permission which amounts to the same thing - and tell their own adventures.

The turnover of books was something terrific.
An alien biological virus was deliberately let loose on Earth to test its effects with devastating consequences. For many it was a quick death.

For others, deformity and, sometimes, an unusual power who became known as Jokers. The Aces still had their human appearance but with extra-ordinary powers. Nats - from Naturals - were not affected by the virus.

Deuces? Well, it didn't see much of them in passing or at least not given stories of their own, were either Aces or Jokers who had silly powers. It transpired in the books of the original series that many of the powers were manifestations of people's thoughts.

With only seven authors involved here with half the pages of the original sized books, the full weight of the original run is hardly going to be felt yet and probably made a lot more sense to write about new characters.

This doesn't mean that there aren't any of the old characters: the Turtle, Croyd the Sleeper, Demise, Peregrine and Hiram Worcester all make appearances. Bradley Finn, the centaur trainee doctor, has a story of his own. The stories are dotted around the length of the original run's history although it shouldn't be difficult for any continuity joker to work out where.

To some extent, these stories could almost be regarded as detective stories. A problem arises in these characters' lives and then we follow the journey to resolve it. Since the Deuces have rather insignificant powers, it doesn't follow that they will be relying on them to resolve their personal problems.

The flavour of period piece comes out in many of the early stories and all characters are rather well dimensionalised. Some history elements that were never covered in the original series are covered.

In many respects, I see this book as a means to test the water. With many of the original authors busy with their own projects or tied to different publishers these days, I can't help feeling that there has to be a bit of convincing to bring them back in to bring events up-to-date since Hartmann's death in book 15.

If you were a follower of the original series, I think you'll want to read the book regardless. Unlike the first run of the original series, this is the first time that it's also been available through normal distributors in the UK even though it hasn't appeared on the High Street shelves yet.

Hopefully, the paperback version might even achieve this position. If it follows the trend of the original series, by the third in the new series, you'll be tracking down the earlier books which iBooks also appear to be reprinting as well.

GF Willmetts