Series of
science fiction novels first published in 1986. All of the Wild Cards
novels are edited by
George R. R. Martin, but the authors vary from book to book. The Wild Card novels were a
shared-world anthology: each author created some characters and wrote a
chapter or two of the novel. Some of the authors who have written for the Wild Card books include:
Edward Bryant,
Pat Cadigan,
Michael Cassutt,
Chris Claremont,
Arthur Byron Cover,
Gail Gerstner-Miller,
Leanne C. Harper,
Stephen Leigh,
George R. R. Martin,
Victor Milan,
John J. Miller,
Laura J. Mixon,
Kevin Andrew Murphy,
Lewis Shiner,
Walton Simons,
Melinda M. Snodgrass,
Howard Waldrop,
Sage Walker,
Walter Jon Williams,
William F. Wu, and
Roger Zelazny.
Back in 1945, not long after the end of
World War II, an
alien xenovirus was released on Earth. The Wild Card virus was designed to
rewrite the human
genetic code, but it rarely did its job well. Of the people exposed to the virus, 90% died horribly -- melting into
puddles,
burning to death, turning to
stone, etc. This is called "drawing the
Black Queen". Of the
survivors, 90% of them were gruesomely
mutated -- turning into a
humanoid cockroach, growing
eyes all over, growing six feet taller without adding enough extra
muscle to allow you to move, producing
mucus from every
pore, etc. These survivors are called
Jokers, and they are almost universally
despised for their
deformities. The remaining 10% of the survivors are called
Aces -- they gain, for lack of a better word,
superpowers. They are treated better than the Jokers, but they are still not
trusted, because they have been genetically
tainted. Luckily, the virus is not
contagious -- the only ways to get it are to
stumble onto some of the leftover
spores of the virus or to be born to Wild Card parents, so most of the world's population has never been exposed to the Wild Card.
The world has a few comic-book elements in it -- some aces and jokers go out and fight
crime (or commit crimes). Some of them wear costumes when they do so. But for the most part, things are a lot like they are in the real world. There are awfully few
tolerant people in the world, and an awful lot of folks who hate and fear anything that is different from the
status quo. A lot of the jokers live in New York City's
Jokertown, a
slum with
corrupt and
indifferent police and not much in the way of city services. Lots of "
nats" (for "naturals") prowl around Jokertown, looking to either live the
wild life or find someone helpless they can beat up for fun. The Wild Card is a huge political issue, with
politicians proposing many solutions, from giving jokers and aces
equal rights to
forced sterilization to having all of them killed.
The Wild Card novels depict very
grim and
gritty superheroics. That means that even the most
heroic characters are seriously
flawed, all but the
vilest
villains are less than totally
evil, and as soon as you pick out a
favorite character, they're gonna get killed. Start reading from the first book, so you can enjoy the
fireworks...
Just a few of the many, many (many!) characters in the series are: