Wild cards

Wild Cards is a series of science fiction short stories and novels by several American authors belonging to the superhero and alternate world history genre.

The starting point of the joint fictional universe of the series is the release of an alien virus over Manhattan in 1946 that kills 90% of its victims, draws nine percent with repulsive mutations (the "Joker") and gives one percent superpowers (the "Aces"). The series' narratives deal with the survivors, the confrontation with the aliens responsible for the virus, and the impact of the incident on world history. The action is mainly set in and around New York .

The series was started by a group of writers based in New Mexico and is edited primarily by George RR Martin . Since 1987, 21 anthology volumes and novels have been published by various publishers. Contributing authors include George RR Martin, Melinda Snodgrass , Roger Zelazny , Lewis Shiner , Walter Jon Williams , Pat Cadigan , Howard Waldrop , Leanne C. Harper , Chris Claremont , Victor Milán, and John J. Miller . The series describes some anthology volumes as "mosaic novels" because they cover a coherent plot from the perspective of several characters, told in the individual short stories by the various authors.

Books

The first twelve books were published by Bantam Books . The first six volumes of this were published by Heyne in German translation. Volumes 1, 2, 5 and 6 have each been split due to their size.

• Wild Cards (1987), short story anthology
  • Wild Cards 1 - Four Aces (1996) ISBN 978-3-453-10925-4
  • Wild Cards 2 - Aces and Jokers (1996) ISBN 978-3-453-10926-1
  • Wild Cards - The First Generation 1 - "Four Aces" (2016) ISBN 978-3-7645-3153-9

• Aces High (1987), short story anthology
  • Wild Cards 3 - aces high! (1996) ISBN 978-3-453-10934-6
  • Wild Cards 4 - Bad Cards (1996) ISBN 978-3-453-10942-1
  • Wild Cards - The First Generation 2 - "The Swarm" (5/2017) ISBN 978-3-7645-3171-3

• Jokers Wild (1987), short story anthology
  • Wild Cards 5 - Wilde Joker (1997) ISBN 978-3-453-11913-0
  • Wild Cards - The First Generation 3 - "The Astronomer" (11/2017) ISBN 978-3-7645-3178-2
• Aces Abroad (1988), short story anthology
  • Wild Cards 6 - Aces in Action (1997) ISBN 978-3-453-12665-7

• Down and Dirty (1988), short story anthology
  • Wild Cards 7 - Only the dead know Jokertown (1998) ISBN 978-3-453-13321-1
  • Wild Cards 8 - Concert for Sirens and Serotonin (1998) ISBN 978-3-453-14001-1

• Ace in the Hole (1990), short story anthology
  • Wild Cards 9 - Terror and Dr. Tachyon (1999) ISBN 978-3-453-14910-6
  • Wild Cards 10 - An Ace in the Hindquarters (1999) ISBN 978-3-453-15642-5
• Dead Man's Hand (1990), short story anthology
• One-Eyed Jacks (1991), short story anthology
• Jokertown Shuffle (1991), short story anthology
• Double Solitaire (1992), novel by Melinda Snodgrass
• Dealer's Choice (1992), Short Story Anthology
• Turn of the Cards (1993), novel by Victor Milán

Three more were published by Baen Books :

• Card Sharks (1993), short story anthology
• Marked Cards (1994), short story anthology
• Black Trump (1995), short story anthology

Then the series switched to the short-lived iBooks - Imprint :

• Deuces Down (2002), short story anthology
• Death Draws Five (2006), novel by John J. Miller

Then Tor Books took over the continuation of the series:

• Inside Straight (2008), novel
  • The game of games. Penhaligon, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-7645-3127-0 .
• Busted Flush (2008), short story anthology
  • The victory of the loser. Penhaligon, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-7645-3129-4 .
• Suicide Kings (2009), short story anthology
  • The highest stake. Penhaligon, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-7645-3130-0 .
• Fort Freak (2011), short story anthology
  • The Jokertown cops. Penhaligon, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-7645-3214-7 .
• Lowball (2014), short story anthology
  • The Gladiators of Jokertown Penhaligon, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-7645-3221-5 .
• High Stakes (2016), short story anthology
  • The witch of Jokertown. Penhaligon, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-7645-3222-2 .
• Three more books to be announced

Other media

Parts of the book series were adapted as a four-part comic mini-series in 1990 and published by Epic Comics , a Marvel imprint. They also appeared collectively in 1992 as Epic Comics: An Anthology . A second, six-part comic series based on a script by Daniel Abraham was released by Dabel Brothers Productions in 2008 and was reissued by Dynamite Comics in 2011 as George RR Martin's Wild Cards: The Hard Call .

The series was also converted to the pen and paper role-playing game format twice by John J. Miller . Initially, two GURPS source books appeared from 1989 onwards . In 2008 Green Ronin Publishing published the Wild Cards Campaign Setting as part of the Mutants & Masterminds series.

In October 2011, Syfy Films acquired the film and television rights to Wild Cards with the intention of realizing a feature film and possibly later a television series. Universal Cable Productions acquired the TV rights in 2016 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dabel Brother's announcement of details about the comic series
2. ↑ George RR Martin's Wild Cards: The Hard Call # 1 ( February 21, 2009 memento on the Internet Archive ), Newsarama , April 7, 2008
3. ↑ Staff: Review: GURPS Wild Cards . In: Space Gamer / Fantasy Gamer . No. 88.
4. ↑ Wild Cards Returns to Roleplaying ( Memento from November 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Bory's Kit: 'Game of Thrones' Author's Superhero Anthology 'Wild Cards' Headed to Big Screen , Hollywood Reporter , October 28, 2011
6. ^ "Another world from George RR Martin might be coming to television," The Verge, August 7, 2016

Web links

• Wild cards online
• WildCardsBooks.com - Series website from Tor Books
• Wild Cards Wiki on Wikia