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Ace in the Hole by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book makes up for volume 5 of the series. It's storyline is like a tragedy, and not everybody gets to live happily ever after. It's set during the Democratic Convention in Atlanta in '88, where Senator Hartmann is trying to win the nomination against the far right candidate Reverend Barnett.
The chickens come home to roost, as the histories of all the biggest players in the series come barrelling down out of history and demand their due, while the aces and jokers desperately try to get the right candidate nominated. Hartmann's secret slowly gets out, and as he rallies his forces the body count - and the tears - mount.
A gripping book that reads almost like a political thriller, this may be the best of the series.
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Down and Dirty by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A lot of people think this is where the series starts to noticeably weaken, but I still liked it a lot. The stories weave around a gang war between the Shadow Fists and the mafia. Some of the characters and situations seemed a bit contrived - a mafia princess working as an assistant DA in NYC, and nobody knows about it? But, that's the sort of thing you put up with when you read pulp. Another issue I have with this book is there wasn't any real transcendence for many of the aces and jokers we've come to know and love, this book's main characters are nats who are using wild cards for their own ends. I like the new ace, Wraith, and I hope she has more appearances in the rest of the series.
In all honesty, I'm writing this review a couple of weeks after I finished the book, so I can't really go into any details. In retrospect, it feels like it's less about the wild cards and more of a gangwar thriller with some superpowers thrown in. There were lots of characters, perhaps more than we've seen in the other books, but nobody really gets an indepth treatment of their inner life. I felt that was disappointing, I was hoping Jack and Bagabond would have a chance to tell more of their story.
In a series this long, there always has to be some volumes that are a bit weaker than the rest, but that doesn't necessarily take away from the series. This book is an example of that phenomena.
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Aces Abroad by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The fourth installment of the Wild Cards series, and another great book. The premise of this book is the WHO sponsors a fact-finding jaunt around the globe to examine the status and needs of victims of the Wild Card virus around the world. Naturally, the people selected for the trip are all our favorite characters from the first three books. This is an excellent vehicle for each character to have a ministory within a sparse metaplot.
The book plays out as each character has a crisis of some sort somewhere on the trip - which, in true pulpy fashion, is neatly tied up just in time for the junket to get back on board their plane and head to their next destination. There is a bit of a metaplot, and there are some clearly loose ends that will undoubtedly show up in later books, but perhaps moreso than in the previous three volumes, each story works as a standalone.
Also, this is the first volume that feels very dated. The series was published in 1988, and it really shows. Maybe it's my own nostalgia, but it definitely captures the grim feeling and political dystopia of the eighties. Perhaps this is because so much has changed in the last thirty years in some of the places they visit that the differences are more vivid.
Also, I noticed for the first time in this book that none of the characters' powers affect technology at all. Computers are mentioned a few times, but only to indicate wealth and status. Again, that's probably something that only stands out to an old nerd like me.
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