15 de septiembre de 1986, las calles de Nueva York bullen por la celebración del Día Wild Card, la fiesta que una vez al año recuerda la llegada del virus que daría origen a los Ases y los Jokers. Es una jornada de fuegos artificiales, desfiles y mítines políticos, y este año promete ser la más espectacular de todas. Pero en las sombras acecha un genio siniestro al que no le importa la fiesta. Al Astrónomo sólo le preocupa una cosa, la destrucción. Nueva York está a punto de presenciar el choque entre dos superfuerzas.

Rather than the collection of short stories found in [b:Wild Cards|147908|Wild Cards (Wild Cards, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375859477l/147908._SY75_.jpg|1807663] and [b:Aces High|67961|Aces High (Wild Cards, #2)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375859546l/67961._SY75_.jpg|1037829], [b:Jokers Wild|67955|Jokers Wild (Wild Cards, #3)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1304286902l/67955._SY75_.jpg|25805396] is instead a mosaic novel, with the storylines all mixed into a single novel length story, with less clear distinction between the characters and their storylines.

I'm ... not thrilled with it.

In the previous case, if you didn't like a particularly story, it wasn't long before you moved on to something completely different. Here, it just keeps coming back again and again. Particularly when Jokers Wild primarily deals with Fortunato/Astronomer and the Egyptian Masons, which I've mentioned before wasn't my favorite plotline.

Really, there wasn't much that I cared overmuch about in this book. Seeing Bagabond's dealings with the animal and human worlds was interesting enough. Wraith remains a ridiculous character (a cat burglar who can phase through walls--but only when nearly naked), but her story was fairly interesting. And Hiram Worchester has a lot of potential. So there's something going for it.

Still. I'm hoping for more in [b:Aces Abroad|984792|Aces Abroad (Wild Cards, #4)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375859628l/984792._SY75_.jpg|970287]. ( )

Very good. Definitely the best of the 3 i've read so far. It flows nicely from one chapter to another, which incidentally are hours of the day, since this is set over a 24 hour period.

I wasn't sure i was going to continue with the rest of the series after reading the first two books, but this has me wanting to read on now.

Very enjoyable.
( )

A raíz de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, el virus alienígena Wild Card devasta la Tierra. Los sobrevivientes se convirtieron en metahumanos: Jokers, seres con deformidades físicas y habilidades inusuales, siempre marginados y acosados, o Ases, hombres y mujeres de apariencia humana normal que desarrollan el don de volar, leer las mentes de los demás y la capacidad de caminar a través de las paredes, cambiar de forma a voluntad, volverse invisible e incluso detener el tiempo. Pronto la mafia y las grandes potencias compiten para cazar y apoderarse

Hee! In case you missed my recent post on the Wild Cards books, they’re a shared-world superhero series that is well-written, mostly holds up to modern eyes, and utterly bonkers. This installment is no exception, and as enjoyable a read as the rest of ‘em. There’s an assassination plot, a missing girl, a fermenting gang war, a bit of romance, some soul-searching, a stolen journal, an elaborate dinner… and the way all the stories weave through each other, intersect, and affect each other is beautiful. There are some elements that haven’t aged well or (hopefully) wouldn’t happen nowadays—the “sorcerer-pimp”, the cat burglar who spends most of the story in a bikini because reasons, the word “Oriental”—but there are also elements that are fairly progressive, like characters where “gay” is a footnote, mention of the AIDS crisis, and non-sexualized sex workers. George R.R. Martin and his fellow writers were clearly aiming to capture 1986 while thinking ahead to future audiences, and I think they’ve succeeded. This was fun!

(Yes, I read this because of the Book Discussion Challenge.)

(Yes, the original covers for this series are awful. The new covers are great, except for when they’re not. Note that I didn’t post the new cover for this one.)

7/10 ( )