Double Solitaire (Wild Cards, No. 10) [Mass Market Paperback]

Melinda Snodgrass (Author), George R. R. Martin (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1992

Fleeing the battle between the Jokers, Aces, and Nats, Blaise heads for the planet Takis in the body of Dr. Tachyon, leaving Tach trapped in the pregnant body of a teenage runaway.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Spectra (March 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553294938
• ISBN-13: 978-0553294934
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Eminently skippable, May 14, 2006

By 

Maserati Toadcheese "maseratitoadcheese" (Peoria, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Double Solitaire (Wild Cards, No. 10) (Mass Market Paperback)

It's odd, that with all of the great SF writers who took part in the Wild Cards series--editor George R.R. Martin, Chris Claremont, Walter Jon Williams, even the late, great Roger Zelazny--the two people who got to write entire books by themselves were the two most irritating writers in the entire series, Victor Milan and Melinda Snodgrass. Both writers are technically accomplished hacks whose characters and themes echo some of the most tired cliches of science fiction and fantasy fan-written stories, aka fanfic.

Snodgrass is probably best known for having been a writer and story editor on Star Trek: The Next Generation. After series creator Gene Roddenberry died, Snodgrass took the opportunity to insult Roddenberry's memory a couple of times in public, apparently because she disagreed with him about certain aspects of the characters. Based on the example of this book, keeping Snodgrass from ruining TNG was probably the second-best thing that Gene Roddenberry ever did.

Snodgrass seems to generally write in the manner of a bad fanfic author whose technical skill conceals, up to a point, her shoddy plotting and view of human interpersonal relations that is second only to John Norman's Gor books for sheer hideousness. Just to give you an idea of how bad her characterization is, let me tell you how the book starts out (not really a spoiler, since it's the basic premise of the book): Dr. Tachyon, an alien who is the central figure of the entire Wild Cards series, has had his mind transferred into the body of a young girl, following which he is savagely and repeatedly raped by his psychopathic grandson Blaise, who then steals Tachyon's living starship and goes off to conquer Tachyon's home planet of Takis. A pregnant Tachyon is going after Blaise to stop him--oh, did I mention that the fetus is telepathic? No, I'm not kidding, that's how the book starts out, and it gets worse as it goes along. You don't even want to know about the relationship between Tachyon and his evil cousin Zabb.

Amazingly, even after this book, Snodgrass was permitted to continue contributing to Wild Cards. Her later stories included a cute centaur who has sex with human women. Somewhere in fanspace, Ensign Mary Sue is beside herself with jealousy. I sure hope that John J. Miller's solo Wild Cards book is better than this.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Under rated pleasure!, March 30, 2005

By 

Paul T. Schultz Stachnik "ConstantC" (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Double Solitaire (Wild Cards, No. 10) (Mass Market Paperback)

I was almost scared off from reading this by other reviews. However, I did read it and enjoyed it. Finally, we see Takisian society and that other great space-faring society of which Jubal is a member. The character depictions were heartfelt and sincere. Dr. T is treated well this outing compared with the higher-rated previous novel. Everything wraps up nicely and we actually have a happy ending for one of my favorite characters-- Popinjay. This was a nice break from the bleak and depressing storyline that is developing back on Earth. I recommend this book.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WildCardsX one of the best in the series, February 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Double Solitaire (Wild Cards, No. 10) (Mass Market Paperback)

I think this book was one of the Best in the series. For once we get to actually see some of the characters work together and go through a whole book together.The Book holds to much information to understand the rest of the series to skip and is very good>>