3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely dark and down in a solid series to date..., June 4, 2004
By far the grittiest and nasties book in this series so far. For the background, basically, around the time of WWII, an alien virus was let loose over New York, and spread around the world. Called the 'Wild Card' virus, the effects are quite random. Nine out of ten people draw the "black queen" and die. Of the survivors, nine out of ten draw a "joker" and end up deformed in some massive way. Of those one in a hundred survivors who draw neither, they might draw an "ace" (and basically end up with super-powers) or a "deuce" (and end up with not-so-super powers).
In this collection, a mafia vs. gangs war has broken out in 'Jokertown' where most of the deformed Jokers live, a ghetto in New York, and between the mafia, the gangs, the aces and jokers involved, things get ugly. There is also the continuation of two other plots - the sincerely disturbing Ti Malice, the hate-mongering Reverand Leo Barnett, and the hidden Ace Gregg Hartman, whose powers of manipulation are pulling him further and further towards presidency. The cast of characters are just as solid as ever, and I, for one, was very happy to see the return of the Turtle, my favourite character to date.
Solid stuff, with a nice ending that makes you twinge for the next in the series, which I shall order post haste...
'Nathan
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The very best Wild Card, so far, April 27, 2000
This review is from: Down and Dirty (Wild Cards, Book 5) (Mass Market Paperback)
Down and Dirty is, in my humble opinion and only so far, the best WILD CARDS book. To start with, it has the most impressive cast list: Pat Cadigan, Stephen Leigh, Melinda Snodgras, Walter Williams, the acclaimed Roger Zelazny AND my personal favorite, George R. R. Martin.
Mind you, not all is swell. We get an undesired cameback from Leanne Harper and edward Bryant. Any reasonable person who has read the series must learn to dread those two. Atleast we got rid of Lewis Shiner for this one, although I far prefer his Fortunato to the dreadful Bagabond and to Rosemarry and her straight out of a bad movie mobster friends.
So what did they have in plan for us? Well, the bad stories include newcomer's Cover tale of Leo Barnett or whatever his name is, the priest whose name in ACES ABROAD raised as many cries of outrage as McDonalds would in a French restaurant. The story is quite bad, and Barnett is an annoying type who is not the material of great villians. Harper's story isn't quite as bad as some of her other stuff, and Bryant resorrects Buddy Holly - yeah, that one. I'm a moderate Holly fun, and a big Rock fun, so I survived that story.
OK, now for the good stuff. A quarter of the book takes place between the end of Wild Cards 3: Jokers Wild, and the end of WC4: Aces High. While Tachy and company are abroad, the main plot line is of the gang war between Kien's bunch and Rosemary's mobsters.
One of the reasons this is such a great story is that it completely devided to stories: no less then 5 authors(Martin, Snodgras, Miller, Harper, and even, to my great surprise, Zelazny) - half of the contributers - devide their stories into sections.
The first quarter sees Rosemary's secret revealed (who cares?), and gives us great new insight to Croyd, the Sleeper. If the first Croyd story was tragic, and the second, Ashes to Ashes, comic - then this is about the dangerous side of Croyd Cressen, or as the the Aces Jingle( isn't that a cool idea?) goes: "sleeper waking, food taking/ sleeper speeding, people bleeding" We also see cameo appearences by Demise, Bludgeon( I thought he was dead), and later Golden boy( I wish he was dead).
In the second quarter, the aces return from their around the world trip, and we get some cute stories. Cadigan and Leigh follow stories from Aces Abraod. Cadigan tells us another tale fo Water Lily, focusing on Hiram Worchester, while Leigh continues the adventures of Kahina and puppetman. Leigh is one of my favorite WILD CARD authors, and if his piece here isn't as good as his previous one, its because he can't really push too much. The story involves Chrysalis discovering Puppetman's true identity, while he's running for presidancy.
In the last half, occuring all during one month, we see new plot line, introduced briefly earlier: a new version of the Wild Card virus. This allows for some of Snodgras's best story telling, as she writes her best story since Degredation Rites. Some plotlines I though were drearly, namely Tachyon's grandchild - seem to flurish under her capeable hand.
I still miss the enigma of Tachyon when he has been first introduced. I fear he has become too well known, lost his mystery. I would have liked some of the excitment back.
The two plotlines ar resolved in a rather nice, subdued fashion, that tells us that there will be consequences.
But let us not forget George R. R. Martin's All The Kings Horses. We have a return to the Great and Powerful Turtle - a return of sorts, at least, as Tuds goes through somewhat of a mid life crises. The turtle is an enormously difficult character to write for ( which is probably why Martin only wrote three stories abouthim so far) and Martin uses him to exploar realities of life - as well as the question 'What is it really like to be a superhero?'
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