Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad (v. 4) [Paperback]

George Martin (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Wild Cards | Publication Date: August 27, 2002

When a group of SF's most imaginative writers discovered they shared a secret love of the larger-than-life heroes of the four-color comics and Saturday matinee serials, they gave each other a challenge: What would our world be like if these superhuman heroes and villains had been real flesh-and-blood men and women who lived through this century's most turbulent history? In Wild Cards 4: Aces Abroad, it's discovered that, though the Wild Cards virus burst into existence over New York City, the plague that followed was not confined to the United States. It spawned Aces and Jokers in every country on Earth. Now a fact-finding mission seeks the truth about how Wild Cards are treated in other nations. From the jungles of Haiti to the Great Wall of China and behind the Iron Curtain, the Wild Cards team investigates the fate of their fellows everywhere.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: I Books (August 27, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743452410
• ISBN-13: 978-0743452410
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,720,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An International Wild Card Novel, March 17, 2000

By 

Omer Belsky (Haifa, Israel) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Aces Abroad (Wild Cards, Book 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

Aces Abroad is exactly what the title says - American Aces going outside of the US. A delegation of Aces, Jokers, and Nats( all in a Boeing 747 names The Stacked Deck), goes abroad to see the situation of aces outside the US. They go to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe - in short, a 'round the world' tour. After three books that focused on the US, the much needed international perspective to the story was finally given. Perhaps the highlight of the books was the return of Greg Hartmann, masterfully written by Stephen Leigh. I really liked Leigh's Strings in the first Wild Card book, and his story here, is every bit as well written, and if it isn't as tense, that's a fault of the narration, not opf the author - but wait, we'll get there. Other things worth mentioning - for the first time we get a Joker perpective. Both the continous Journal of Xavier Desmond, and John Miller's story, have an Joker narrater(Des and chrytalis, respectively). We also get answers to several nagging questions - about the Huge Ape with the passion for Blonds, about Tachyon's past, and best of all - a little more information about the Envoy. Priceless. The average level of story telling was rather high. I thought there were only 1 stincker in that pack - Down in Dreamtime, a terrible story about Jack the Aligator Man's niece. I must admit I forgot her name. Ok, but what's wrong witht he books? The greatest complain is the lack of real plot. We get basically adventures. The Stacked Deck arrives at a country, bad stuff happends. then it arrives at a new country, and a new aqdvanture starts. There's little feeling of a continuous story, despite some attempts there. Especially bothering is the fact that at the end, all the stories seem to be about Terrorists. That was somewhat of an overkill. Tachyon, for one, becomes annoying. I won't spoil anything, but he turns out more and more annoying. Snodgrass writes a nice story about him, but I don't like the direction they're taking the character. A Final complaint is that George R R Martin doesn't write a story for the book, but only the journal of Desmond, which isn't good enough for a Martin fan like me. Overall, this is a strong volume. Not as strong as ACES HIGH, maybe, but stronger then JOKERS WILD and then WILD CARDS. If you like the wild Card series, this is a good addition.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hooray the W.H.O. tour!..., November 14, 2002

By 

"t_i_r" (Frederick, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad (v. 4) (Paperback)

I LOVED this book in the series, because it explores (for the first time) how Wild Cards affected the rest of the world. We get to travel along with a World Health Organization Fact-Finding Mission, charged with documenting the global affect of Wild Cards. And through their eyes, we get to see how cultures around the world changed and evolved as a result of the virus; I found that was really the final detail I needed to flesh out the Wild Cards universe in my head as a complete alternate reality. The Wild Cards were alive for me after the first three books, but after this one, they were talking to me. =;>

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the others, May 6, 2006

By 

mr sachmo (Carrollton, TX United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Wild Cards IV: Aces Abroad (v. 4) (Paperback)

I have to admit, I was looking forward to reading about how the wildcard virus affected the rest of the world, and I guess a fact finding tour is a decent way to work it into the universe, but the premise seemed forced. Maybe the authors intended it that way; or maybe I'm a bit to cynical, but it seems like there would be a more creative way to fit Hartman in with the rest of the wildcard supers.

I liked the ideas that the book seemed to be reaching for...but in most cases the writing seemed flat and the tie-ins between the episodes felt awkward as well. I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the Diamond entries.

What really interested me was the possibility of some of the storylines where they are not shoehorned into the world of Tachyon and company. The idea of a joker nation in central america and the Russian superagent seem like they could really take off if explored further. I'm hoping that they are in future books.