Wild Cards
- 493
- Pages
- about 9 h
- Reading time
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
Many hands, one inventive alternate history: “Wild Cards” opens the shared-world series as a mosaic of superhero stories. An alien virus loosed after the Second World War gives a few survivors extraordinary powers and others strange afflictions; writers including Roger Zelazny each take a piece of that timeline. Some readers find a few stories bland and feel the many voices dilute the effect; others are attached enough to this universe to keep going.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Back in print after a decade, expanded with new original material, this is the first volume of George R. R. Martin's Wild cards shared-world series There is a secret history of the world—a history in which an alien virus struck the Earth in the aftermath of World War II, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Some were called Aces—those with superhuman mental and physical abilities. Others were termed Jokers—cursed with bizarre mental or physical disabilities. Some turned their talents to the service of humanity. Others used their powers for evil. Wild Cards is their story. Originally published in 1987, Wild Cards I includes powerful tales by Roger Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, Howard Waldrop, Lewis Shiner, and George R. R. Martin himself. And this new, expanded edition contains further original tales set at the beginning of the Wild Cards universe, by eminent new writers like Hugo–winner David Levine, noted screenwriter and novelist Michael Cassutt, and New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.
Reading order · Wild Cards
Full order & progress →- Wild CardsThis book
7.47.4 / 10 - Aces HighStart here
–Not ranked yet - Jokers Wild
–Not ranked yet - Aces Abroad
–Not ranked yet - Down and DirtyDown and Dirty–Not ranked yet
- Ace in the Hole
–Not ranked yet - Dead Man's Hand
–Not ranked yet - One-Eyed Jacks
–Not ranked yet - Jokertown Shuffle
–Not ranked yet - The SleeperThe Sleeper–Not ranked yet
- Shell GamesShell Games–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.0 across 128 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 47% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.4 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.5 | 8 | 6% |
| Hardcover | 7.1 | 120 | 94% |
Frequently asked
How long is Wild Cards?
It has 493 pages — longer than 63% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.5, the closest to this book.
