Wild Cards I

Wild Cards, Book 1

By: George R. R. Martin - editor

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 18 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

In the aftermath of WWII, an alien virus struck the Earth, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Originally published in 1987, the newly expanded saga contains additional original stories by eminent writers.

©1986, 2010 George R.R. Martin (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

10 out of ten for style...

With a cast of writers such as W J Williams and the late, great Roger Zelazny (who is NOT listed as an author, though his character Croyd Crieghton (sp?) is one of the best), this is a great anthology by great science fiction authors in the tradition of great "comic books." Good work, and I look forward to the next three chapters.
"If it's Demise, Don't look in his eyes..."
Enjoy.

Not what I had expected...

Would you try another book from the authors and/or Luke Daniels?

No

What do you think your next listen will be?

Anything by Diana Gabaldon

Do you think Wild Cards I needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Only if you are into SciFi.

Any additional comments?

I only could get through about 2/3 of the stories--too much repetition and too unbelievable!
Wish I could trade this book for another that I really want.

A collection of stories

A collection of stories has stronger stories and worse stories.

This one has an awesome frame story and strong in-between moments written by the guy that wrote Game of Thrones.

It is a strong collection in my opinion because it is alternative historical fiction with a fantasy bent. As an alternative history, it's very interesting. Plus, I can't resist professionally written transformation stories. They're my favorite.

Excellent narration, average stories.

Setting but nothing thematic connects the stories within. This was a little jarring. Also about one in three of the stories within were bad.

Surprisingly TERRIBLE

Ugh and Ugh again. Reads like stream of consciousness with a terrible attempt to create a credible story. But it fails miserably.

George Martin ...good story , terrible politics

This books political undertones were very disturbing and offensive...
The ONLY reason im NO longer buying any more Martin literature....its a shame because hes rather as gifted literature wise as he is absolutely moronic politically.
Examples ABOUND!!

This book kept referring to Mccarthy and his types as " facists" ..
If one were to except this premise... and group McCartney then with the likes of Mussolini and Hitler then
the self avowed communists / socialists(non violent communists) that the president was seeking to arrest or oust are actually NO different from those facists in the McCarthy administration. Socialists and communists are in essence Nazis themselves. The greatest commonality between Facists, Nazis and Socialists are ;
1) Centralized government authority
2) No freedoms for the individual above that of the movement(which pretty much means no rights..like freedom of speech, being secure regarding your own items, some measure or privacy, land owner ship, life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness not in common with the needs of the movement)

IN fact the Nazi party was actually and truly named the " National Socialist German Workers Party". Google it. So if Martin was trying to be remotely genuine, he would have at least stated that the McCarthy administration (which really only sought to remove communists from our American Constitutional Republican GOVERNMENT...

The reasoning behind Mccarthys actions, although extreme, are founded in solid logic.

ONE CANNOT be communist and simultaneously or legitimately raise their right hand and honestly pledge to abide by and protect the constitution as all legal officers must do as part of a conditional oath to serve.

In other words .. a legal agent of our American style constitutional Republic CANNOT in good faith both support and pledge to defend a constitution that gurantees God-given unalienable rights to its citizens, when
NO Communist, Socialist, or Fascist (once again all pretty much the same government centric systems) society know to history or mankind has ever held to any set of rules or rights for its citizens... as unremovable or unalienable.
In fact by definition a constitutional republic is as diametrically opposed to central government as you can pretty much get.
If you dont believe me research Maos China, Stalins Russia, Mussolinis Italy, and see where you find rights for any of its citizens, or any sort of barrier protecting citizens against government.
Youll find NO checks, No balances, No order, lawlessness, starvation, butchery, poverty,
and all around death.
Youll find dictators who ; legislate, execute the laws, create the laws, enrich and empower only themselves and their select few friends and family.... screwing everyone else in turn. Real republics (of which their are few in practice and many in name) have real representation based on population, and other factors ... as well as often not allowing concentration of power in any one person or branch of government...
since men are not angels, government is needed. Yet government is full of men...they also need to be policed themselves with rules and structures that promote decentralization of power.

George RR Martin please get yourself some philosophical education... Burke, Locke, Baron D' montesquieu ...

Please understand..as interesting as your books are ... they are only so because the ideologies that you are elaborate are so repulsive(fire and ice)...

That they highlight the ironic fact that good things can come from bad...
good characters such as Jon Snow can come from and are often created by institutions and terrible aristocratic societies as the game of thrones world.

ALL THAT YOUR MORE INTELLIGENT READERS ASK FOR IS ALITTLE INTELLECTUAL HONESTY ON YOUR PART
regarding your historical rendering of the past when you deem to engage in the elucidation of such.

Sometimes you draw an ace

You know the book. It’s been sitting in your Audible library for a long time. Maybe you got it on sale or maybe you meant to read it but you got distracted by another series and for got about it or maybe you can’t remember why you got it. But eventually, you get around to listening to it. And it totally surprises you in the best way possible. That’s this book. Recommended.

amazing book. how isn't this a TV series?

The story and reader were amazing. The audio quality however.... terrible. Still, that was easy to ignore.

3.5 stars

Some of the stories were great, others I had no idea what was going on.

A Brilliant, if Imperfect, Beginning

I love comics, I love superheroes, and now I love Wild Cards.

This novel is essentially a collection of short stories all taking place in the Wild Cards universe. Because this is an anthology written by multiple authors the stories within have varying levels of quality. But I still enjoyed all them even if I did enjoy some more than others.

Knowing some of the history about the book deeply improves the enjoyment of the read because it explains why this first novel is presented in the format it is. Originally, Martin and his fellow writers wanted a trilogy of superhero books based on their roleplaying sessions of the game Superworld, that would take place in the 1980's. They invited author Howard Waldrop to write a story for this trilogy and he agreed, saying he had wanted to write a story for some time that would fit into this universe. Thus the first story "Thirty Minutes Over Broadway!" was written.

But this story takes place in 1946! The Wild Cards novels would take place a whole 40 years later and surely a lot would happen in this gap of time. But Waldrop was firm on the time placement, stating to take it or leave it if they wanted his story in the novel. So it was taken and the first novel became not a superhero story about fighting villains or aliens, but an abridged history of the Wild Cards universe from 1946 to the early 80s. The move to make the first novel a history of the universe was used to set the stage for later novels, introduce some characters and plotlines to come, and provide bullet points of the history of early Wild Cards history in short story form. But the novel is still largely enjoyable and, even though I have yet to read the other yet, I would argue is essential to understand later novels in the series.