Wild Cards V: Down and Dirty

By: George R.R. Martin

Narrated by: Raphael Sbarge, Sean Astin, Roy Dotrice, Lina Esco, Ray Porter, Scott Brick, Jake Weber, Adrian Paul, Felicia Day

Let the secret history of the world be told - of the alien virus that struck Earth after World War II and of the handful of the survivors who found they now possessed superhuman powers. Some were called Aces, endowed with powerful mental and physical prowess. The others were Jokers, tormented by bizarre mind or body disfigurements. Some served humanity. Others caused terror. And now, 40 years later, as a gang war between the Shadow Fists and the Mafia rages out of control in the streets of Jokertown, Aces and Jokers go underground - to wage their own war against the powers of the netherworld.

Here, in the fifth volume of the exciting series, 10 of science fiction's most gifted writers take listeners on a journey of wonder and excitement in an astounding alternate history.

Featuring the talents of John J. Miller, Roger Zelazny, Leanne C. Harper, Arthur Byron Cover, Melina C. Snodgrass, Edward Bryant, Stephen Leigh, Pat Cadigan, Walter Jon Williams, and George R. R. Martin.

Full cast of narrators includes: Erin Bennett, Yasmeen Barghouty, Jordan Prentice, Clancy Brown, Stephen McHattie, and Emily Rankin.

©2016 George R. R. Martin (P)2016 Random House Audio

A solid gritty story of a superhero fiction

Would you listen to Wild Cards V: Down and Dirty again? Why?

This is my second read.

What did you like best about this story?

The gang war is excellent and well constructed. There is a fictional concert involving Buddy Holly,U2, Bruce Springsteen, and a range of the other artists. That section is remarkably satisfying.

What three words best describe the narrators’s performance?

Largely pretty good

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

Any additional comments?

A couple of the Narrators were better than others, but overall I enjoyed it. This is not my favorite Wildcard book, but the parts that hit well are on par with the best of the series.

You won't regret it!!

These mosaic novels with their All Star casts are incredible, just makes you want to jump straight to the next one. You won't be disappointed.

is this the end?

I am sad that I don't see anymore audio books in the series. I have really enjoyed the adventures and hope to find out more about the story. loved it

The ideas were cool...

Yikes. Some writers are MUCH better than others, but to put the ones that suck right before or after the better ones made it much worse. Super cool concepts but just not quite there on the execution. And some of the narrators were painful to listen to.

A little herky jerky but still a fine listen

Book 5 moves the stories along nicely but Martin, admittedly, has editing issues. I fly thru it and really looking forward to book 6 wrapping up the main story lines.

Amazing Story

The story is great but the voices are not very good in this series. It seems to get better as you get through but can be really bad in parts.

fun read awesome price

keeps you fully engaged..too bad theres such general ill favored views of some politics here

Down and Dirty

Arguably one of the busiest novels in the series, introductions to new heroes and reminders of heroes past, a touch of social outrage and fear, complementing our current life experiences as of September 4th 2020. Relistening to the story struck me with many parallels to our own world, amazingly this was written in 1988.

Still disappointed...

Yep more politics, much of it not interesting which brings the storyline down. There are some of the same great narrators but some of the new ones are a big drop from the first 3 books a few were actually a big distraction for me. Will read VI but only because I feel like I have to.

Fragmented but good

Croyd is my favorite character, so more of him is always good. The physical fights between aces was awesome. The biggest con of listening to these is the lack of emotion from some of the female narrators. Overall, I like this book more than the last. Hurry up and make more of these books availible on audible!