High Stakes

Not, to my mind, one of the strongest entries in the normally high quality Wild Cards series. It's the third part of the ‘Fort Freak' triad, following on directly from the end of the second volume in that set and, as usual for the third volume in a WC triad, a tightly woven mosaic novel, rather than a collection of short stories. At any rate, it won't make sense without the preceding book, Lowball.

That's not really the problem, though, especially since the preceding two books were quite good. Rather, there are two issues. For one, the editing is weaker than usual, with a number of contradictions in the book that don't seem to have been caught, despite some of them being quite glaring. This really doesn't help, and, if you're going to do a mosaic novel, it's the sort of thing you really need to get right (and WC normally does).

Then there's the tone. This is horror, as the Committee, among other characters, face off against Lovecraftian monsters. But, unlike Lovecraft, we get gore and plenty of it, much of it seemingly for the sake of it, until long after it loses any ability to shock or horrify. It's quite simply overdone, and, while the book does pick up at the end and build to a dramatic climax, it drags a bit on the way there.

It's not terrible, and there are a number of good points within it, but neither does it live up to the promise of its predecessors.