Wild Cards

A collection of short stories taking place just after WWII in a world where an alien virus have killed or given superpowers to a great number of people. Some were left deformed and forced to live as outcasts to society.

The first story is about Jetboy, a young man who as the best pilot of his time. The story had air fights with WW2 planes, and focused on the drama of this post war hero that doesn't understand the world he came home to and doesn't car for his reputation. It was REALLY boring. No superpowers here.

The second story was about a teenager boy who got a different superpower every time he slept. It was almost interesting, but it had no exceptional elements to it. He had a family he needed to support, so he begin to steal things with his powers. He met a friend who help him to use his powers to get better loot. He wanted to attend to his sister wedding , but he was having a hard time containing his body to mutating again into a new super human. The end.

Just after I started the 3rd story I began to consider how much more of this I was willing to endure. I can stand a slow start if I expect thing to get better, but since this is a collection of short stories, there was bound to have more bad ones and some good ones. I wasn't willing to trudge trough this.

Read 3:20 / 18:59 : 18%

This is fun read! The structure of the book is basically several short stories written in the same universe, some even reference the same characters. The version I read is a Special version edition with some additional stories. I can only assume that GRRM's recent great successes have something to do with these new re-releases.It reads like a comic book. I don't read comic books, but if I did, this is how I imagine they would read. The stories are action-filled, with just enough characterization to give the reader a little intro. The basic story is about the Wild Cards virus that has infected Earth. Some people infected with the virus are Jokers (about 9/10ths of those infected). The Jokers are typically deformed in some manner or have a worthless special power. The other 10% of the infected are the lucky Aces. These Aces have strong special powers like super strength, ability to read minds, ability to levitate objects, etc. There are a lot of typical powers, but there are some unique ones, too.My two favorite stories were “Down Deep” by [a:Edward Bryant 70454 Edward Bryant http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-M-50x66.jpg] and [a:Leanne C. Harper 2924742 Leanne C. Harper http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] and also “Ghost Girl Takes Manhattan” by [a:Carrie Vaughn 8988 Carrie Vaughn http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1231952277p2/8988.jpg]. I was a bit put off by [a:Lewis Shiner 150432 Lewis Shiner http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235134206p2/150432.jpg]'s “The Long, Dark Night of Fortunato”, so I'm glad that wasn't the first story.