Wild Cards short

Woot!

One of my all time favorite series of books is Wild Cards, a massively sprawling series helmed by George R.R. Martin and including dozens of contributing authors that sets a high bar for "super hero" fiction. I was drawn into the series by its somewhat more practical approach to explaining why super powers exist - an alien-engineered virus, intended as a means by which to enhance the innate telepathic abilities of said aliens, was tested on humanity (near genetic match, with some hand waving). The initial dispersal happened over New York City back in the '50s, but the spores of the virus spread worldwide and continue to create random outbreaks from time to time. It's not contagious, but does re-write the genetic code of the afflicted as a recessive trait that can be passed on. When the Wild Card expresses in a person, there is a 90% likelihood of a very quick and ugly death ("drawing the Black Queen.") Of those who survive, 9 in 10 "draw a Joker" and are mutated in some usually unpleasant manner. The remaining few, the lucky 1%, draw an "Ace" and are gifted with some manner of super power.

On top of having a single origin source to avoid the multiple-origin implausibility that's prevalent in traditional super hero comics, the powers themselves tend to at least behave somewhat within the known laws of physics. Powers are mostly telepathic or telekinetic in origin, even if the actual expression of the powers is highly variable. Many powers seem to derive from the victim's subconscious, reflecting their personality in some way.

Oh, and there are very few "super heroes." Characters who try to fit the stereotype find that it doesn't work so well in the real world of litigious lawyers and paranoid politicians. Stories are often dark and gritty, the world has a new class of oppressed in the freakish Jokers, and events have lasting consequences.

All in all, I highly recommend the series, even if super heroes aren't usually your thing. Some of the older books are starting to get a new lease on life in reprints and digital. I guess Mr. Martin's success with a certain television show hasn't hurt the exposure to some of his other projects.

Anyway, that brings me back to the point of this post. I just stumbled across a new short story from one of the most prolific of the Wild Cards authors +Daniel Abraham . Looks like it just went up on Tor's site a couple days ago. Nice little read, giving a good insight into how things really are for public Aces. Oh, and it has some sweet cover art!

When We Were Heroes