Down and Dirty

I can not afford to go further back in the series but this is great I love the plot and the way that it expands and grows involving all these different people and even gives enough of a back story that new people like me can jump into the action and excitment.

Down and Dirty is down and dirty in a criminal sense. Apart from the continuing depredations of Puppetman and Ti Malice, there is a gang war on. This is between the mafia and an asian group. Bagabond and her friend Rosemary Muldoon, a lawyer with a secret identity as a mafioso leader, become intimately involved with their friend Sewer Jack, the werealligator. While Yeoman and the aforementioned deal with the gang situation, another Wild Card outbreak happens thanks to Croyd Crenson and one of his new forms. This version of the virus can affect even previous Wild Card victims, so an ace posse must try and stop him without killing him. Wild Cards 05 : 01 Only the Dead Know Jokertown - John J. Miller Wild Cards 05 : 02 All the King's Horses 1 - George R. R. Martin Wild Cards 05 : 03 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 1 - Roger Zelazny Wild Cards 05 : 04 Breakdown - Leanne C. Harper Wild Cards 05 : 05 All the King's Horses 2 - George R. R. Martin Wild Cards 05 : 06 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 2 - Roger Zelazny Wild Cards 05 : 07 Jesus Was an Ace - Arthur Byron Cover Wild Cards 05 : 08 All the King's Horses 3 - George R. R. Martin Wild Cards 05 : 09 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 3 - Roger Zelazny Wild Cards 05 : 10 All the King's Horses 4 - George R. R. Martin Wild Cards 05 : 11 Blood Ties 1 - Melinda M. Snodgrass Wild Cards 05 : 12 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 4 - Roger Zelazny Wild Cards 05 : 13 The Second Coming of Buddy Holley - Edward Bryant Wild Cards 05 : 14 Blood Ties 2 - Melinda M. Snodgrass Wild Cards 05 : 15 All the King's Horses 5 - George R. R. Martin Wild Cards 05 : 16 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 5 - Roger Zelazny Wild Cards 05 : 17 The Hue of a Mind - Stephen Leigh Wild Cards 05 : 18 Blood Ties 3 - Melinda M. Snodgrass Wild Cards 05 : 19 Addicted to Love - Pat Cadigan Wild Cards 05 : 20 Takedown - Leanne C. Harper Wild Cards 05 : 21 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 6 - Roger Zelazny Wild Cards 05 : 22 Blood Ties 4 - Melinda M. Snodgrass Wild Cards 05 : 23 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 7 - Roger Zelazny Wild Cards 05 : 24 Blood Ties 5 - Melinda M. Snodgrass Wild Cards 05 : 25 All the King's Horses 6 - George R. R. Martin Wild Cards 05 : 26 Mortality - Walter Jon Williams Wild Cards 05 : 27 Blood Ties 6 - Melinda M. Snodgrass Wild Cards 05 : 28 Concerto for Siren and Serotonin 8 - Roger Zelazny Wild Cards 05 : 29 What Rough Beast... - Leanne C. Harper Wild Cards 05 : 30 Only the Dead Know Jokertown Epilogue - John J. Miller Wild Cards 05 : 31 All the King's Horses 7 - George R. R. Martin

By far the grittiest and nasties book in this series so far. For the background, basically, around the time of WWII, an alien virus was let loose over New York, and spread around the world. Called the 'Wild Card' virus, the effects are quite random. Nine out of ten people draw the "black queen" and die. Of the survivors, nine out of ten draw a "joker" and end up deformed in some massive way. Of those one in a hundred survivors who draw neither, they might draw an "ace" (and basically end up with super-powers) or a "deuce" (and end up with not-so-super powers). In this collection, a mafia vs. gangs war has broken out in 'Jokertown' where most of the deformed Jokers live, a ghetto in New York, and between the mafia, the gangs, the aces and jokers involved, things get ugly. There is also the continuation of two other plots - the sincerely disturbing Ti Malice, the hate-mongering Reverand Leo Barnett, and the hidden Ace Gregg Hartman, whose powers of manipulation are pulling him further and further towards presidency. The cast of characters are just as solid as ever, and I, for one, was very happy to see the return of the Turtle, my favourite character to date. Solid stuff, with a nice ending that makes you twinge for the next in the series, which I shall order post haste... 'Nathan

The wild card series is awesome...the alien virus continues to spread adventure and despair thoughout our world. ...all i have to say is that Croyd Crenson is the coolest tough guy on the planet. He totally rampages in this book, Demise, The Gangs, other Aces, and even the general public arent safe from Croyd. The only person who he helps is himself (and snotman by accident) he is a bad dude and makes this book the best of the bunch!! In fact the first 8 books in this series rock, and so does number 11, (and anything in between with Croyd Crenson aka "The Sleeper") but the other ones kind of drag on....as a rule avoid The one written by Snodgrass like the Plauge...no scrap that...avoid it like the Wild Card Virus... Buy this book, The Sleeper rules (when he's awake) Relic113

Down and Dirty is, in my humble opinion and only so far, the best WILD CARDS book. To start with, it has the most impressive cast list: Pat Cadigan, Stephen Leigh, Melinda Snodgras, Walter Williams, the acclaimed Roger Zelazny AND my personal favorite, George R. R. Martin. Mind you, not all is swell. We get an undesired cameback from Leanne Harper and edward Bryant. Any reasonable person who has read the series must learn to dread those two. Atleast we got rid of Lewis Shiner for this one, although I far prefer his Fortunato to the dreadful Bagabond and to Rosemarry and her straight out of a bad movie mobster friends. So what did they have in plan for us? Well, the bad stories include newcomer's Cover tale of Leo Barnett or whatever his name is, the priest whose name in ACES ABROAD raised as many cries of outrage as McDonalds would in a French restaurant. The story is quite bad, and Barnett is an annoying type who is not the material of great villians. Harper's story isn't quite as bad as some of her other stuff, and Bryant resorrects Buddy Holly - yeah, that one. I'm a moderate Holly fun, and a big Rock fun, so I survived that story. OK, now for the good stuff. A quarter of the book takes place between the end of Wild Cards 3: Jokers Wild, and the end of WC4: Aces High. While Tachy and company are abroad, the main plot line is of the gang war between Kien's bunch and Rosemary's mobsters. One of the reasons this is such a great story is that it completely devided to stories: no less then 5 authors(Martin, Snodgras, Miller, Harper, and even, to my great surprise, Zelazny) - half of the contributers - devide their stories into sections.The first quarter sees Rosemary's secret revealed (who cares?), and gives us great new insight to Croyd, the Sleeper. If the first Croyd story was tragic, and the second, Ashes to Ashes, comic - then this is about the dangerous side of Croyd Cressen, or as the the Aces Jingle( isn't that a cool idea?) goes: "sleeper waking, food taking/ sleeper speeding, people bleeding" We also see cameo appearences by Demise, Bludgeon( I thought he was dead), and later Golden boy( I wish he was dead).In the second quarter, the aces return from their around the world trip, and we get some cute stories. Cadigan and Leigh follow stories from Aces Abraod. Cadigan tells us another tale fo Water Lily, focusing on Hiram Worchester, while Leigh continues the adventures of Kahina and puppetman. Leigh is one of my favorite WILD CARD authors, and if his piece here isn't as good as his previous one, its because he can't really push too much. The story involves Chrysalis discovering Puppetman's true identity, while he's running for presidancy. In the last half, occuring all during one month, we see new plot line, introduced briefly earlier: a new version of the Wild Card virus. This allows for some of Snodgras's best story telling, as she writes her best story since Degred