Aces High

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
3.5 stars

Aces High is the second volume of George R.R. Martin�??s long-running WILD CARDS anthology. In the first volume, Wild Cards, we learned how aliens from the planet Takis decided to test their new virus by using humans as their guinea pigs. In the 1960s, they let loose what has now become known as the Wild Card virus on Manhattan. Much of the world population died and many of the survivors became grossly deformed and are now referred to as ƒ??Jokers.ƒ? A much smaller proportion of those who were infected gained one or more superpowers and are now known as ƒ??Aces.ƒ? In Wild Cards, we followed several Aces and Jokers as they dealt not only with their new status in life, show more but also with the social and political events of the 1960s.

Aces High, which is named after the upscale restaurant at the top of the Empire State Building that caters to Aces, is set in the early 1980s. The Wild Card virus continues to exert its effects on the Earth, regularly producing malformed Jokers and occasionally creating a new Ace. One thing that makes this series so interesting is that the Wild Card virus mixes with each individualƒ??s unique DNA, resulting in a completely different species of Joker and Ace each time it strikes. I donƒ??t really believe that this is how an alien virus would manifest (thereƒ??s just not enough diversity in the human genome), but thereƒ??s always something fresh and new in WILD CARDS ƒ?? itƒ??s not constrained by the character types laid down at the beginning of the series.

This installment contains stories by Lewis Shiner, George R.R. Martin, Walter Jon Williams, Roger Zelazny, Walton Simons, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Victor Mil?­n, Pat Cadigan, and John J. Miller. Amazingly ƒ?? and this is another thing that makes WILD CARDS work so well ƒ?? though itƒ??s an anthology, Aces High reads like a novel written by one author. This is a testament to Martinƒ??s excellent editorial skills, Iƒ??m sure. For one thing, all of the stories are written in a similar style ƒ?? theyƒ??re all fast-paced, focused on character and action, and have similar amounts of description and dialogue. A couple of the stories are divided into several parts that appear as interludes between the other stories, making it feel like a novel with chapters from different points of view. But more importantly, every story fits snugly in its place and refers to characters and events in the other stories, always getting the other storiesƒ?? particulars correct but never repeating anything in a clumsily obvious attempt to show that theyƒ??re connected. I envision Martin taking all of these individual stories and adding in these clever little details to make it flow so smoothly. The end result is brilliant.

This time the Aces are dealing with an Egyptian Masonic Temple and the Swarm aliens they want to bring to Earth. Meanwhile, Dr. Tachyonƒ??s relatives have tracked him down and want him to come home. Then thereƒ??s the crazy old bag lady whoƒ??s carrying around a Singularity Shifter in her bag. All of these threads are eventually weaved together.

Some of the characters in Aces High are ones we met in the first volume: Fortunato the pimp, Croyd Crenson the sleeper (who is now considered and Ace rather than a Joker), the Magnificent Turtle, Dr. Mark Meadows (Captain Trips) and Yeoman. Weƒ??re introduced in this installment to Jube the Walrus, the paperboy who is really an alien; Modular Man, the sensitive robot who has a conscience (heƒ??s one of my favorites); Demise, who can kill people by staring at them; The Astronomer, the evil guy who runs the Masonic Temple; Water Lily, who can suck all the water out of a human body; and Kafka who, as his name implies, has metamorphed into a giant cockroach. Though most of the villains in Aces High are comically two-dimensional (the whole series has a superhero comic strip vibe), the stories themselves are unique and exciting and thereƒ??s even a couple of touching love stories for the tender-hearted reader.

I listened to Brilliance Audioƒ??s version of Aces High, read by Luke Daniels. That last phrase, ƒ??Read by Luke Daniels,ƒ? should be Enough Said for anyone whoƒ??s listened to him before. Heƒ??s flawless and entertaining as always. show less

Volume 2 of the extensive and long running shared universe Wild Cards series. We mostly have the same authors as volume 1, and *most* of the characters made at least some appearance in volume 1 no matter how small, though there are a few new characters.
Volume 2 takes place entirely within the 80s, mostly divorced from real world events at the time, which I think the book suffers for to some extent. Social commentary is one of the strong suits of alternate history, and of the first volume. Volume 2 also diverges in that it tries to focus on a single over-arching plot across the various short stories by different authors. In fact, it tries to focus on more than one single, over-arching plot, which again is a bit of a detriment. We have a show more big bad in the form of Dr. Tachyon's people coming back to earth, but wait, that's not really the big bad...we have a masonic cult!...but that's not really the big bad, they're just trying to call down their god to ravage the earth who is in fact...another alien species (think starship troopers bugs or starcraft zerg)!...but wait there's also a whole bunch of alien races who actually tried to engineer the situation from a few hundred years back...Interspersed with smaller scale bad guys and situations that while typically more interesting all somehow end up connected to aforementioned big bad. Its...tiresome. There's also a bit of a red herring in the form of a black sphere that features in what initially is a pretty amusing series of almost slapstick comedy-of-errors sequences but which also becomes tiresome as it keeps coming back up throughout the book.
The smaller scale stories, when divorced from the over-arching plot, are easily the most interesting, with the most character development. There's some great stuff with the Turtle and Croyd. It was fun learning more about some barely mentioned characters from volume 1. Even the material expanding on the Takisians and the Walrus was satisfying and expanded the world. But the book either needed to *less* focused and give us more snapshots of the world, or *more* focused and lose the bizarre and overly intricate plot. The stuff with the masonic cult was especially repetitive, unengaging, and frustrating. The book was slow to start because of this, as it felt like it was desperately trying to pull together disparate threads in an ineffective way, it almost lost me 25% in.
If I find subsequent volumes cheap in the wild like I did the first 2, I'll keep reading, but I desperately hope they don't involve the stupid Egyptian/Masonic cult. show less

...I guess this volume signals change for the reader. It exchanges some variety and distinctness found in the first volume for a more solid story arc in the second. I don't think the series would have lasted twenty-five years and produced twenty-one volumes (I understand there is a twenty-second in the works continuing the Fort Freak story line). It also shifts the focus a bit from the Aces and Jokers to the various alien races that inhabit the Wild cards universe. Maybe doing both at once is a bit too much of a good thing but who can resits a dose of horrific extraterrestrials, superheroes who are both tragic and heroic (and never end up with the girl) and some fine over the top fighting scenes to keep the adrenaline going? Aces High show more is both massively entertaining and a solid foundation for the rest of the series. I can't wait for the reissue of the third volume: Jokers Wild.

Full Random Comments review show less

Where [b:Wild Cards|147908|Wild Cards (Wild Cards, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375859477l/147908._SY75_.jpg|1807663] introduced the setting and spanned decades dealing with the introduction of the wild card virus and how the world diverged from our own, [b:Aces High|67961|Aces High (Wild Cards, #2)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375859546l/67961._SY75_.jpg|1037829] feels a lot more focused, dealing primarily with two plot lines: the arrival of an alien 'swarm mother' (a hive mind/bio ship intent on eating planets, as one does) and the Masonic conspiracy we first got a glimpse of in Fortunato's introduction.

The show more story starts out a bit rough. I don't really care for the Mason/Fortunato's plotline. But the swarm stuff is pretty cool and there are a number of fun new characters along with expanded worldbuilding. I like the additional focus. It makes me wonder/expect if each book will have a single topic or two to focus around.

Individual thoughts:

Pennies From Hell: As mentioned, I don't care as much for this storyline. It's rather sexually explicit, which is certainly a way to introduce the book, but given that it's Fortunato, that's not unexpected. Turns out he has quite a bit of firepower...

Jube: Jube is actually spread over a number of interludes between the other stories and follows the story of Jube the Walrus--thought by most to be a joker that happens to look like a walrus, but actually a fair bit more. It's structurally neat to see him interact with the others throughout the book and the audiobook narrator really has fun with his voice, bringing him to life.

Unto the Sixth Generation: Wouldn't be much of a super hero story without an android learning to be human. Introducing Modular Man! It has the feel of a well known story, but done well.

Ashes to Ashes: Jude and the Sleeper! The Sleeper is hired to retrieve a body from a morgue and things go from bad to bathtub. Gross. So gross. But a good story.

If Looks Could Kill: Spector has a weird power (killing by locking gaze and showing his victim how he died) and more about the Masons. It's interesting having someone with powerful regenerative abilities but not making that the focus of their character.

Winter's Chill: The Great and Powerful Turtle remains one of my favorite characters. This time around, we look rather more into his past and how he keeps his Turtle life and 'normal' life separate.

Relative Difficulties: Given how much trouble the Takisians have caused, it's interesting to get a bit more of them. Especially when Dr. Tachyon's birth family comes causing trouble for his adopted family (Earth).

With a Little Help From His Friends: Captain Trips is a fascinating character and has grown a lot since his first introduction, even if he doesn't recognize it. Looking into multiple personalities through the lens of superpowers (with each personality having its own) has been done before, but it's almost always an interesting story.

By Lost Ways: More Masons. Water Lily has a bizarre but probably more powerful than anyone realizes ability, which will be neat.

Mr. Koyama's Comet: All he wanted to do was put his name on a comet. Instead, he discovered a swarm coming to destroy the Earth... and may have saved us all in the process? Sure.

Half Past Dead: End of the book, have to get rid of at least one of the plot lines. Wish it was the Masons instead. :) It's interesting how often cancer seems to be turned into a super power in various forms (a la [b:Lilith's Brood|60926|Lilith's Brood (Xenogenesis, #1-3)|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1439247785l/60926._SY75_.jpg|3739] recently for me). show less

More Wild Cards! I actually enjoyed this a little more, because I found the hardcore McCarthyism that the first volume was written around both distasteful, which was the point, and tedious, which probably wasn't. The alien invasion was not really as interesting as the surrounding social commentary, but at least it kept people busy for a while.

I've been skeptical about this series because of its promotion as a "Super-hero" series. However, that's not really the case. This book, and the first one in the series is about contact with aliens. And that contact is presented in a fairly intelligent way. This second book in the series is not great, but it is a worthwhile read. The story line is surprisingly interesting and coherent, especially considering that the chapters are written by different authors, George R.R. Martin's editing is superb. I'm impressed.

This was pretty good, not quite a 4. Again it was short stories, but much more tightly bound together over the course of the book. There were several definite objectives that went through each story. Very well done. Several new characters were also introduced, but one of my favorites is Cap'n Tripps. Croyd also makes several short appearances. Lots of fun.