Wild Cards

[Kalbear]

Among others, he was responsible for The Great and Powerful Turtle, who utterly rocks the hizzy.

The whole sewer Jack/bagabond story is about the dumbest sack of dumb to ever be filled with dumb. I hate that crap.

A lot of the other stuff is really interesting though. And book 3 is downright awesome in how everything works out. It's worth a read, though it's not totally consistently great. The good news is that you can just skip over the chapters that suck.

[mormont]

I've only read the first Wild Cards book only so far. I felt it was a bit mixed, there were a few very good stories, "Witness" and the GRRM story particularly, and some fairly average or mediocre stories (I particularly disliked the Fortunato story). I might read the other volumes sometime, but I'm not sure I'm really in any hurry to read them.

wjm: stick with Fortunato. His interaction with Tachyon later in the series is priceless. They can't stand each other, and it gives rise to some great scenes between them.

Space Bandito: GRRM created and mostly wrote the Great and Powerful Turtle, Popinjay, and Fatman (Hiram Worchester), mainly: but he created and/or wrote dozens more characters, co-created the whole universe with Melinda Snodgrass, wrote loads of 'bridging sections' linking the short stories such as in books 2 and 4, co-wrote a full-length WC novel with John J Miller (book 7), and recruited most of the contributors.

[Ran]

The first five have GRRM contributions, the seventh that Mormont mentions, and I believe Dealer's Choice and Black Trump do as well. We tried to put together a list here, with those bearing the note of "editor" meaning that we couldn't find that he contributed an actual story to it.

[Maltaran]

wjm: stick with Fortunato. His interaction with Tachyon later in the series is priceless. They can't stand each other, and it gives rise to some great scenes between them.

Space Bandito: GRRM created and mostly wrote the Great and Powerful Turtle, Popinjay, and Fatman (Hiram Worchester), mainly: but he created and/or wrote dozens more characters, co-created the whole universe with Melinda Snodgrass, wrote loads of 'bridging sections' linking the short stories such as in books 2 and 4, co-wrote a full-length WC novel with John J Miller (book 7), and recruited most of the contributors.

He did the sections with Jube the Walrus in Aces High? They were my favourite part of that book.

However, my favourite character so far is Croyd Crenson, who was, IIRC, a Roger Zelazny creation.

[Kalbear]

Croyd was Zelazny, that's true.

I'm a big fan of Carnifex and Popinjay. They rock. But pretty much everyone rocks here and there. Except for that god damn sewer jack/bagabond/walkabout crap. Shut up!

[mormont]

kal: funnily enough, Billy Ray was one of the characters I talked to John most about at Glasgow. He plays a big part in the new one, and we get his POV for about 20% of the book. Should be very interesting, from what John was saying.

[Kalbear]

Yeah, he mentioned that to me when we talked at the dinner. I'm very excited - Billy Ray rocked hard, and JJM writes him well.

Mostly, I just want to revisit the universe again and not in a silly vignette way.

[krill54]

Mostly, I just want to revisit the universe again and not in a silly vignette way.

Amen.

Perhaps it's selfish, but I would like to see it expanded out into another form of media - either a long-running comic book series, or an HBO original series... I like the variety of the vignettes, but I want each of the vignettes to have some serious substance.

[Gaollenaer]

I agree.

Wildcards rocks!

I am not so far that i tracked all the books down, I merely own the first six, as well as Deuces Down.

The last book isn't my favourite, though.

I found the story about the Horny Deuce rather funny, but it only went downhill from there.

My favourite Ace

..is Croyd.

I feel very sorry for him.

He has a decent talent, but its nature has thrown Croyd in a complete social dead-end.

Crime seems the only thing for him.

What kind of job can you keep when you're unable to turn up for work months at a time?

Afraid to go to sleep, he takes amphetamines by the dozens, which turn him into a raving maniac, which in turn makes other people shun him (obviously)... :cry:

Favourite Joker:

I haven't quite decided between Chrysalis (sp?) and Angelface.

It's just a thing I have about tragic women.

Des is nice as well.

Whose power I'd like to have:

Popinjay.

A saviour in any fight, that power.

[mormont]

Gaell: the problem after 6 is that they were never reprinted. If you're in the US, this is inconvenient because they're rarer, but they can be found. Anywhere else, it makes getting them harder (though, as I say, I had some help with that).

Anyway, my point was that as well as the deal for new books, there is a deal for reprints with the same publisher, but it's all up in the air at the moment, I understand, after a death in the publishing company.

[Sir Tiago]

Another great "series" by GRRM, actually it's a mini series is the Tuf stories, really good stuff

[JohnJMiller]

Ah -- I see that this was the Wild Card thread. Sorry to have satarted another one, but this one seemed kind of dead, anyway.

Anyway -- not to beat a dead thread too much, but if anyone has any questions on the series, I'll do the best I can to answer them. (Though you'll be dealing with a guy who put a dead character in the first draft of the new wild card novel. To be fair, though, I did eventually realize the mistake, whereas the character's creator didn't.)

Ah -- I see that this was the Wild Card thread. Sorry to have satarted another one, but this one seemed kind of dead, anyway.

Anyway -- not to beat a dead thread too much, but if anyone has any questions on the series, I'll do the best I can to answer them. (Though you'll be dealing with a guy who put a dead character in the first draft of the new wild card novel. To be fair, though, I did eventually realize the mistake, whereas the character's creator didn't.)

[Space Bandito]

Finally got the first two at a used book store so I can reread them when I get the chance. I have a few Martin-ites that I think I can trust that might like them as well. I think I will enjoy them now that I'm not 16. I'm in a reading frenzy becuase Hollywood is putting out crap for movies and Maine is cold.

[Mackaxx]

Got all the books up to the first or maybe the second story involving the rox. Its getting pretty fucking loopy.

That said, i still enjoy them, and, the one book the next cycle ones, was great.

WTF does one get them in australia though!!! Damn near impossible, unless i wan t to pay a stupid amount of money for amazon shipping, which is ridiculously expensive.

[JohnJMiller]

That said, i still enjoy them, and, the one book the next cycle ones, was great.

WTF does one get them in australia though!!! Damn near impossible, unless i wan t to pay a stupid amount of money for amazon shipping, which is ridiculously expensive.

I should mention that I have mulktiple copies of some of the books for sale at reasonable prices. Mostly stuff from the beginning of the run. The three Baen books are indeed fairly scarce, with the last in the series being the scarcest, goin gof about $20. However, a word to the wise. DEUCES DOWN will be the toughest volume to find in the future, so get it now if you can while it's cheap.

I hope that many more copies od DEATH DRAWS FIVE gets out into the world.

John J. Miller

[Quoth]

I really enjoyed this series as well, though as others have noted, there's ups and downs. This would make a kick ass animated series. I imagine, though, with so many authors involved, such a project would be a nightmare.

[Ran]

Hey, John.

Here's a question which I don't recall asking on the last iteration of the board ... a year or three ago, George mentioned some talks with the Sci-Fi Channel regarding the possibility of picking up Wild Cards as a series. I'm guessing those talks didn't go anywhere, but I wonder if you've heard anything different?

[JohnJMiller]

Hey, John.

Here's a question which I don't recall asking on the last iteration of the board ... a year or three ago, George mentioned some talks with the Sci-Fi Channel regarding the possibility of picking up Wild Cards as a series. I'm guessing those talks didn't go anywhere, but I wonder if you've heard anything different?

Hey -- hope things are going well. This board seems very busy and well organized. Nice job all around.

Well. As to those bastards at Sci-fi. They had the option for over a year. Never paid us for it. Melinda did a script that in my opinion was all right, but suffered because restrictions Sci-fi put on her (for example, all of the action had to take place in New York, so characters were distorted more than a bit. Billy Ray, for example, was a cop). Then they wanted to bring in a 21 year old Ivy League college grad to write another screenplay. When Melinda and George objected, they dropped us. Somehow they managed to get a free option for an entire year. Don't ask me how. Just another bad television experience.

[Quoth]

Hey -- hope things are going well. This board seems very busy and well organized. Nice job all around.

Well. As to those bastards at Sci-fi. They had the option for over a year. Never paid us for it. Melinda did a script that in my opinion was all right, but suffered because restrictions Sci-fi put on her (for example, all of the action had to take place in New York, so characters were distorted more than a bit. Billy Ray, for example, was a cop). Then they wanted to bring in a 21 year old Ivy League college grad to write another screenplay. When Melinda and George objected, they dropped us. Somehow they managed to get a free option for an entire year. Don't ask me how. Just another bad television experience.

Hi, John,

Hope you don't mind my asking and I hope I'm not beating a dead horse here. But does that mean that it can now be shopped elsewhere? Or is the idea for all practical purposes at an end?

[Pellegrina]

Sounds intriguing... I don't suppose anyone would be willing to post a list of titles in reading order, or a list to same? Pretty please?