Book Review - Suicide Kings

My review of George R.R. Martin's Suicide Kings has now been posted at Curled Up With a Good Book.  It's another book set in the Wild Cards universe (you can also read my reviews of the first two books in this trilogy, Inside Straight and Busted Flush).  What's the concept behind the Wild Cards mosaic novels?

Here's what Suicide Kings is about, complete with a brief description of the universe itself:

"In 1946, an alien virus hit New York, killing 90 percent of the residents, turning nine percent into monstrosities called "Jokers" and giving the other one percent some type of "Ace," or superpower. These Aces have lived their lives, becoming celebrities and sometimes fighting crime or villains with plans for world domination. Tensions remain high in Africa between the newly formed "Caliphate" of Middle Eastern nations and the Congo People's Paradise, run by the insane dictator Dr. Nshombo, his equally insane sister Alicia, and an Ace named Tom who has a secret of his own. The dictator and his sister are infecting children with the Wild Card virus in an attempt to build an army of Aces and Jokers with abilities that can help them consolidate their power. But the Aces from the Western world are coming - some of them for Tom and others to stop the monstrous experiments before any more children are murdered for their wicked ends."

It's a fascinating universe, and this trilogy is a revival of that shared universe.  The original Wild Cards novels are from 10-20 years ago, and I seem to remember they were pretty good too.  Martin does a great job as editor keeping all of the diverse stories tied together seamlessly.

That's the mosaic concept of these novels.  Multiple authors have created multiple characters, and they each write their character's point of view.  Yet the novel jumps back and forth among these points of view, and the characters all interact amongst themselves too.  Thus, you have Rusty and Jarusha working together.  There can be a chapter from Rusty's point of view, and then one from Jarusha's, and you really can't tell who wrote what.

I encourage you to check this series out.  It's an awesome series, with the middle book (Busted Flush) being just slightly not as good as the books around it. You won't be sorry.


Warning:  The review for Suicide Kings does contain a spoiler for Busted Flush.


Also, happy 300 posts to me!!!!  Onward and upward!