This is the 30th installment or book to be published in Martin's Wild Cards universe; although since it's a collection of previously-published short stories I don't know that it merits being numbered 30.

Here's a brief background:  in the 1940s, some aliens decided to use Earth as a proving ground for a virus designed to create super-powered humans.  The virus was released over New York City and can have one of four effects:  mostly normal-appearing but super-powered known as Aces; mostly normal-appearing with a less-than-impressive superpower known as Deuces, a completely non-human, deformed appearance known as Jokers, or death by drawing a Black Queen.  A Knave is an Ace who is deformed by the virus.  The stories have followed different groups of characters since the 1940s.  And new characters show up all the time as the virus is still in the atmosphere. The series is unique in that each story is a composite done by several authors; it is not an anthology, it is a complete novel.  Except in this collection, each story stands alone and was written by a single author.

"When We Were Heroes" by Daniel Abraham was published in 2012.  This is a little encounter between Jonathan Tipton-Clark, aka Bugsy, and Kate Brandt, aka Curveball.  Both have left their association with The Committee; Bugsy is working as a tabloid reporter.  His ace, turning into wasps, gives him the advantage of being everywhere in the city and never noticed.  He got noticed real quick by Kate when he turned in a story of her romance with a Nat (natural human).  As Curveball and being young, blonde and gorgeous, Kate finds it difficult to strike up a friendship outside of her public persona.  So, when she met Tyler on the sidewalk outside a play they'd both seen, and she realized he didn't recognize her; she was very interested in going with him to a supper with friends.  Later when she kissed him, Bugsy was there with his camera and soon both she and Tyler were fodder for the tabloids.  The story is in two tangential parts. In one Kate confronts Jonathan and instead of berating him for invading her privacy, she is drawn into the story of why Jonathan quit working for the Committee.  The other part is her evening out with Tyler, culminating in the public exposure.  The conflict is whether Tyler can accept her as Kate.  It was a sweet story.  I don't remember the Curveball character but Bugsy has always fascinated me.

"Ever Night" by Victor Milan was published in 2018.  Candace, aka The Darkness, was a child ace forcibly created in a terrible camp in Africa.  She is in the sewers of Paris searching for her brother, also from the African camp, and turned into a were-leopard and a terrorist.  To find him, she has to navigate the underworld known as Ever Night ruled by Mama Evernight and her minions.  Mama doesn't like to kill indiscriminately so she has imprisoned Candace's brother, Marcel, for his terrorist actions against Jokers.  To gain his release, Candace has to navigate the politics of the police in the city above to protect Mama's underworld and all her citizens.  Candace lets her love for her brother cloud her judgement and she nearly dies trying to be all for everyone.

"Lies My Mother Told Me" by Caroline Spector features Michelle, the Amazing Bubbles, and her long-time friend, Joey, known as Hoodoo Mama.  Michelle is able to use telekinesis to create energy bubbles from her own body mass that can blow up.  Joey has the unfortunate ability to be aware of and control any dead bodies in her vicinity; which includes both humans and animals.  The two of them have to contend with an unknown ace who can 'steal' their powers temporarily; causing all kinds of chaos which the victims will be blamed for.  But it appears to be a bigger plot than just mischief; the ace has someone powerful directing him.

"Nuestra Senora de las Esperanza" by Carrie Vaughn is a backstory about Ana Cortez known as Earthwitch.  Her ace power is to move earth.  Ana had nearly died in Egypt with the rest of the American Heroes and went home to New Mexico to be with family and recover.  She had always known her wildcard came to her genetically from her grandmother, a woman she had never met.  To her surprise, her grandmother is still living and considered a holy woman by those who know what she is.  Ana decides to go see her.  She's hoping she'll get some kind of understanding about the moral use her powers; she had been told by a priest that she should refuse to ever use her powers again.  While she knows she killed people, she also knows that she had done really good things, as well.

"Discards" by David D. Levine gives us the origin story of The Recycler aka Tiago Goncalves.  Tiago was a poor orphan living in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.  His card turned when he was probably a young man, although his age isn't mentioned.  He had the appearance of a joker with parti-colored skin; which meant that he had to leave the shack he lived in to move to the equivalent of a joker ghetto.  He had previously made a meager living recycling trash and selling it to tourists.  But when he left his home, he came under the aegis of the local drug cartel.  His profession changed to being a mule until he discovered he had an ace power to telekinetically move any inert substance - such as money from a pocket.  When his life was threatened he also discovered a way to use that power to protect himself.  Then he had to decide how he was going to use that power without becoming a slave to the drug cartel.

"The Elephant in the Room" by Paul Cornell is a little story about Abigail Baker, an actress and paramour to Croyd Crenson, the Sleeper.  Abigail's mother is visiting and while she accepts Abigail's ace she has a rather racist reaction to her Joker friends.  Abigail has the ability to mimic others' powers but until recently would have no control over how they manifested.  But now, with a certain level of control, Abigail and her friend Radha O'Reilly (who turns into a small flying Indian elephant) have a show planned that will highlight Abigail's abilities.  During the show, with both her mother and Croyd in the audience, she suddenly understands her mother's biases and realizes that what she thought was love and pride was something else.  This realization fills her with rage and unthinkingly, she allows herself to fly close to Croyd and accidently mimics his power.  The results are rather catastrophic and while she does resolve her bitter feelings towards her mother, Croyd is a rather different problem.  While this was a small and relatively uninteresting tale (from a favorite writer!), I always enjoy seeing Croyd; even in a cameo or small part.

"When the Devil Drives" is from Melinda Snodgrass, George R.R. Martin's fellow editor in the series.  It features another of my long-time faves, Noel Matthews.  Noel is a Brit and his ace allows him to change to several different avatars, each of whom has a different ace power.  He's currently working in New York having created a company that utilizes the powers of several different ace employees doing odd jobs such as teleportation or demolition. His current headache is the site of a demolition job where a dead body is found.  Since his team has a procedure to clear the building prior to demolishing it, someone somewhere either slipped up or someone planted the body.  The reason for it is obviously to damage his company but he can't quite figure out who would benefit.  At the same time as all this is happening, he's also navigating his separation from his wife and son.  He left them with the intention of protecting them from his life but ultimately realizes they don't need that protection.  This story was a more substantial Wild Cards story and I enjoyed it very much.

"The Atonement Tango" by Stephen Leigh features Drummer Boy aka Michael Vogali.  Michael has six arms and a tympanic torso along with the ability to manipulate sound.  He is a par excellent drummer in the band Joker Plague.  During a concert in New York, a terrorist set off a bomb near the stage killing several attendees, most of his band, and destroying one of D.B.'s arms.  But none of the usual terrorist groups claims credit and the police seem to be losing interest, making D.B. angry and wanting to know who did the deed.  His search brings him into contact with several familiar ace names like Croyd, Ink, and Rustbelt, which was fun reading. Ultimately, the story illustrated, once again, the moral conflict that some of the Wild Card infected suffer from: is their power from God or a sign of the devil?  Another standout story in this collection.

"Prompt. Professional. Pop! "  is by Walter Jon Williams.  At first glance I was sure it would be a Popinjay story but I was wrong.  Cleo is a sometime actress (and, more often, a thief) with teleportation abilities. When she gets a call from Jack Braun, Golden Boy, she's very excited about what she is sure to be an acting job offer.  But it isn't; it's more of an intervention.  Jack has called together a few other aces who know Cleo with the intention of confronting her with evidence that she's responsible for several robberies of high-end fashions and accessories.  Jack, who is the strongest man in the world and apparently immortal, has certainly been around the block several times and doesn't want to see Cleo go down a bad path.  But in usual Cleo fashion (pun intended), she leaves without the least bit of comprehension.  She ends up being involved in a theft of a raw film by a rival filmmaker and while she didn't do the initial theft she sees an opportunity for blackmail.  But, since Cleo isn't the brightest bulb in the pack, nothing goes quite as she plans.  It's up to Jack to find a way to resolve the latest Cleo-fuckup.  I don't care a thing for the Cleo character but I've been wanting to see more of Jack and his character evolution since the events of the 1950s that branded him the "Judas Ace."

The last story, "How to Move Spheres and Influence People" is from Marko Kloos.  The author introduces a new ace in this story: Lintilla Kendall or T.K. to her friends.  T.K. is a fifteen-year-old disabled girl.  Although the left side of her body is afflicted with a paralysis, she is undaunted in her efforts to be as normal as possible.  During a dodgeball game at school, her usual bully tormentors hurt her more than usual.  In an effort to stop the assault, her card turns and she discovers that she is able to affect control over spherical objects.  She can move them slowly or quite fast, making a ball bearing a deadly weapon.  On vacation from school, her family is present when a Joker terrorist drives a car into a large group of pedestrians.  Without thinking, she utilized her power to both protect innocents and also to stop the joker.  This brings, of course, lots of unwanted public attention and a surprising offer of employment.  I liked this new ace and I hope she's used in future stories.

Over all, it was a welcome collection as most, if not all, of these stories had only been available as e-books.  ~~ Catherine Book

Contributing authors are:
Daniel Abraham
Victor Milan
Carrie Vaughn
David D. Levine
Paul Cornell
Stephen Leigh
Walter Jon Williams
Marko Kloos
Melinda M. Snodgrass
Caroline Spector

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