This is the 31st installment or book to be published in Martin's Wild Cards universe.

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 most stories are a composite done by several authors; not an anthology, they are a complete novel.  This collection is unique in that it is an anthology and each story stands alone.

"Trudy of the Apes" by Kevin Andrew Murphy, a long-time contributor, introduces us to Trudy Pirandello in a story set in 1957.  Trudy may be the very first Ace; deliberately created by Dr Tod, the madman responsible for unleashing the alien spores over New York City.  She has the ability to teleport small items and generally earns her living by stealing jewels.  She is on the hunt for some very rare, historical pieces which legends has it are hidden in a cave in Mexico; a cave with a waterfall.  So Trudy manages to attach herself to Jack Braun, Golden Boy, during a production of Tarzan - shooting in Mexico.  She ends up enlisting Jack's help to find and dispose of the treasure rumored to be Emperor Maximillian's crown to his Empress plus some four-hundred barrels of silver.  It's a good plan right up until the local drug lord took an interest; which required all of Trudy's cunning and her Ace to survive.  It was a pretty fun story.

"Cyrano d'Escargot" by Christopher Rowe, a relatively new contributor, was a real gem in that it featured a fave character of mine, Theodorus Witherspoon, when he was a newly-turned Joker and just fourteen-years-old.  The other of the pair is Trevor Fitzgerald, and I am hard pressed to remember if he had a prior appearance.  Trevor is an actor and Theodorus is a very, very rich love-struck boy who needs someone to act as him since Theodorus' physical appearance is somewhat….limiting.  Theodorus is a giant snail and in love with Peregrine, a famous model and actress, who is a Knave since she has wings; hence the title of the story.  Trevor is apparently just a nat (not enhanced) and repeatedly tries to dissuade Theodorus from his plan to romance Peregrine. But the money is good.  And Peregrine turns out to be so much more than a pretty face.  But, as in the original story, it doesn't turn out well.  But it turns out…nice.

"In the Forests of the Night" is by Marko Kloos who has been a regular contributor recently. His pairing-up is with Khan who can change his form to a tiger, and Maryam, a woman who can increase her mass…a lot.  Khan is working as a bodyguard to a crime lord and they are on a sort of sabbatical to a remote resort in the Amazon; to meet other crimelords.  Maryam appears to be a normal woman; albeit quite athletic in the bedsheets.  For Khan, the entire trip is a walk in the park and Maryam is an unexpected perk. But he does take his duties very seriously so that when a multinational drug interdiction task force suddenly appears, his first response was to secure and protect his boss; even when it meant going up against a giantess Maryam.  The problem was that, even in a short amount of time, both Khan and Maryam had found a connection with each other; it was just unfortunate that only one of them was going to win this battle. A good story.

"The Wounded Heart" by Melinda Snodgrass, an original contributor starting back in 1987 with the first book, is about Detective Franny Black - a nat, whose first appearance was Fort Freak, I think - and Rikki Michaelson, also a Detective and a Knave.  Her appearance is that of a canine and she can run freakishly fast.  A third-wheel in the story is Black's current lover, Abigail "The Understudy" Baker who can mimic other aces' powers.  Black and Rikki are investigating a murder of a woman by her ace husband who took their toddler with him after killing his wife.  Black is dealing with PTSD and mental images of dead and mutilated children so this event is galvanizing; putting him at risk. Rikki and he had had a relationship until Abigail came along so Rikki is dealing with a little heartbreak.  The story is superficially about saving the child and capturing its father but is really more about Black's PTSD and who he really loves.  It was, as usual, a very immersive experience from Ms Snodgrass and I enjoyed it.

"Echoes from a Canyon Wall" by Bradley Denton, another new contributor, employs Bubble's little brother, Freddie, who has an Ace power of a sonic scream, and partners him with another Ace, a dear friend of his sister Bubbles, Julie.  Freddie is on his way to a resort at the Grand Canyon and expects to meet his sister and niece.  He has no idea who Julie is.  Julie is there to shadow Freddie and keep him safe.  There's an organization called SCARE that used to be about helping Wild Cards but has lately been circumvented into a Federal government tool to control Wild Cards.  Julie learns that Freddie has been targeted by them. So it becomes a race between allies of Bubbles & Julie against the SCARE kidnapper and assassin.  This was such a quintessential Wild Cards story that I just loved it.

"The Long Goodbye" by Walton Simons, a contributor since nearly the beginning of the series, has a story with Jerry Strauss, the Projectionist, and John Fortune, son of Peregrine and Fortunato. The story starts and ends in 2020 with Jerry reminiscing. If I remember events correctly, the Sleeper accidently sent several people back in time in "Low Chicago" and had to get them all back.  I don't recall the story all that well, but this has to be related to it.  So Jerry and John find themselves in Chicago in 1911 along with a young actress/dancer named Irina.  The two men decide this is an excellent opportunity to figure out how to stash away something that will be very valuable back in 2020.  Since what Jerry knows best is film, and he has a couple generations of storylines to mine that haven't yet been done in 1911, and he has Irina, then the most logical thing is to create films that will be "lost to time" until the men dig them up again in 2020; as they are sure Croyd will be back to get them sooner or later.  John doesn't really have much to do in this story as it's really a love story between Jerry and Irina - who doesn't really want to return to 2020…

"What's Your Sign?" is by Gwenda Bond and Peter Newman. Gwenda is a newbie to the series but Peter wrote in "Knaves over Queens", the first of the UK trilogy. They paired up Stuart, a young Brit Ace who is doing a charity event in the UK, with Stella Sumner, who is a secret Ace who can change her form to the signs of the Zodiac.  Stuart's Ace is only activated when he's close to people who believe in him; he can literally feel their belief which powers him up.  The two have a moment of connection at the charity event and then don't see each other for a while.  During the charity event, Stuart was auctioned off to the public who got to give him his superhero name.  But it was all for a good cause, the agency that Stuart works for sends him out to help people.  The second time the two meet is because the agency came up with another great money-maker:  Stuart and Stella on a date, since everyone who saw them were captivated with their "moment."  Stuart is quite taken with Stella who keeps her distance from the "younger" man; she's only there to help the charity.  But during the meal, something peculiar happens- a vase of roses is delivered to their table with a slightly creepy note attached.  Stuart insists on continuing to see Stella if only to figure out who is her stalker.  The stalker strikes again on their third date with a box of chocolates and another creepy note.  Meanwhile, Stuart's opinion about Stella is being deliberately manipulated by an Ace whom he admires; and maybe it's not in a good way.  So while there is a very tiny touch of danger, it's really a love story between a young naïve man and a slightly older woman who has hid herself from the whole world until she met him.

The last story, "The Wolf and The Butterfly" is by David Anthony Durham who started with "Fort Freak".  He pairs up Bacho (a new character) who hides a spectral wolf inside himself and Adesina, the joker daughter of Bubbles.  The two of them are attracted to each other and Adesina invites him to a play that she is starring in.  At the same time, an anti-joker crowd called Tenth Pillar is causing public chaos but when they crash the play, there’s something else going on that causes everyone, even the good guys, to get off-the-charts angry.  Bacho finds another use for his wolf when he’s the only to understand who is really responsible.  Pretty standard setup but I really enjoyed the by-play between Bacho and his Wolf when Bacho finally understands why the Wolf has been resisting him.  It was a fun ending. 

An anthology in a long-running series is usually an excellent way to give back stories or origin stories.  It’s also fun to pair up characters unlikely to come together within the canon.  And as for this anthology, I’d say it was a moderate success.  ~~ Catherine Book

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