Wild Cards I

Wild Cards, Book 1

By: George R. R. Martin - editor

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

Length: 18 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

In the aftermath of WWII, an alien virus struck the Earth, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Originally published in 1987, the newly expanded saga contains additional original stories by eminent writers.

©1986, 2010 George R.R. Martin (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Excellent narration, average stories.

Setting but nothing thematic connects the stories within. This was a little jarring. Also about one in three of the stories within were bad.

Surprisingly TERRIBLE

Ugh and Ugh again. Reads like stream of consciousness with a terrible attempt to create a credible story. But it fails miserably.

George Martin ...good story , terrible politics

This books political undertones were very disturbing and offensive...
The ONLY reason im NO longer buying any more Martin literature....its a shame because hes rather as gifted literature wise as he is absolutely moronic politically.
Examples ABOUND!!

This book kept referring to Mccarthy and his types as " facists" ..
If one were to except this premise... and group McCartney then with the likes of Mussolini and Hitler then
the self avowed communists / socialists(non violent communists) that the president was seeking to arrest or oust are actually NO different from those facists in the McCarthy administration. Socialists and communists are in essence Nazis themselves. The greatest commonality between Facists, Nazis and Socialists are ;
1) Centralized government authority
2) No freedoms for the individual above that of the movement(which pretty much means no rights..like freedom of speech, being secure regarding your own items, some measure or privacy, land owner ship, life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness not in common with the needs of the movement)

IN fact the Nazi party was actually and truly named the " National Socialist German Workers Party". Google it. So if Martin was trying to be remotely genuine, he would have at least stated that the McCarthy administration (which really only sought to remove communists from our American Constitutional Republican GOVERNMENT...

The reasoning behind Mccarthys actions, although extreme, are founded in solid logic.

ONE CANNOT be communist and simultaneously or legitimately raise their right hand and honestly pledge to abide by and protect the constitution as all legal officers must do as part of a conditional oath to serve.

In other words .. a legal agent of our American style constitutional Republic CANNOT in good faith both support and pledge to defend a constitution that gurantees God-given unalienable rights to its citizens, when
NO Communist, Socialist, or Fascist (once again all pretty much the same government centric systems) society know to history or mankind has ever held to any set of rules or rights for its citizens... as unremovable or unalienable.
In fact by definition a constitutional republic is as diametrically opposed to central government as you can pretty much get.
If you dont believe me research Maos China, Stalins Russia, Mussolinis Italy, and see where you find rights for any of its citizens, or any sort of barrier protecting citizens against government.
Youll find NO checks, No balances, No order, lawlessness, starvation, butchery, poverty,
and all around death.
Youll find dictators who ; legislate, execute the laws, create the laws, enrich and empower only themselves and their select few friends and family.... screwing everyone else in turn. Real republics (of which their are few in practice and many in name) have real representation based on population, and other factors ... as well as often not allowing concentration of power in any one person or branch of government...
since men are not angels, government is needed. Yet government is full of men...they also need to be policed themselves with rules and structures that promote decentralization of power.

George RR Martin please get yourself some philosophical education... Burke, Locke, Baron D' montesquieu ...

Please understand..as interesting as your books are ... they are only so because the ideologies that you are elaborate are so repulsive(fire and ice)...

That they highlight the ironic fact that good things can come from bad...
good characters such as Jon Snow can come from and are often created by institutions and terrible aristocratic societies as the game of thrones world.

ALL THAT YOUR MORE INTELLIGENT READERS ASK FOR IS ALITTLE INTELLECTUAL HONESTY ON YOUR PART
regarding your historical rendering of the past when you deem to engage in the elucidation of such.

Sometimes you draw an ace

You know the book. It’s been sitting in your Audible library for a long time. Maybe you got it on sale or maybe you meant to read it but you got distracted by another series and for got about it or maybe you can’t remember why you got it. But eventually, you get around to listening to it. And it totally surprises you in the best way possible. That’s this book. Recommended.

amazing book. how isn't this a TV series?

The story and reader were amazing. The audio quality however.... terrible. Still, that was easy to ignore.

3.5 stars

Some of the stories were great, others I had no idea what was going on.

Nice Surprise

I decided to give this book a try after reading the reviews and am very pleased I did. It shows a world where an alien virus has infected the population post WWII. I greatly enjoyed the format of jumping POV's and showing how our timeline might have been effected by such an event - something I think was handled quite artfully by the writers.

The "Wildcard Virus" has effected people in several ways ranging from the Aces (superheroes) to the Jokers (those deformed or negatively effected) - and that isn't counting the overwhelming majority of those that get it that simply die horribly. With this in play it effects more than just everyday social interaction, it effects government, entertainment, crime, and quite a few other things in between.

There were characters and storylines I enjoyed more than others (the Sleeper, the Turtle, and the government anylist who can stop time being among my favorites) but all in all it was thoroughly enthralling with a wonderfully narrator to guide the whole thing.

good story until it gets raunchh

story is very interesting until about 2/3 of the way through when he gets really raunchy and then towards the last 30 minutes or so goes back to good

Has potential!

This is a collection of short stories set in the same world. Some of these stories are really really good like the story about croyd AKA the sleeper and the turtle. That being said some of the stories in this book are absolutely boring like the story of fortunato.

Sould have stopped while they were ahead!

Any additional comments?

This book started out great. Very interesting concept and some well written stories, unfortunately, the book "overstayed it's welcome". I rarely do not finish a book but after putting hours into it, I finally let it go. The writing was just too uneven. One story would be great, followed by an average or below average one. In the end, it wore me down and I stopped listening. If you catch it on sale, get it, otherwise think long and hard before using a credit.