This is a collection of short stories set in the Wild Cards universe that were copyrighted between 2013 and 2022.  They had all appeared on the Tor website.  The first collection of short stories was in “Full House” in 2022.

Cherie Priest, who started contributing in 2011, wrote “The Button Man and the Murder Tree” in 2013.  It’s a great story, fully in the Wild Cards style.  The Button Man is a hired killer, an enforcer for the mob, probably.  But his card turned and he’s having trouble hiding the changes from an employer who has no sympathy for Jokers.

Carrie Vaughn, a contributor since 2008, wrote “The Thing About Growing Up in Jokertown” in 2016.  It’s actually a gentle little story about young kids in Jokertown who decide they are entitled to enjoy Central Park as much as any normal person.  It’s just not actually done, is all.  But rather than something ugly happening to them, they actually have a chance to just be good kids.

Caroline Spector and Bradley Denton collaborated on “The Flight of Morpho Girl” in 2018. Spector has been a regular contributor since 2008 while Denton just joined the family in 2023.  This is a story about Michelle “Bubbles” Pond’s daughter, Adesina.  Bubbles arrived on the Wild Card scene in 2008 and has been a frequent character ever since.  We’ve watched Adesina grow up and this story touches on her maturity; an odd thing as Adesina changes every time she goes into a cocoon.  She looks like a teenager now but still feels like a younger girl.  Unfortunately, her appearance now changes the dynamics in school and she gets separated from her friends.  This story is about how she uses her somewhat-newer maturity to help her friend, Ghost, who’s been kidnapped.  It was a great Wild Cards story.

Bradley Denton has a second story in this collection, “Naked, Stoned, and Stabbed” from 2019. He introduced Freddie aka Amplifier in the 2023 “Pairing Up.” In this story, Freddie has a chance to travel to the US and leaps at the possibility of meeting his famous half-sister, Bubbles.  A sister who doesn’t know about her brother.  But before he screws up his courage to go meet her, he meets, instead, his niece, Adesina.  The two of them find a way to save thousands of concert goers when a little domestic terrorism strikes. But even after all that, what makes Freddie quake is explaining himself to Bubbles. This was another great story.

Walton Simons wrote “The City That Never Sleeps” in 2019.  Simons started back in 1987 with the second book in the series “Aces High.”  He has been a frequent contributor up to 2021. He uses an old favorite, Demise. Demise has only one real skill: killing people with literally no evidence.  This was a fun story. Demise is asked to kill an Ace; something he flat refuses to do.  Aces could actually hurt or kill him; not a fun idea. But a guy’s gotta eat, even a dead one, so he still takes jobs.  On one of them, he makes the acquaintance of a giant Newt; a very affable guy.  They have pizza, a few beers, and go to a Knicks game.  Demise is rather surprised that not only does he not want to kill this guy but he’s actually having fun.  He never knows his friend’s name but any dedicated reader knows exactly who the Newt really is.  I like the newer characters in the series well enough but my heart is always going to be with the first generation or two.

“Long Is the Way” is a collaboration between Carrie Vaughn and Sage Walker from 2019.  Carrie has been part of the gang since 2008 and Sage has been with the series since 1994 although he hasn’t contributed as much.  They use another favorite of mine, Jonathan Tipton-Clarke also known as Jonathan Hive or Bugsy.  He is able to fracture himself into wasps; each of which is still connected to him making him an ideal spy, able to get into almost anywhere.  Bugsy is working freelance for a publication called The Atlantic which was doing pieces on Aces who had dropped from public view.  He was asked to find a woman named Zoe Harris, last seen in 1995 during the Black Trump story.  He does actually find her but her story isn’t one that he expected. It’s a story with a punchline that no one could have guessed and Zoe shared it with him; maybe because she knew no one else would appreciate it.  And it was a story he couldn’t…no, wouldn’t ever publish.  Another great inclusion.

Marko Kloos wrote “Berlin is Never Berlin” in 2020.  Kloos started with “Low Chicago” in 2018 and has been regular since then.  Khan is a relatively unfamiliar character with an appearance in “Low Chicago” and again in “Pairing Up.”  But he’s an okay character; a very effective bodyguard since half his body is a Bengal Tiger. His client, the daughter of a tough guy, gets kidnapped.  He is able to find her but along the way he finds out quite a bit more about why she was kidnapped.  In the end he has to decide between his fee and doing the right thing.  It was a good story.

Ian Tregillis, a long-time favorite of mine, wrote “Hammer and Tongs and a Rusty Nail” in 2020. Ian has been part of the crew since 2008 and has had a story in almost every book since. And if you’re a fan, you can guess from the title which character appears in this story. While I am moderately fond of Wally, aka Rustbelt, he isn’t the most interesting character in the series.  This is probably the weakest story in the lot.  It advances Wally’s story but doesn’t do much else.  I sort of felt that the story was stolen by Mordecai Jones, The Harlem Hammer. Jones hasn’t been used much in the series; as I remember he was usually a side character and this story doesn’t add much to his canon, either.

Laura Mixon wrote “Ripple Effects” in 2021. Laura started in 1993 but hasn’t been a steady contributor.  Candle is a very minor character whose first and only appearance was in 2008. The best part of this story was an explanation of his ace powers and watching him use them.  Despite my unfamiliarity with the character, I enjoyed this story very much.  It is, I think, the longest story in this collection and read much like a novella; giving the reader a chance to be more vested in it.

Alan Brennert wrote “Skin Deep” in 2021. The funny thing about this author is that this is the only story he has ever written for Wild Cards.  Perhaps we’ll see more from him in the future.  He is mostly known for comicbooks and two episodes of The Twilight Zone (this is important later.) This was actually a pretty sweet story written from the viewpoint of a young girl in California, an uncommon location in this series. Trina was one of the earliest infected victims, back in 1946.  Californians didn’t have a Jokertown like NYC but they had the Santa Monica pier. This story takes advantage of Trina’s joker appearance in a Hollywood production since she has no need for makeup or prosthetics.  And if you don’t recognize her part in the show then you’re probably too young for The Twilight Zone.  I so appreciated this one.

Emma Newman wrote “Hearts of Stone” in 2022. She’s only been in the series since 2018 with her solo appearance in “Knaves Over Queens”, the first book in the British Arc. (Which I found very entertaining since none of the British characters had been used before.)  If you know those stories, you can make an educated guess from the title which characters she uses:  Captain Flint and Stonemaiden.  I really liked the additional background on Flint’s and Kerry’s relationship; but I really, really liked how Newman helped Kerry, aka Stonemaiden, find the strength to control both her powers and her dependence on Flint.  And she did it with the most unexpected help from an enemy.

And then another story from one of my all-time faves, Carrie Vaughn; “Grow” from 2022. Maryam, aka Jiniri, is a normal-appearing girl until she grows into a twenty-foot giant. Maryam was introduced in the British Arc stories and it’s a curiosity to me why Vaughn chose her as Vaughn did not contribute to those stories.  But it’s a fun origin story of Jiniri as a teenager just looking for attention.

Overall, it’s a worthy addition to the series; especially if you’ve never known where to find all of these short stories.   ~~ Catherine Book

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