Aces High: A Wild Cards Collection (book 31) edited by George RR Martin.
Another ‘Wild Cards’ book from TOR, when the Wild Cards Trust has moved to Random House Worlds? Under their Reactor Internet imprint, eleven writers penned a dozen stories during their tenure, and TOR expressed a desire to publish them in print. Examining the list of writers includes not only the usual suspects but also a few recognisable names, some of whom co-authored the stories. In many respects, the printing process is a good idea because all the novels should be regarded as canon and need to be seen on paper. I’m less sure about the comic book versions, mostly because they aren’t referenced in the overall history and sometimes just repeat events. This principle applies not only to the Wild Cards books but also to any science fiction franchise seeking to achieve sales across multiple mediums.
I was going to pick and choose from the twelve stories here, but it was only the first story that didn’t strike anything in me.
Carrie Vaughn’s ‘The Thing About Growing Up In Jokertown’ is that she can make something apparently ordinary become fascinating. School friends Miranda ‘Rikki’ Michaelson, Franklin ‘Splat’ Steinberg, Kris and Benjamin ‘Beastie’ Bester and his friends are mostly jokers and realise that they’ve never visited Central Park and decide to visit it. Jokers rarely leave Jokertown. Spalt doesn’t always stay flat, so I tend to think of him as an ace. I had to remind myself where exactly Jokertown is, and it’s somewhere around the old Bowery. They take the subway and all the problems that involves, considering how big Beastie is and how he needs to take over the back of a carriage. Without going too spoiler, an event at the end of the story is no doubt the influence that ensured both Rikki and Beastie became police officers when they left school.
With ‘The Flight Of Morpho Girl’, it’s a bit hard to work out where co-writers Caroline Spector and Bradley Denton’s work merges. If you’re familiar with ‘Wild Cards’, you shouldn’t be surprised at the opening line where a mother greets her daughter and jumps out the 8th-floor window and treats it as normal. Don’t try this yourself. You don’t really have to be told this is the Amazing Bubbles getting some impact, so she has the mass to dispense her deadly bubbles.
She’s not really in the story much, as she’s off on a mission for the Committee for the day and tells her adopted daughter, Adesina, to be home for the supper prepared by a neighbour. The problem for the story is Adenina’s friend, Yerodin, aka ‘Ghost’, has been kidnapped by the Werewolves gang and needs Adenina to fly to a cargo ship and bring someone back. Beyond that is a spoiler. Into this mix, we have extracts of Bubbles’ diaries, which Adenina has discovered, which gives her fortitude, and somewhere in this mix, a coming of age for her, the Morpho Girl. Stretch those wings, girl.
With ‘Naked, Stoned And Stabbed’ by Bradley Denton, we again see the Amazing Bubbles and Adenina but from the former’s brother’s eyes. He’s Freddie, and he’s a roadie at The Who’s concert in the Bowery Theatre when it suddenly becomes a deathtrap. Freddie’s sister and, to him, newly discovered adopted daughter, comes to his rescue after he opens up the floor to let people out. I have to confess to wondering if the band should be written as ‘the Who’ or ‘The Who’, but that might be a British thing. Denton certainly gets the mood of the place.
Now, with ‘The City Never Sleeps’, writer Walton Simons takes us back to 1986, and James Spector, aka Demise, is back in Jokertown needing to make some money after siding with the wrong folk back when the Astronomer led the attack against the good Aces. His particular ace is to kill with a look and a memory of death. A lot of the tale is a spoiler, and you do have to know your ‘Wild Cards’ characters and whom he meets. It’s great to see Chrysalis and Sascha Starfin again, as I always thought there was a power vacuum after she died. A lot of this story is a spoiler. A common theme throughout these stories is not always identifying all the characters, but enough is given to tell who they are.
‘Long Is The Way’ by Carrie Vaughn and Sage Walker is another story where you know there is a division of labour by sub-stories but not by who. Reporter Jonathan Hive is looking for Zoe Harris, an ex-terrorist ace believed dead but who might be running a perfume factory in France. She in turn explains how she got to where she is now and helped save the baby of Rima Naji, discovering her offspring was fathered by Croyd Crenson, the ace Sleeper. Quite an unusual twist of stories within stories.
Yah! Khan is back. The joker-ace half-human/half-tiger is back on bodyguard duty in Marko Kloos’ story, ‘Berlin Is Never Berlin’, looking after Natalie Scuderi on a trip to Germany with her friends to a nightclub. Her father is involved in mob money laundering. What should have been an ‘easy money’ deal falls apart when he is attacked and rendered unconscious by a tree-like ace-joker and Natalie is taken as a hostage. Too much is a spoiler here. From a physiological point of view, I do have to wonder at Khan being lopsided, but he’s still formidable.
The title, ‘Hammer And Tongs And A Rusty Nail’, should give you a hint of the main characters in Ian Tregillis’ story. Well, at least one of them, Wally Gunderson, aka Rustbelt. The other is Mordecai, aka the Harlem Hammer, who appears to be having problems getting enough rare metals to power himself up more than he is. Even so, he’s still strong enough to get Rustbelt free of an industrial magnet when he gets drawn up by one. Gunderson isn’t the smartest ace-joker around, although I would put that down to his ability to rust most metals. It is suggested to him that he puts himself forward to join the city council and convinces Mordecai to be his campaign manager. This is really one of the funniest ‘Wild Cards’ short stories in a long while. Writing a not-so-smart character is always difficult, and there’s a fine line between laughing at and laughing with. The thing is, Rustbelt shares his confusion over politics but translates it into the way he handles things and is a likeable character.
Probably, the longest story is ‘Ripple Effects’ by Laura J. Mixon. John Montaño is the ace Candle who can manipulate some form of interdimensional coloured flames. The early ‘Wild Cards’ were a bit more grounded, but I wish new writers would remember this because it does become borderline fantasy. More so is the enemy Titus ‘Ripple Effect’ Maguire, who through any reflected surface can see versions of the future except where he himself is involved and can even step into mirrors.
Anyway, Montaño is head of a defence unit of two aces, two nats and a joker protecting the deceased ace Louis Armstrong’s golden trumpet between the times it’s being used for concerts on a liner before a concert in New York. The layered plot has Maguire and his ace accomplice, Megan ‘Tiffani’ McKnee, out to steal the trumpet, but really there is an attack on Montaño, his best pal when young in their criminal past. Maguire is a nasty piece of work, manipulating everyone, including Tiffani, by threat and action, and is possibly the most powerful ace this side of Bubbles. Mixon does bring all these characters to life, and all with human foibles. A lot of it is clearly a spoiler and a roller coaster.
The one thing ‘Wild Cards’ can always do is turn a recognisable situation from our own history and do a different take on it and give it heart. Alan Brennert’s ‘Skin Deep’ follows the life of Trina Nelson after her card is turned in in California. Her parents died from the Black Queen, while her face went, for want of better words, grotesque and ugly. Finally forced to flee her home, she takes residence at Dr Pink’s Show Of Freaks, where at least the jokers who were willing to show themselves could be paid and have some sort of living. It was here that she met Rod Serling, who was looking for someone like her for his new ‘Twilight Zone’ episode, ‘Eye Of The Beholder’. I hope you remember that story, as it is a classic. Brennert captures the mood of the time perfectly, and Trina finds she helped him break the joker blacklist, enabling them to find work in Hollywood. A beautiful story.
‘Hearts Of Stone’ by Emma Newman is set in 2020, prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is, however, set in London, and Kerry, aka Stonemaiden, although fearful of her touch killing people by turning them into stone, convinces Captain Flint she wants to join the Silver Helix. For a first mission, he assigns her to watch a Russian, Kazimir, whenever he goes out. Lilith visits Kerry and explains that her role is to assist her in case of trouble, adding that Flint would likely expect more from her. She then sets out to slowly befriend Kazimir and discovers he’s a secret ace with a similar power to her own; only he turns anything to dust but has learnt greater control. When Kerry reveals her own power, he, in turn, shows how he contains the ability and knows her job. The rest is a spoiler. A nice twist in the tail and seeing aces doing espionage.
The last story, ‘Grow’, is by the prolific Carrie Vaughn and looks at Maryam Shahidi as she literally stretches her ace ability to grow to 15 feet high, showing off her size but thinking she wouldn’t be recognised. Quite how she can carry a large tent to hide her modesty when tall isn’t covered but is likely to be enrolled into the Silver Helix.
A lot of these stories fill in gaps in the ‘Wild Cards’ reality. Hardly surprising the characters’ creators want to explore how they changed when their cards turned and how other people reacted to them. If ‘Aces Full’ needs a subtitle, then it’s character development. The UK edition of this book is due out in August 2026.
GF Willmetts
February 2026
(pub: TOR, 2025. 420-page hardback. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-1-250-30699-1)
Check out the websites www.torpublishing.com and https://wildcards.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Wild_Cards_characters.
