Wild Cards: House Rules (book 32) edited by George R Martin (book review)
This thirty-second ‘Wild Cards’ book, ‘House Rules’, is a mosaic of six authors as their stories are blended into a complete novel. Stephen Leigh is providing the backbone with several jokers invited to Loveday House on Keun Island by Lord Branok for a weekend of good food and dancing, albeit being masked. The island is described by its other name, St. Michael’s Mount off Cornwall, which I vaguely remember visiting or seeing when very young. At high tide, the road leading to it submerges for the evening and makes it an island which limits visiting hours. Leigh does make a couple mistakes with British culture. We don’t even know what ‘eggs over easy’ are and even Branok would rely on the NHS so there would be no doctor’s fees. Likewise, we would never refer to the police officer such as DS Truscott’ but purely by her title ‘Detective Sergeant’ although she’s probably a lower rank than needed for two murders as you would certainly have a Detective Inspector in charge. We also have less deference to the police force this side of the pond.
How much to say without going spoiler. Loveday House is on a nexus between realities and Branok warns his guests not to wander lest they get lost, let alone whom they encounter. It also introduces Gary Bushorn, an older ace with the ability to heat and burn everything and lucky to have fast healing to his own burn injuries. He eventually finds himself employed as a guise dance instructor, despite having no experience but paid to learn. The book cover shows the host, Lord Jago Branok and Hitchcock, an alternative reality version of a certain director. As Branok is never shown without his mask, there is no clue as to whether he is a particularly powerful ace or joker.
In many respects, these novelettes remind me a bit of ‘Fantasy Island’. A lot of it is build-up, with similar patterns like a guise dance and being taught the steps. Branok’s choice of guests varies from all jokers to all aces and, well, a mix so don’t outguess the writers.
The overtly long-titled ‘Lady Sri Extricates Herself, Emerging Not Entirely Unscathed’ by Mary Anne Mohanraj focuses on guests ace Srilatha and her husband Reggie. Sri finds herself protecting some jewellery for one of the servants without realising its significance. It’s a bit low key compared to the rest of the stories here.
Caroline Spector’s novelette ‘Bah Humbug, Murder’ is more murder mystery, lining up a mix of jokers and aces and then having two murders to solve. It also integrates with pasting events of Black Dog, leader of the Twisted Fists terrorist group having been previously been killed and a possible link here. It’s also a bit worrying that the bodies are moved, something that is disproved in the UK because it disturbs evidence.
Writer Peter Newman’s ‘Two Lovedays’ rotates first person with siblings Kelly and ace Stuart ‘Hero McHeroface’ Hill as they attend the party with various mostly British proportion of stronger aces. Alan Turing aka Enigma is happy to perform tests to see who is the strongest there. Thing is, Hill needs the presence of people who believe in him to enhance his abilities and when Kelly and Branok pop into the house, he loses that. Thing is Kelly has also encountered Lady Morwen and accidentally lets her loose in the rest of the house and systematically starts controlling the aces. Give yourselves at least 90 minutes to read straight through because it tends towards non-stop action. If there is a flaw, Newman tends to forget the difference between the brother and sister’s ages and doesn’t differentiate between their use of dialogue words between them, although he gets the other characters nailed better.
Writer Kevin Andrew Murphy probably did the longest novelette with ‘The Nautilus Pattern’, although that is only mentioned at decoration of a plate once and doesn’t really have a bearing on the story. This time we have the local antiques dealer, Nigel Walmsley, and his wife, Susan Strathmore, invited as the only nats to the Bonfire Night party and things decidedly go crazy with the house. For once, this does not include Lady Morwen from any of her realities. Thirty years ago, Strathmore was the paramour for a joker called Hermes and reality brings him through but not a day older much to Walmsley’s dismay. The ending sort of gets messy with so many alternative realities and its up to Stephen Leigh’s connecting story to join the dots. It does give a revelation about Melissa Blackwood aka Topper who can draw things out of her top hat coming from these alternative realities although you would have thought her being so close to the nexus, her power would have been stronger or at least what she can pull out of her top hat.
The last story ‘Raw Deal’ is by Peadar Ő Guilín where ace Maria Pais is coerced to take a job as a nanny at Loveday House for one of the attending aces at the party. Thing is, Maria is a drug dealer but not in the accepted sense as her ace is to make people addicted to common foods. The gang who coerce her threaten to kill her family if she doesn’t obey to open the kitchen door to let them in to do a spot of robbery. Of course, Branok has warned nobody should be outside at night and Maria sees a six-legged bear outside. Maria also finds herself siding with Branok and a few of the aces when things get rough and isolated in a different room.
As with all of these stories, I can’t give too many details because it becomes spoiler very quickly. Across the stories, things change drastically for the regulars and not all for the good. Its rare for the ‘Wild Cards’ books not to have anything happening at all in jokertown. Isolating them on an island is used the ‘locked room’ scenario does leave some open questions as to how Branok chooses his guests and how much is he influenced by the house in his choices. Considering the problems that happens, you do have to wonder why anyone would accept an invitation, even for good food and rooms, when there is so much danger.
GF Willmetts
February 2026
(pub: Random House Worlds/Penguin, 2025. 526 page hardback. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-0-593-35772-9. UK edition out in August 2026)
check out website: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/674434/george-r-r-martin-presents-wild-cards-house-rules-by-george-r-r-martin/
