Wild Cards: Sleeper Straddle edited by George RR Martin (book review).

‘Wild Cards’ numbers either 32 or 33, there is a rare explanation of what this particular poker hand is. I’m calling this book 33 after TOR put out a collection of unpublished ‘Wild Cards’ stories last year.

In the introduction to this edition, a sleeper straddle is an illegal raise without knowing your cards and hoping you have a good hand. That sounds similar to the situation in ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’, where, legally, according to Google, a player can briefly leave the table. I’m not a gambler.

In the context of the ‘Wild Cards’ reality, Croyd Crensen is the Sleeper, created by the late Roger Zelazney and continued by other authors since. Every time he sleeps, he is reinfected with the Wild Card virus and wakes as either an ace, joker or something in between. He’s also fearful of getting Black Mary, which is fatal and takes drugs to stay awake as long as possible. We have ten authors here covering his adventures, or rather what his early appearances have meant to other people. Crenson has done legal and illegal things but has grown a reliable set of friends who protect him when he sleeps.

Christopher Rowe writes the intermediary story, ‘Swimmer, Flier, Felon, Spy’. Crenson has hired Eliot Rice, the meticulous Tesla, who can locate people. The Sleeper’s latest transformation has turned him into six people, and he needs to be brought back together. We aren’t given the date the event happened, but Tesla has two enormous files about Crenson and uses this as his clue to track them all down and develop a more up-to-date profile. He rarely leaves his house, so this journey is a self-discovery for him as well. There are many spoilers in his section as it goes through the book.

He starts by locating Iris Marshall, aka Miss Canvas, and Carrie Vaughn’s “Days Go By”, which dates back to 1961 in Greenwich Village. Crenson is seeking drugs from Fletcher Anderson and passes out on their sofa into a deep sleep for three months. Anderson is a piece of work, but Iris is happy to chat to the sleeping Crenson and carry on with her life. We also see a bit of Jokertown as Iris goes about her photography job. Her latest project is for Xavier Desmond’s Funhouse, which consists of halls of mirrors that distort anyone’s appearance to resemble jokers. I doubt Vaughn was alive back then, but she catches the flavour of the period.

The date of Cherie Priest’s story, ‘The Hit Parade’, is set in 1983. Late-night radio DJ Jacob Riskin, aka Wide Awake Jake, has been killed with a brick to the back of his skull. Joker detective Leo Sturgman and Nat detective Ralph Pleasant are assigned to find the murderer. Crenson is one of the suspects, but he ultimately provides the detectives with the correct information to guide their investigation.

Writer William F. Wu’s story ‘Yin-Yang Split’, set in 1990, becomes more obvious when Vivian Choy, aka the ace Lazy Dragon, who shares body space with her brother Ben, visits the ace Quinn the Eskimo, who can create drugs, looking to make some quick money by selling some drugs. Instead, Quinn develops an interest in Vivian, she takes a trip, and they part ways. Viv isn’t keen on staying, but Ben is interested in remaining, and the rest of the story contains spoilers. Keep an eye on the bodyguard’s Speedo.

Walter Jon Williams’ ‘Semiotics Of The Strong Man’ is set in 1999, where Jack Braun, aka the Golden Boy, aka the Judas Ace, is attending a film festival as a guest. He makes friends with the host, Felicia, who takes him to one of the museums that displays the deactivated head of the Modular Man, where they encounter Crenson in his ace phase, who has the ability to short-range teleport. Dry-humoured but mostly a spoiler.

Stephen Leigh’s ‘Party Like It’s 1999’ is actually the turn of the century, and the Oddity (a triad of aces/jokers of three people, in case you didn’t know) has had a sleeping Croyd Crenson in their underground hideaway and is not prepared for what he has turned into: a metallic creature hungry for electricity and hitting the terminals around Jokertown. Like the previous stories, we get to see a lot of early people from that era, and it’s like meeting old friends. The ‘Wild Cards’ reality is set in real time, so characters will age, retire and die.

‘The Bloody Eagle’ by Mary Ann Mohanraj is set in Sri Lanka in 2003, where there is a civil war going on between the jokers and the government that despises them. Crenson sleeps and awakes as a human eagle while travelling there and becomes more than friendly with Nikisha, aka Yaksani, an ace who can boil the blood in your veins as they become advanced attackers. Mohanraj immerses you in the setting and its dire circumstances for both sides.

‘The Boy Who Would Be Croyd’ by Max Gladstone is a first-person tale. It took me a while to figure out who the supply teacher is. She’s Abgail Baker Rubberband, not Robin Ruttiger, who is also there. One of her charges, Clay Calvados, is convinced he’s become Croyd Crenson, especially as he also demonstrates ace abilities and she ends up chasing both of them down in 2019.

The finale by Christopher Rowe ends up becoming pretty obvious. If anything, it does tend to be rather quick in resolving Crenson’s bodies merging back into one another. It’s unclear what it really means for Tesla himself, so perhaps we’ll bump into him again.

It’s also been some time since this book came out. Two years in fact. According to Google, George RR Martin has got too many other projects taking up his time, but that always happens. He really ought to consider doing what he normally does and let Melinda Snodgrass take the editor’s helm again. As ’Wild Cards’ fans, we understand how the mosaic works, and much of its success depends on the contributing writers to the series.

GF Willmetts

March 2026

(pub: Bantam Books/Penguin, 2024. 396 page hardback. Price: $28.00 (US), $37.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-593-35783-5).

check out website: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/675675/george-r-r-martin-presents-wild-cards-sleeper-straddle-by-george-r-r-martin/