jonmhansen's review
4.0
A strong contender. Reminded me of how much I enjoyed this series in the first place.
rohkostjana's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
Continuity between the different stories: 5/5
Likeable/Interesting characters: 2.5/5
Too many characters to care about: 5/5
Too random wild cards to get an accurate feeling of the world (you got rules, you got conflict, you want conflict): 4/5
Bonus points for a strong theme,
But, as expected, some parts were better than others.
Maybe I'll pick up the first book in the series. Because the writing was so simple and easy to get through. And I'm a little curious.
Continuity between the different stories: 5/5
Likeable/Interesting characters: 2.5/5
Too many characters to care about: 5/5
Too random wild cards to get an accurate feeling of the world (you got rules, you got conflict, you want conflict): 4/5
Bonus points for a strong theme,
But, as expected, some parts were better than others.
Maybe I'll pick up the first book in the series. Because the writing was so simple and easy to get through. And I'm a little curious.
mechbutterfly's review against another edition
2.0
I liked the concept of several authors writing short stories set in the same world build, but I ended up liking just two of the stories, the rest was kinda meh. I'd like to give the next book in the series a shot though, since the premise is really nice.
bydandii's review
5.0
My favorite Wild Card story so far. Personalities, exploration of heroism, all told through a modern and relatively plausible filter.
jennycazzola's review against another edition
4.0
Das ist definitiv eines meiner Lieblingsbücher und ich kann verstehen, wieso "Wildcards" das Lieblingsprojekt von G.R.R.M. ist.
blattzirkus's review against another edition
5.0
Can someone tell me how on earth I'm supposed to read so many Wild Card books? It is insane how many are already published. Anyway – review time!
Plot
It's a world where the wild card virus got developed in the 1940s after Aliens attacked earth and the human population got saved by Jetboy, literally an American Hero, an Ace. There are normal people, jokers and aces. Jokers are some sort of mutans and Aces got super powers. Back to the present, most the islamic countries of Arabia merged into a caliphate. The British secret service wants their own calif there since they murdered the old one. That's where the bloody riots start. In another country, The United States, a reality TV series is about to start – American Hero. Similar to Big Brother, the contestants got to live in groups in a house together, have cameras everywhere and missions to accomplish. The missions seem silly and after a more or less important incident the eliminated contestants are facing a much greater and more important mission in their lives – fighting against the Arabian army to end the bloody riots.
Characters
There are a lot of characters, and a few point of views. You'll get the hang on when which character is viewed and why. I liked most of the characters, one of my favorites was Jonathan Hives, Ana the Earth Witch and Rustman to be honest. Amazing Bubbles and Curveball were cool too. The point is, they are all well written. There were no eye rolls this time, which I love. The characters seems real and you could tell them apart because they were so different from each other. Very good.
Opinion
I had this book since my birthday (which has been almost seven months ago, oh god). The longer I haven't read it, the more it scared me. Standing in my shelf and looking evil. See, I love the Game of Thrones books, George R. R. Martin can be intimidating sometimes, because he puts so much detail into his story. My point is that I kinda thought I wouldn't like it for some reason and it turned out to be a very good book! It wasn't as detailed as Game of Thrones (= you wouldn't read too long about a scene and will think after it "well you could have shortened that!" Man I sound like I hate Game of Thrones, but I really love it) but it showed some serious action and character development. The show concept wasn't new at all but it didn't matter since something else was going on in the world as well. International aspect speaking. Also I was reading it really fast since I couldn't really stop once starting so yeah, this detail makes the book good as well.
Plot
It's a world where the wild card virus got developed in the 1940s after Aliens attacked earth and the human population got saved by Jetboy, literally an American Hero, an Ace. There are normal people, jokers and aces. Jokers are some sort of mutans and Aces got super powers. Back to the present, most the islamic countries of Arabia merged into a caliphate. The British secret service wants their own calif there since they murdered the old one. That's where the bloody riots start. In another country, The United States, a reality TV series is about to start – American Hero. Similar to Big Brother, the contestants got to live in groups in a house together, have cameras everywhere and missions to accomplish. The missions seem silly and after a more or less important incident the eliminated contestants are facing a much greater and more important mission in their lives – fighting against the Arabian army to end the bloody riots.
Characters
There are a lot of characters, and a few point of views. You'll get the hang on when which character is viewed and why. I liked most of the characters, one of my favorites was Jonathan Hives, Ana the Earth Witch and Rustman to be honest. Amazing Bubbles and Curveball were cool too. The point is, they are all well written. There were no eye rolls this time, which I love. The characters seems real and you could tell them apart because they were so different from each other. Very good.
Opinion
I had this book since my birthday (which has been almost seven months ago, oh god). The longer I haven't read it, the more it scared me. Standing in my shelf and looking evil. See, I love the Game of Thrones books, George R. R. Martin can be intimidating sometimes, because he puts so much detail into his story. My point is that I kinda thought I wouldn't like it for some reason and it turned out to be a very good book! It wasn't as detailed as Game of Thrones (= you wouldn't read too long about a scene and will think after it "well you could have shortened that!" Man I sound like I hate Game of Thrones, but I really love it) but it showed some serious action and character development. The show concept wasn't new at all but it didn't matter since something else was going on in the world as well. International aspect speaking. Also I was reading it really fast since I couldn't really stop once starting so yeah, this detail makes the book good as well.
wmhenrymorris's review
I was scanning the shelves of my local library, found this title and decided to check it out because Daniel Abraham contributed to this wild cards novel. As a fan of George R.R. Martin, I had been aware of the series for several years, but had never been willing to commit to it. It seemed too long. But since this volume leaps ahead in the wild cards universe, I thought I'd give it a shot.
The verdict:
1. I really like the collaborative approach to the novel (and it does cohere as a novel). It must be a bear to edit, though.
2. I like the concept even if it is a little hokey (but that's supposed to be part of the point, I think -- it's a riffing on the superhero genre).
3. Inside Straight has some very compelling characters. Jonathan Hive, Earth Witch, Rustbelt, Lohengrin (and others).
4. I was initially put off by the reality show thing. But the plot twists come quickly and twistily so it's all good.
5. Even though there is loss and triumph and it's not all surface, it did seem lighter to me than it was trying to be. Or maybe it's not trying to be. In general it's very fun and very cool, but at the same time is trying to do a little more. And it pretty much succeeds.
Two notes:
1. There is a fair amount of profanity, some violence and a little bit of sexual content in the book. Much less (and less graphic) than the Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. But more than the average sci-fi novel.
2. I found it interesting that there is a Mormon FBI ace named Straight Edge who is about as stereotypical as you can get and that Joseph Smith gets brought up as an example of a false prophet, a crazy fanatical religious leader. I'm not about to ascribe those views to the authors. I have no idea if what any of them believe about Mormonism and certainly as an author you can have characters represent attitudes that you don't share. But I would like to note that neither of these two mentions of Mormonism are complex, interesting or go beyond the basic tropes that are trotted out when Mormonism is deployed by popular culture.
The verdict:
1. I really like the collaborative approach to the novel (and it does cohere as a novel). It must be a bear to edit, though.
2. I like the concept even if it is a little hokey (but that's supposed to be part of the point, I think -- it's a riffing on the superhero genre).
3. Inside Straight has some very compelling characters. Jonathan Hive, Earth Witch, Rustbelt, Lohengrin (and others).
4. I was initially put off by the reality show thing. But the plot twists come quickly and twistily so it's all good.
5. Even though there is loss and triumph and it's not all surface, it did seem lighter to me than it was trying to be. Or maybe it's not trying to be. In general it's very fun and very cool, but at the same time is trying to do a little more. And it pretty much succeeds.
Two notes:
1. There is a fair amount of profanity, some violence and a little bit of sexual content in the book. Much less (and less graphic) than the Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. But more than the average sci-fi novel.
2. I found it interesting that there is a Mormon FBI ace named Straight Edge who is about as stereotypical as you can get and that Joseph Smith gets brought up as an example of a false prophet, a crazy fanatical religious leader. I'm not about to ascribe those views to the authors. I have no idea if what any of them believe about Mormonism and certainly as an author you can have characters represent attitudes that you don't share. But I would like to note that neither of these two mentions of Mormonism are complex, interesting or go beyond the basic tropes that are trotted out when Mormonism is deployed by popular culture.
agoldstarforyou's review
4.0
So I had previously only read up to book 10 (due to some problems sourcing the later books) so I wasn't sure how I'd feel going into totally new characters and the game show setting seemed a pretty different take from what I was familiar with. But I did enjoy this book a lot. I loved the focus on reality TV about tryibg to be the ultimate hero turned to actually trying to do something heroic in real life. Personal favourite characters being Hive, Earth Witch and Noel. Though one of the problems I had was the amount of characters introduced but not really being well fleshed out so I had some trouble following them.
myrdschaem's review
2.0
Good world building, but really didn't live up to it. The reality tv show arc was ok. It is diverse, so that gets some brownie points, I liked some of the characters that only got some limelight chapters.
Stuff I disliked is a lot longer as a list. We get several characters that are clearly assholes - Hive and DB on the front of those - but are either expected to like them (Hive) or buy redemption/he's not t h a t big of an asshole (DB). Couldn't buy it with the narrative. When the text explicitly addresses the failings and fuck ups (CNN interview), the heroes can't answer and the whole episode is but aside. Instead of showing the media coverage as bad it only furthers resentment against the character/the way he's written.
I can give some lenience plot wise for the alternative universe that has been build, but it still disappoints. Follows the Americans safe the world plot line, even if these americans are not only white. All muslim characters/entities are build up as at best vaguely threatening, at worst a clear fit into the stereotypes given rise after 9/11. Especially the turn in political course at the end, which could have been fleshed out by the writers if they wanted to, was handled poorly and comes out of nowhere.
World utilizes UN and puts them in the "UN is completely useless" range. At the end they let them form an international intervention comitee that doesn't have to answer to any countries. By these two moves alone the writers show that they have no idea about how the UN works and what their jurisdiction/goals are. Either explicitly give them more power in your world building/change them otherwise or do research about what and what not the UN isn't. If you need to write world politics on a global scale, understand them first.
Then as the last of examples on where that book falls down face first, is that there's a plot point in which "playing the race card" is used unironically. This is a stupid way to plot, it fails to take in account how much backlash PoC get for pointing out use of slurs in the real world and that it is not worth the hassle in the least. Lying about accusation of racism is a frequent arguement used by racists to defame actual black people trying to make their enviroment safer, it happens on a miniscule basis and to portrait this a normal thing to happen and play these fabrications straight is not helping anyone but racists.
There'S more bitter moments, but overall I would say skip this. I certainly won't read the next book, unless a close friend with taste that I trust swears on their firstborn that there's a remarkable jump in quality. And I don't think there will be.
Stuff I disliked is a lot longer as a list. We get several characters that are clearly assholes - Hive and DB on the front of those - but are either expected to like them (Hive) or buy redemption/he's not t h a t big of an asshole (DB). Couldn't buy it with the narrative. When the text explicitly addresses the failings and fuck ups (CNN interview), the heroes can't answer and the whole episode is but aside. Instead of showing the media coverage as bad it only furthers resentment against the character/the way he's written.
I can give some lenience plot wise for the alternative universe that has been build, but it still disappoints. Follows the Americans safe the world plot line, even if these americans are not only white. All muslim characters/entities are build up as at best vaguely threatening, at worst a clear fit into the stereotypes given rise after 9/11. Especially the turn in political course at the end, which could have been fleshed out by the writers if they wanted to, was handled poorly and comes out of nowhere.
World utilizes UN and puts them in the "UN is completely useless" range. At the end they let them form an international intervention comitee that doesn't have to answer to any countries. By these two moves alone the writers show that they have no idea about how the UN works and what their jurisdiction/goals are. Either explicitly give them more power in your world building/change them otherwise or do research about what and what not the UN isn't. If you need to write world politics on a global scale, understand them first.
Then as the last of examples on where that book falls down face first, is that there's a plot point in which "playing the race card" is used unironically. This is a stupid way to plot, it fails to take in account how much backlash PoC get for pointing out use of slurs in the real world and that it is not worth the hassle in the least. Lying about accusation of racism is a frequent arguement used by racists to defame actual black people trying to make their enviroment safer, it happens on a miniscule basis and to portrait this a normal thing to happen and play these fabrications straight is not helping anyone but racists.
There'S more bitter moments, but overall I would say skip this. I certainly won't read the next book, unless a close friend with taste that I trust swears on their firstborn that there's a remarkable jump in quality. And I don't think there will be.