Wild Cards - La série

En 1946, un virus extraterrestre a frappé le monde et décimé 90 % de la population. Certains des survivants ont cependant acquis des pouvoirs surnaturels. Le XXe siècle s'en retrouve totalement modifié.

Depuis qu'il a frappé la Terre il y a quarante ans, le virus Wild Card n'a cessé de se répandre, tuant une grande partie de la population, produisant quelques aces, des êtres aux pouvoirs surnaturels, et beaucoup de jokers, des humains amoindris et difformes. Aujourd'hui confrontés à un ennemi indicible venu des profondeurs de l'espace et à ses alliés sur Terre, une secte maçonnique, les héros créés par George R. R. Martin et ses comparses (Roger Zelazny, Walter ion Williams, Pat Cadigan...) ne sont pas au bout de leurs surprises.

Les rues de New York ont éclaté dans la célébration de la Wild Card Day - l'événement annuel a lieu tous les 15 Septembre pour se souvenir des morts et chérir les vivants. C’est le jour pour les feux d’artifices, les foires et les défilés de rue, pour des rassemblements politiques et des banquets commémoratifs, pour boire et se battre dans les ruelles. Avec chaque année qui passe, les festivités deviennent plus grandes et plus fiévreuses. Et cette année – 1986, le quarantième anniversaire – promet d’être le plus grand et le meilleur Wild Card Day. Les médias et les touristes ont découvert la célébration, et les bars et les restaurants attendent des records de fréquentation. Mais ce qui se cache dans l’ombre est un génie tordu qui ne se soucie pas du plaisir ou de la fête. L’astronome n'a qu'une seule préoccupation : la destruction.

Bien que le virus d'origine extraterrestre soit d'abord apparu aux Etats-Unis, la contagion s'est répandue dans le monde entier, donnant naissance à des as et à des jokers un peu partout sur la planète. Une commission d'enquête envoyée à l'étranger se retrouve au coeur d'une machination à très grande échelle. Des jungles d'Haïti à la Muraille de Chine en passant par le mur de Berlin, les héros de Wild Cards vont voir du pays !

New York, 1986. Le quartier explosif de Jokertown a fini par entrer en éruption : une guerre de gangs d’une ampleur sans précédent a éclaté entre les deux clans rivaux les plus puissants et les plus dangereux de la ville : la mafia et les Poings d’ombre. Alors que la violence se déchaîne en surface, même les aces et les plus aguerris des jokers sont obligés de se réfugier en sous-sol. De là, ils vont pouvoir mener leur propre guerre contre les forces du mal…

Les rangs des participants à la convention annuelle du Parti démocrate à Atlanta abritent un tueur sadique et mégalomane, qui brigue rien de moins que la présidence des Etats-Unis d'Amérique. Son désir de pouvoir ne connaît nulle limite, son ambition ne s'embarrasse d'aucune considération morale. Sur le chemin de l'investiture se dressent cependant quelques aces qui voient clair dans son jeu et entendent bien lui faire obstacle à tout prix...

Chrysalide, la reine du monde underground des jokers, a été brutalement assassinée dans son célèbre restaurant, le Crystal Palace. Jay Ackroyd, l’ace détective privé qui a découvert son corps démembré, et Daniel Brennan, dit l’Archer, à qui l’on veut faire porter le chapeau, sont sur la piste du tueur. Leur enquête prend des allures d’odyssée cauchemardesque où s’entremêlent la violence, la passion et les plus sordides intrigues politiques.

Une sombre menace s'éveille sur Ellis Island, face à laquelle les dissensions entre as, jokers et humains paraissent bien vaines. Des créatures capables de transférer leur esprit dans n'importe quel corps se servent d'innocents pour commettre leurs crimes odieux, avant de les abandonner aux conséquences de leurs actes. Il pourrait bien s'agir du plus grand péril que la communauté des Wild Cards ait jamais connu, car même les as ne sont pas immunisés contre leurs méfaits...

Bloat, le gouverneur du Rox, rêvait d'une terre promise. Il voulait faire d'Ellis Island un havre pour son peuple, un foyer pour tous les jokers. Il avait besoin des Permutants, ces parias capables de s'emparer d'un corps humain en un clin d'œil. Il lui fallait leur argent pour nourrir le Rox. Leurs pouvoirs pour tenir à distance la vengeance d'un monde terrorisé. Mais sous les ordres du petit-fils psychopathe du Dr Tachyon, les Permutants sont devenus incontrôlables, et son rêve semblait s'éloigner toujours un peu plus... George R.R. Martin (Le trône de fer) a convoqué certaines des plus fines plumes de la science-fiction américaine pour bâtir un univers post-apocalyptique dans lequel il revisite l'histoire de la fin du XXe siècle.

Fleeing the battle between the Jokers, Aces, and Nats, Blaise heads for the planet Takis in the body of Dr. Tachyon, leaving Tach trapped in the pregnant body of a teenage runaway.

As the final battle between the Nats and Bloat rages on Ellis Island, the Turtle throws in the towel, Modular Man switches sides, Reflector faces defeat, and assassins reach Bloat's chamber.

Pursued by the CIA, the DEA, and the Wild Card mistress of the winds, Mistral, renegade biochemist Mark Meadows uses the three personalities buried in his psyche in order to outwit his pursuers.

A group of SF's most imaginative writers, who share a love of the larger-than-life comic book superheroes, presented each other with a challenge to compose stories featuring these superheroes and villains as flesh-and-blood people, living through this century's turbulent history. Contributors include Roger Zelazny, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Michael Cassutt, and five others.

Finally flushed into the open by the heroism of a joker and an uninfected lady reporter, the Card Shark conspiracy faces destruction. But a cornered animal is a dangerous animal, and the Sharks still have one final card to play--the Black Trump. The ultimate biological weapon, it kills all those with the wild card virus written into their genes.

Finally flushed into the open by the heroism of a joker and an uninfected lady reporter, the Card Shark conspiracy faces destruction. But a cornered animal is a dangerous animal, and the Sharks still have one final card to play--the Black Trump. The ultimate biological weapon, it kills all those with the wild card virus written into their genes.

An alien biological weapon was accidentally detonated over New York City, killing countless numbers of people. Those who survived, soon began to wish they had died once they discovered that they had been forever mutated by the virus unleashed in the blast. In this all-new collection of Wild Cards stories, the spotlight is on the most unusual Wild Cards of them all the Deuces. Their role in the Wild Cards Universe is just as important as that of the Aces and the Jokers. In fact, their actions have affected the course of Wild Cards history.

An original novel set in the widely popular Wild Cards world created by science fiction scion George R.R. Martin. Edited by Hugo award winning and New York times bestselling author, George R.R. Martin. It's really quite simple. Mr. Nobody wants to do his job. The Midnight Angel wants to serve her Lord. Billy Ray, dying from boredom, wants some action. John Nighthawk wants to uncover the awful secret behind his mysterious power. Fortunato wants to rescue his son from the clutches of a cryptic Vatican office. John Fortune just wants to catch Siegfried and Ralph's famous Vegas review. The problem is that all roads, whether they start in Turin, Italy, Las Vegas, Hokkaido, Japan, Jokertown, Snake Hill, the Short Cut, or Yazoo City, Mississippi, lead to Leo Barnett's Peaceable Kingdon where the difference between the Apocalypse and Peace on Earth is as thin as a razor's edge and where Death himself awaits the final terrible turn of the card. Wild Cards: Death Draws Five is an original novel set in this shared world utilizing characters from other Wild Card adventures. John J. Miller Splitting his life between the Empire State and The Land of Enchantment, John J. Miller currently resides in Albuquerque, NM, with his wife Gail, five cats, two dogs, two goldfish, and too many books to count, approximately ten of which he's written. He's contemplating getting more goldfish, and, probably, books. George R. R. Martin was born in 1948 in Bayonne, NJ. Four-time winner of the Hugo Award, two-time winner of the Nebula and editor of over two dozen novels and anthologies, and the writer of numerous short stories. His New York Times bestselling novel, A Storm of Swords (the third volume in his epicfantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" (was published in 2000. Martin lives in Sante Fe, New Mexico.

In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent of those who survived mutated into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then--and of the heroes among that one percent. Originally begun in 1986, long before George R. R. Martin became a household name among fantasy readers ("The American Tolkien" --Time magazine), the Wild Cards series earned a reputation among connoisseurs for its smart reimagining of the superhero idea. Now, with Inside Straight, the Wild Cards continuity jumps forward to a new generation of major characters, entirely accessible to Martin's hundreds of thousands of new readers, with all-original stories by Martin himself, along with Daniel Abraham, Michael Cassutt, and Stephen Leigh, among others.

In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived to mutate into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin ("The American Tolkien" --Time magazine) along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then—and of the heroes among the one percent. Now a new generation of heroes has taken its place on the world stage, its members crucial players in international events. At the United Nations, veteran ace John Fortune has assembled a team of young aces known as the Committee, to assist at trouble spots around the world–including a genocidal was in the Niger Delta, an invasion of zombies in hurricane ravaged New Orleans, and a freak nuclear explosion in a small Texas town.

In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived to mutate into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin (“The American Tolkien”—Time magazine) along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then—and of the heroes among the one percent. Ranging from New York and New England to ravaged Africa and New Orleans, encompassing war, devastation, and stubborn hope, Suicide Kings advances the story of the Wild Cards, and their struggle to be fully human in a world that fears and mistrusts them.

In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent survived, mutated into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin (called “the American Tolkien” by Time), is the tale of the history of the world since then—and of the heroes among the one percent. Now, in the latest Wild Cards mosaic novel, we get to know the hardbitten world of Manhattan’s Fifth Precinct—or “Fort Freak,” as cops and malefactors alike call the cop-shop where every other desk sergeant, detective, and patrol officer is more than human.