Wow, a long time between posts!

Hey everyone-
I've been busy with BPD the last week or so. There's a great interview up on BPD with John Jos. Miller, S.L. Farrell and Kevin Andrew Murphy about Wild Cards--they're writing in character as John Fortune, Drummer Boy and Swash (who doesn't appear in INSIDE STRAIGHT but does show up in BUSTED FLUSH)-- and it rocks. Go read it! I'll still be here when you get back.

Other news: Kat and I are off to Philly this weekend for her cousin's birthday party. I'm gonna need a disco nap beforehand-- at 43, I'm just not the late-night party animal I never was before.

Gotta schedule a week's vacation sometime soon. Kat and I are thinking of an England trip but are dismayed at the exchange rate. Honest, could the dollar fall much further? But I'm thinking of taking a week by myself to write the book I've been tinkering on for much too long. Ya never know.

Got some reviews to wrap up too-- LOST ONES by Chris Golden, KISS BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE by Tom Sniegoski, and a few others. SFRevu will be rich with my writing this month coming up.

That's about all from here. Hope you had a great Easter!

New for Wild Cards!

Big news, folks. Tor has launched the "American Hero" website, supporting INSIDE STRAIGHT, the new Wild Cards mosaic novel. If you read the book, you get part of the action--but this site (illustrated by Mike S. Miller, who was a buddy during my WildStorm days) promises to give you the whole story. The challenges, the confessionals, the ins and outs--so if you're a fan, you know you want to see this.

Check it out!

INSIDE STRAIGHT: Who will be the next American Hero?

Most of you know that I've reviewed INSIDE STRAIGHT both here and on SFRevu, as well as interviewing the two editors with my wife Kat.

Well, Tor Books is taking it to the next level.

The mosaic novel shows small bits of the contests... but coming up on the official website, you'll get to see the contest play out in an expanded format. Enriching the reading experience with web content is a step that few companies have adopted, but offers tremendous potential.

This is a development I'll be watching with great interest and high expectations. Fans of the book (and the series) might expect some cool behind-the-scenes info, tidbits about upcoming stories and maybe even "winner/loser" interviews! Wouldn't that be cool?

Keep an eye out for the tagline: Who will be the next American Hero?

Happy New Year!

Hey folks! Seems like it's been forever since I last blogged. I know, I thought I would be able to post a bit over the holidays but it just didn't happen (obviously). Between being away from home and getting over "holiday-lag," that vacation hangover that won't go away when you've been gone a week... well, you know the story.

On the good side, 2008 is off to a good start. My review of INSIDE STRAIGHT is up at SFRevu, as is Kat's and my interview with George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass, plus a number of other reviews that made my December very lively. Now I'm kicking back with Mike Carey's latest Felix Castor novel, DEAD MEN'S BOOTS, and enjoying it greatly. Mike is a great guy, a good friend and a terrific writer--so read his stuff!

Anything else? Oh yeah, we're going to put some long-delayed pix of our now-bygone Christmas tree on the blog tonight (cross those fingers), and maybe a few odds and ends.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
best from me and Kat,
Drew

Two Days, Five Reviews

Ouch. I have five books in front of me for review in this month's SFRevu.com, not including INSIDE STRAIGHT (which you've already seen "previewed" here). I'm reviewing:

• Simon R. Green's Unnatural Inquirer (a Nightside novel);
• Dennis McKiernan's Once Upon a Dreadful Time (a couple months late);
• Martin Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes' Fellowship Fantastic;
• Chris Golden's The Borderkind (several months late); and
• D.M. Cornish's Foundling: Monster Blood Tattoo #1 (only a few months late but I only got it in November).

It's a lot of work to do but... that's the life of a reviewer.

Wild Cards News- BUSTED FLUSH Sent to Publisher

Hey everyone! This may not be news to some of you, but George R.R. Martin announced that the next novel in the series, BUSTED FLUSH, is now in the hands of the publisher. There's a lot of GREAT info about the book, including the names of some new characters and a promise of some returnees-- in short, stuff a wild cards fan wants to read. Check out the artwork at the bottom, too!

Read his announcement, then and spend some time on his site. It's a trove of great reading. (Not only that, but Mr. Martin referenced my blog's preview-review of INSIDE STRAIGHT, and how great is that?)

More INSIDE STRAIGHT-- Wild Card Consortium Writers Reading My Blog!

Just for fun, I backtracked where some traffic was coming from in the past few days... and found myself at www.captaincomics.us, a comic book site with a healthy discussion board. One of the topics was Wild Cards, and I found (to my surprise) that "old school" WC writers John Joseph Miller and Stephen Leigh post there!

Not only that, but Mr. Leigh happened across my proto-review of Inside Straight and put a link to my blog on the Captain Comics board.

Wow.

I interviewed JJM years ago for COMICS SCENE about the Wild Cards comic miniseries by Epic Comics (a now-bygone imprint of Marvel), and have an interview with George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass coming soon in SFRevu-- but it's mighty gratifying to know that two (or more!) of the folks who created the series saw this little write-up.

Thanks for looking in and hope you'll come back again! Drew

INSIDE STRAIGHT: the next generation of Wild Cards

I've been a fan of the Wild Cards books since they started coming out in 1987. The premise is simple and elegant: an alien virus is let loose in 1946, killing nine out of ten infected, transforming nine out of ten survivors in a random but bizarre fashion, and leaving that final one-in-a-hundred seemingly untouched... yet endowed with some amazing superpower.

There have been 17 books (from three publishers) in the series, edited by George R.R. Martin (visit his site!) and Melinda Snodgrass (visit her site!). The series grew out of the authors gathering to play a superhero roleplaying game and finally deciding that, being writers, they'd better make some money out of this time-consuming hobby. Publication of the titles trailed off, with the last two releases in 2002 and 2006.

Now, however, the Wild Cards are back.

INSIDE STRAIGHT is the new mosaic novel (collection of interwoven short stories) by this writing group, which includes a handful of new writers amid the veterans. It begins with an assassination in Baghdad, zips to the other side of the world for the debut of a wild cards-based reality show, and ends on the bloody killing fields of Egypt.

Although there are cameos from established characters (such as Golden Boy), the stories introduce a number of terrific new characters:

• Jonathan Hive (aka Bugsy), a blogger who can turn into a cloud of green wasps;
• Lohengrin, a knight armored in "ghost steel" who answers the call of duty wherever it leads;
• Rustbelt, an ironclad Minnesotan who faces a monstrous injustice... and makes a momentous decision;
• Amazing Bubbles, whose career lies in ruins after her wild card turns;
• Drummer Boy, a superstrong and six-armed joker who fronts a rock band;
• Curveball, the "girl next door" who plays to win;
• Lilith, a mysterious British ace; and
• Stuntman, a kid who never quite measured up to his athlete dad's expectations, but has an opportunity to become the first American Hero.

Also featured is John Fortune, stripped of his uncontrollable powers by his father Fortunato, who now wants to gain back what he's lost. He has a shot at it, thanks to an amulet given to his mother Peregrine (a famous wild card known for her beauty and her huge white wings). Putting it on opens a world of possibilities... and takes him into the path of terrible danger. Backed by Bugsy and Lohengrin, Fortune chooses to embrace his destiny and heads for Egypt, where the Living Gods (jokers who resemble the Egyptian pantheon) have asked for his help.

You see, as mentioned, the adventure begins with an assassination. The Caliph, ruler of a multi-state Muslim empire, is murdered and a joker terrorist group is framed for the crime. This leads to a horrifying retaliation against Egypt's joker population, a situation that at first seems to be a background element but takes center stage very quickly. (Long-time readers of the series will get an Easter egg, of sorts, as the Caliph is a well-established character from a long time back.)

Up front is the debut of reality show American Hero, pitting 28 aces (divided into four teams) against each other and judged by aces Digger Downs, Harlem Hammer and Topper. Situations are created and the teams must react--with failure meaning each losing team has to "discard" a player. (Yes, the card imagery is still in full force herein.)

The show provides a snapshot of aces in 2008 America. Many of them are celebrities because of what they are (that is, superpowered), not who they are; Bugsy blogs about this at length in the very opening of the book. This becomes an extremely important point, as the entire book turns upon one question:

What is a hero?

As the book splits between the trio (or quartet?) in Egypt and the dwindling cast of AH in Hollywood, the importance of the question grows more clear by the page. Each character has a moment of truth, when they can be a hero or not. Some of these are exceptionally poignant, as a handful step up; the others either fail this test of character (one spectacularly so) or opt out entirely.

A small group of ace volunteers joins Fortune, Bugsy and Lohengrin in Egypt, as two armies converge on Aswan and the masses of joker refugees taking shelter there. There's a Magnificent Seven quality to this final act, which ends in desperate battle and none left unchanged (and several dead) before it's all over.

It's an ambitious book with a lot to say. Wild Cards as a series hasn't shied away from social commentary (in the context of alternate history), but this is perhaps the most head-on tackling of real world issues and the theme of heroism that the series has yet attempted. In a way, it harks back to "Witness" by Walter Jon Williams, one of the very first WC tales. That was about the Four Aces, a team assembled by an altruist and set loose on the world stage in the 1950s; now, the stakes are higher, but the underlying problem is the same: can wild card powers solve world crises? Can those with power stand aside and do nothing while terrible things happen?

What is a hero? By the end of this book, the true heroes are revealed--and a new age dawns for the children of the wild card.

What can I say? I loved this book.

Look for the SFRevu review in January 2008.

Another Review Preview Coming Soon

Hey folks-
I owe SFRevu a bunch of reviews between now and the end of the month. Look for a quick "Review Preview" of The Phoenix Unchained by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (the first in a new trilogy set about a millennium after The Obsidian Trilogy they co-wrote).
My full review will show up here on December 1, by the way.
In the mean time, I know I'll be doing a Review Preview of Inside Straight by George R.R. Martin, Melinda Snodgrass and a batch of folks real soon, so... keep an eye out for it.