Paula Guran Reviews Wild Cards: Sleeper Straddle edited by George R.R. Martin & Melinda M. Snodgrass

Wild Cards: Sleeper Straddle, George R.R. Mar­tin & Melinda M. Snodgrass, eds. (Bantam 978-0-59335-783-5, 402pp, $28.00, hc) February 2024.

The Wild Cards universe is a fertile play­ground for writers, as its premise encour­ages a wide creative range. Created by George R.R. Martin, the universe departs from ours in 1946, when an alien virus arrives on Earth. Ninety percent of those who contract it die; the DNA of the ten percent who survive it is altered. Nine percent acquire debilitating mutations and become known as jokers. The remaining one per­cent, aces, gain unique superpowers. There’s also an uncounted number of those whose powers vary from those two categories. One – Croyd Crenson, AKA the Sleeper – is unique. Struck by the virus in its first round at age 14, he is continuously re­infected by the virus whenever he sleeps. He can awaken with a superpower – different each time – or as a negatively mutated joker. Crenson is the ultimate wild card, and writers can truly run wild with their versions of him. The eight interwoven stories of Sleeper Straddle, the latest Wild Cards book, prove considerable authorial prowess.

Christopher Rowe supplies a hefty eight-part novella, “Swimmer, Flier, Felon”, that links the others while supplying an entertaining tale that introduces the enigmatic information broker and investigator Tesla, a joker with ace electric powers. Crenson has awakened split into six embodiments, each with an individual appearance and power. One of them sets Tesla to reassembling them all before sleep leaves Crenson fragmented forever.

“Days Go By” by Carrie Vaughn is set in 1961 Greenwich Village. Constantly changing patterns on the skin of photographer Iris Marshall thwart her one-time goal of suburban domesticity. Dubbed Miss Canvas by the local bohemians, Iris lives with her cad of a boyfriend Fletcher Ander­son, the epitome of midcentury masculine toxicity. Croyd Crenson enters her life and loft seeking amphetamines from Anderson. He passes out and spends two months snoozing on the sofa. Iris falls into the habit of talking to him as he slumbers. When he wakes up, she discovers he has heard everything she’s said to him. Through Crenson’s empathy and a newfound connection the diverse denizens of Jokertown – the Bowery neighborhood that has become the largest community of jokers in the world – Iris finds direction in life and more. The Sleeper takes a supporting role in this well-executed novelette of a woman recognizing her selfhood in a world on the cusp of cultural change.

Cherie Priest’s arresting “The Hit Parade” takes place in 1983 and centers on ram-horned NYPD detective Leo Storgman and his partner Ralph Pleasant as they investigate the murder of Jake Riskin, the overnight DJ at WAJT, a left-leaning Jokertown radio station. As they solve the crime, we learn some of the politics of Jokertown and meet more of its unique residents. Crenson is, again, a secondary character, this time with kudzu growing from his body. The vegetation is so useful – “almost as good as extra hands” – that the Sleeper is not sure if it is “a joker thing or an ace thing.”

Ingenious wild cards trump utilitarian prose in William F. Wu’s “Yin-Yang Split”. Twins Vivian and Ben Choy share the same body. They can also bring paper – folded into animal shapes by Ben or mechanical objects by Vivian – to life with their minds. Set in 1990 amongst Chinatown gang­dom, the novelette finds the Sleeper embodied as Speedo, a fit Caucasian male from the waist up with the body of a goat from waist down and a long, thick, spiked tail. Crenson/Speedo – a bodyguard for a nefarious ace who creates drugs inside his body that he can inject into others with needle-like bones in his fingertips – provides Vivian with much-needed assistance.

Walter Jon Williams employs iconic ace Jack Braun – Golden Boy, the strongest man in the world – in “Semiotics of the Strong Man”. Set in 1999 Rome, he foils some armed thieves and en­counters Crenson who, in this incarnation, has a talent for short-range teleportation. For Braun, the Sleeper is a welcomed connection as a long-lived contemporary. At least at first. Williams allows readers a sympathetic glimpse of the complications of a very long life.

It’s New Year’s Eve 1999 in “Party Like It’s 1999” by Stephen Leigh. We meet Oddity, a triad of aces – Patty, John, and Evan – who were once a loving throuple. The love remains, but the pain of their “ever-shifting body where muscles and tendons and bones migrated randomly” must be agoniz­ingly endured. After three months of slumber in Oddity’s lair, Crenson wakes up as a joker who looks as if he is built of steel. He drinks electricity which, of course, is quite disruptive. Oddity, with help from several other originative wild cards, saves New York City from disaster.

Mary Anne Mohanraj cleverly, creatively, and welcomely expands the Wild Cards universe be­yond the bounds of Western culture with a 2003 Sri Lanka locale for “The Bloody Eagle”. Teenager Nikisha survives the virus and transforms into a befurred, tailed joker whose touch causes bleed­ing and, from a distance, can cause blood to boil. Normal life lost, she joins up with joker guerilla resistance forces in the jungle, where she becomes a great weapon for the cause. She finds a Bollywood-handsome Crenson and watches over him until he awakens as a feathered, winged, and beaked joker. The two pair up for great sex and a key role in a big attack.

Novella “The Boy Who Would Be Croyd” from Max Gladstone is, for me, the top card in this deck. Stellar writing and well-wrought characterization combine for a snappy, compelling story. Robin Rut­tiger, AKA Rubberband, is a guidance counselor in a 2019 New York City high school full of teen aces and (mostly) jokers. One of the students – lumpy, “gray and unfinished… (a) little wet, a little soft” – is appropriately named Clay. The boy takes a brief nap in class and jerks awake transformed and claiming to be the Sleeper. Ruttinger, who has known Clay for two years, can’t accept that. One of his kids is in trouble and he must save him. Rubberband is off on an adventure peopled by a Broadway star, a mobbed-up Russian pop diva, tattooed sentient squirrels, Armani-clad goons, blackmail, and much more.

Sleeper Straddle is a superb addition to the already huge but ever-expanding Wild Card universe.

This review and more like it in the June 2024 issue of Locus.

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