I had heard that the books in the Wild Cards series work as stand-alone stories, hence the decision to start at number 21 (the first one I happened to stumble across in a charity shop). That definitely seems to be true; I found I didn't need any background knowledge about the series that wasn't supplied in the blurb. I get the impression that some of the characters must have appeared in previous books - something about how they're referred to makes me think they're not jut established people in the city, but established characters in the universe. Past events are referenced in a way that makes me think long-time readers will recall reading about them first-hand.

The book itself had some great points and some issues. I loved the idea of it - a novel constructed out of multiple authors work is an intriguing idea, and it has some advantages. When you follow different characters doing different things, the whole atmosphere changes entirely. There was also a lot of creativity on show, not just with the character's appearances and characters, but in how they interact with their world.

The problems I found were that some writer's styles suited me better than others, and switching between them within the same story made that stand out. Also, while there was some really creative ideas in the book, there were also a few cliches, and not cliches used for effect, or built upon - just cliches for the sake of it. Perhaps this is the downside to multiple people working on the same story: some elements get boiled down to the lowest common denominator.

I will pick up other Wild Cards books as and when I see them, because I enjoyed this one enough to be curious. I'm not about to go and order books 1-20 straight away though.

Gods dammit George R.R. Martin.

Yet another series I have to seek out. And it goes back quite a ways. So I can be guaranteed that the first books will not be in the library or used bookstores. Argh. My bookie bank never fills up, and it is 70% due to GRRM.

Loved this in idea and execution. Sometimes collaborations don't pull it off (thinking of my beloved [b:Borderland|463025|Borderland (Borderland, #1)|Terri Windling|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1315995314s/463025.jpg|14048614]), but it all went well.

The idea is mutants in NYC, living and committing crimes and solving mysteries. Fantastic.

I enjoyed this volume much more than the previous few. Not only did the writers have the opportunity to tell interesting stories about longstanding background characters, but they also told great stories about jokers. I guess I get sick of aces aces aces. Also, I don't read many police procedurals (any?) so that was fun for a change.

I have to thank the woman at Jeanne Stein's book signing at Broadway Book Mall for turning me onto the Wild Card series. She assured me I could start at any point among the twenty-one books, so I began with the one she handed me, FORT FREAK, the latest.
The premise of the series is that an alien virus struck in 1946, killing 90% of the population, deforming others and giving a small percentage of the population superpowers.
FORT FREAK takes place in New York City's 5th Precinct, aka "Fort Freak".
This could be called an anthology, but George R R Martin, the editor of the shared-world series, calls it a mosaic novel. Each author continues the story seamlessly, giving the reader a look at the police precinct, the detectives, the good guys and the bad and everyone in between. It's a police procedural thriller at its finest, and the characters with their abilities and disabilities add to the gritty 'charm'.
This is a keeper since its signed by most of the authors as well as the editor. I am going back for more.

I am a sucker for a police procedural. This one scratches that quite nicely.

I didn't realize this was twenty-first in the line until I did some looking online, but it was certainly a fun read! Nothing amazing, but nothing terrible.

I was looking for something else by George RR Martin to tide me over til the next Game of Thrones book comes out... I was disappointed to realize that this series is only edited by Martin. There are lots of contributors each writing a short story that contributes to the whole. It is a really interesting new world-building and it did suck me in - but still left me vaguely disappointed. Maybe if I had not had that image in my mind I would have been more satisfied, might check out some of the others in the series though...

The stories are decent but unless you've been involved in the whole wild cards series for awhile it's pretty confusing. Not something you can easily jump into without some background information. I made it about halfway through and I'm just not driven to finish it.

I didn't realize this was twenty-first in the line until I did some looking online, but it was certainly a fun read! Nothing amazing, but nothing terrible.