Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild

By: George R. R. Martin

Narrated by: Pam Grier, Felicia Day, Stephen McHattie, Ron Donachie, Ray Porter, Prentice Onayemi, Molly Quinn

Back in print after a decade is Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild, featuring fiction by George R. R. Martin, Roger Zelazny, Walter Jon Williams, and others.

On September 15, 1946, the Wild Card virus was released, spreading a wave of mutations around the globe. "Aces" were endowed with extraordinary powers, while "Jokers" were cursed with bizarre mental or physical disabilities. September 15th is now Wild Card Day. With each passing year, the festivities become larger and more fevered. And 1986--the fortieth anniversary--promises to be the biggest Wild Card Day ever. But in New York City not everyone is celebrating: The Astronomer, a twisted, powerful genius, has been planning his own special festivities for Wild Card Day...a day of revenge against those who have opposed him....

Narrator Cast List:
Felicia Day, for “Bagabond”
Ron Donachie, for “Hiram Worchester”
Pam Grier, for “Roulette”
Stephen McHattie, for “Demise”
Ray Porter, for “Sewer Jack”
Prentice Onayemi, for “Fortunato”
Molly Quinn, for “Wraith”

Old but still good

The voice narration was excellent. I hope the readers enjoyed doing them as much as I did hearing them.

good book

Hard to follow 5 different voices storie got jumbled but good book all in all

An interesting take on the superhero genre

This universe is slightly to the left of ours and acknowledges the the cultural impact of actual superpowers on history. It also gives a distinct sense of the time it was written and the sense of New York. There are some graphic sex bits and tropes I could have done without, but nothing that prevents it from being a good time.

Would have been better with Luke Daniels

I was a huge fan of Luke Daniels' narration in the first two books. His characterization was fantastic and I still heard Doctor Tachyon with his voice. He was just great and because of that I can't rate the performance higher than 2 stars.

While I normally hate audio books that have multiple readers I do have to say this was not the worst. Each character's perspective is read by a different narrator. Most of the time this works out until scenes overlap and you have Pam Greer's interpretation of Tachyon and Fortunato directly followed by Prince Onayemi's interpretation of those two characters, and even a third narrator near the end. I thought I was going to hate it but in the end it was okay. Prince Oanyemi and Felicia Day shine.

As for the story I really enjoyed it. It was interesting to have a number of overlapping plots across one day told from different perspectives. I can't imagine how GRRM kept everyone straight. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Though I'm debating if I'll just buy the next volumes just to read myself rather deal with another cast's version of the characters' voices.

Over Narrated

I, for one, don't like having multiple narrators in a book. It's tough to follow.

While I enjoyed this volume it was also probably the worst in the series so far. I feel like some of the charm has vanished from the books set farther back in history.