Marked Cards - Taschenbuch

Wild Cards is a science fiction and superhero anthology series set in a shared universe. The series was created by a group of New Mexico science fiction authors, but it is mostly pulled together and edited by best-selling author George R. R. Martin with assistance by Melinda M. Snodgrass, also a contributor to the series. There were twelve initial volumes released by Bantam, those being published between 1987 and 1993, before the series switched publishers, going to Baen, which released three new volumes between 1993 and 1995 While most of the volumes are made up of individual short stories, they generally focus on a central theme or event. There were also several longer story lines which run through several of the books. Every third book uses the format of the mosaic novel. This involves several writers writing individual story lines, which are then edited by blending them together into one seamless novel-length story. In addition several volumes in the series are stand-alone complete novels written by a single Wild Cards author. Wild Cards was inspired by traditional superhero comics, and many of the authors play with the conventions of the medium, while some characters are based on existing heroes (for example, Jetboy was modeled on the Hillman Periodicals' character Airboy).