Knaves Over Queens
by the Wild Card Collective
edited by George R.R. Martin
and Melinda Snodgrass
Thank God for this book. After the debacle of Texas Hold ‘Em and my mixed feelings about Joker Moon I was worried for the franchise. After twenty plus books, not every one of them a shining star, it would be easy to think the heat death of the Wild Cards universe was approaching. This book banished my fears.
The beauty of a real-time concept like Wild Cards is you get to have your cake and eat it too. They don’t ever have to reboot it. Time progresses, decades and styles change, and new generations of characters emerge to the take the reins. Buuuuut—if you ever need to go back to the well, it’s right there. Untold tales of characters dead or missing, famous events from the established canon seen through new eyes, the sky is the limit.
Knaves Over Queens goes back to the well, putting it into a special category alongside the original debut novel Wild Cards and volume thirteen Card Sharks. Like volume one and volume thirteen Knaves is a shared world anthology that goes back to not just the first days of Wild Cards, but the first day, Wild Card Day, when an alien virus was released into Earth’s atmosphere, bringing with it death, mutation, and for a lucky few, incredible power.
If you haven’t read any of my Wild Cards reviews before, here’s the deal: Just after WWII, alien scientists used Earth to test what they called the Enhancer. It was meant to enhance their own psychic powers, but the random results and high death toll made them reluctant to test it on themselves. We called it the wild card. Of every 100 infected that “turn their card”, 90 die (black queen), 9 become hideous freaks (jokers), and one fortunate survivor manifests superhuman abilities (aces).
Obviously, this changes history in strange ways. The world of Wild Cards is a funhouse mirror version of our own. McCarthy and HUAC went after red aces instead of commie actors. An ace bodyguard saved Gandhi’s life. Fidel Castro was a pitching coach instead of a dictator. Aces are celebrities. Instead of American Idol there is American Hero (Wild Cards did it before The Boys). Meanwhile, jokers are spit on. Jokers are the oppressed underclass beneath all underclasses.
Except for volume four Aces Abroad, and some foreign locales during the much later Card Sharks and Committee trilogies, we see this alternate world through the lens of the American experience. Knaves Over Queens tells the story of Wild Cards from day one as seen from “across the pond”. From the chaos immediately following the outbreak of the virus to the founding of the Order of the Silver Helix (a chivalric order and Britain’s official super team) to the mod scene in London’s swinging 60s to the use of aces as weapons in the Falklands War, the history of this alternate England deepens with each page.
Naturally, some stories are stronger than others and there are more good ones than not. Personal favorites include both stories with Capt. Flint, a character last seen in the Card Sharks trilogy, the tales introducing the insidious new villain Badb, and especially a very touching piece of writing titled The Visitor. I’m not ashamed to say it wrung a tear from my eye toward the end. Alongside volume one’s Witness, The Visitor is Wild Cards at its finest.
Even the more middle of the road stories were pretty good. Police on My Back was okay but not great. I was hoping for something more focused on "joker punks" as it was set in the 80s and the protagonist was first seen was wearing a biker jacket. Because his specific mutation made him averse to sunlight, featuring the city’s nightlife seemed like a natural choice. I wanted to see joker punks and the Brit kids that wanted to be like them, integrated into gangs of rowdy youth.
Probationary was another of the lesser lights. There was nothing wrong with it and it featured a nice dose of action, but it was a straightforward telling of the alternate history Falklands War with no real surprises or emotional hook. New ace Archimedes accompanies a seasoned Sikh ace called the Lion to assist the British naval detachment asserting their claim upon the disputed Falkland Islands. That’s it. This one could have been condensed into an informational interstitial article like those peppering the original novel Wild Cards.
Every story adds more depth to the Wild Cards universe and new characters that will no doubt appear in the next book. The cast is bursting at the seams with unusual heroes and villains, including the literally immortal Winston Churchill and a lycanthropic Mick Jagger. The Machiavellian Badb and a reluctant tree-like terrorist called the Green Man are my favorites.
It also adds a piece of new terminology; knaves, jokers with ace abilities in addition to disfiguring mutations. Only the term itself is new. There have always been jokers with special powers. Knave is the British equivalent of a still-not-yet-canon term used in America, one-eyed jacks. Volume eight was titled One-Eyed Jacks and featured several jokers with potent powers, but the term has never been officially used in a WC book.
Knaves Over Queens can be enjoyed as a one and done offering or as part of the larger tapestry of Wild Card books. There are plenty of Easter eggs for longtime readers, included in such a way that new readers don’t trip over them as conspicuous oddities. For me, this was a powerful return to greatness, and I am excited to dive into the sequel Three Kings.
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