Wild Cards (Wild Cards, 1)

Death comes quickly and painfully to most of the victims when the Wild Card virus strikes. But others are transformed: some horribly, into grotesque "jokers"; a lucky few into superhuman "aces". The alien virus arrived just after WWII--and Earth would never be the same. Roger Zelazny's "The Sleeper" is the story of Croyd Crenson, just an ordinary ninth grader--until the virus changes him into a protean ace who only sleeps every few months, and never knows what he'll be when he wakes up. "Witness" by Walter Jon Williams examines the House Un-American Activities Committee response to real-life superheroes. George R.R. Martin's "Shell Games" takes us into the strange world of the Wild Card ghetto, Jokertown. And Wild Cards brings you equally riveting tales by Howard Waldrop, Lewis Shiner, Victor Milan, Leanne C. Harper, Stephen Leigh, Melinda M. Snodgrass and Edward Bryant.