During the 74th Worldcon in Kansas City, MO, from August 17-21, 2016, George R.R. Martin and a bevy of Wild Cards authors will celebrate the release of High Stakes, the 23rd installment in the science fiction superhero shared-universe series. Rainy Day Books is hosting a huge High Stakes signing on Friday, August 19, beginning at 5 p.m. CST, which will include a staggering amount of authors including current and past Wild Cards contributors.
George R.R. Martin will appear and autograph the new book High Stakes alongside:
Wild Cards assistant editor Melinda Snodgrass/Phillipa Bornikova
High Stakes co-authors Stephen Leigh, John Joseph Miller, Caroline Spector, Ian Tregillis
And other Wild Cards series contributors:
- Carrie Vaughn
- Max Gladstone
- David D. Levine
- Parris
- Pat Cadigan
- Marko Kloos
- Gail Gerstner Miller
- Mary Anne Mohanraj
- Kevin Andrew Murphy
- Diana Rowland
- Walton (Bud) Simons
- Bob Wayne
- Walter Jon Williams
- Michael Cassutt
Here’s what you need to know about Wild Cards: High Stakes:
Perfect for old fans and new readers alike, High Stakes (Wild Cards #23) delves deeper into the world of aces, jokers, and the hard-boiled men and women of the Fort Freak police precinct in a pulpy, page-turning novel of superheroics and Lovecraftian horror. After the concluding events of Lowball, Officer Francis Black of Fort Freak, vigilante joker Marcus “The Infamous Black Tongue” Morgan, and ace thief Mollie “Tesseract” Steunenberg get stuck in Talas, Kyrgyzstan. There, the coldblooded Baba Yaga forces jokers into an illegal fighting ring, but her hidden agenda is much darker: her fighters’ deaths serve to placate a vicious monster from another dimension. When the last line of defense against this world weakens, all hell breaks loose, literally. The Committee in New York sends a team of aces to investigate. One by one, each falls victim to evil forces, including the dark impulses within themselves. Only the perseverance of the most unlikely of heroes has a chance of saving the world before utter chaos erupts on Earth.
Martin added on his Not A Blog:
High Stakes is the third and concluding volume in the triad that began with Fort Freak and continued with Lowball. It’s the twenty-third volume in the overall series, but don’t let that intimidate you, boys and girls. It is NOT necessary to have read all of the preceding twenty-two volumes to make sense of this one… though it would help to have read the aforementioned Lowball and Fort Freak.
This one is a “full mosaic,” like many of the other climactic volumes of our triads; there are no individual stories per se, but rather six storylines featuring six different viewpoint characters, interwoven so as to create a full on collaborative novel. Which is a lot of work for all concerned, yes, but our fans and readers seem to think it’s well worth it.
In High Stakes, the participating writers (and their featured characters) are John Jos. Miller (the Midnight Angel), Caroline Spector (the Amazing Bubbles), Ian Tregillis (Tesseract), Melinda M. Snodgrass (Franny Black), Stephen Leigh (Babel), and David Anthony Durham (the Infamous Black Tongue). Editing by yours truly, assisted by Melinda Snodgrass.
Fair warning, this one is not for the faint of heart. High Stakes is our Lovecraftian horror volume, and things get pretty dark. But it’s when things are darkest that heroes are most needed…
The event is open to the public, so Worldcon badges are not required. Check out Rainy Day Books for more information and to purchase your Admission Package.
