A review by apostrophen
Wild Cards V: Down and Dirty by George R.R. Martin

4.0

I blame jaybird1977 for my addiction to thise series, and he will pay. Oh yes, he will. Basically, around the time of WWII, an alien virus was let loose over New York, and spread around the world. Called the 'Wild Card' virus, the effects are quite random. Nine out of ten people draw the "black queen" and die. Of the survivors, nine out of ten draw a "joker" and end up deformed in some massive way. Of those one in a hundred survivors who draw neither, they might draw an "ace" (and basically end up with super-powers) or a "deuce" (and end up with not-so-super powers).

In this collection, a mafia vs. gangs war has broken out in 'Jokertown' where most of the deformed Jokers live, a ghetto in New York, and between the mafia, the gangs, the aces and jokers involved, things get ugly. There is also the continuation of two other plots - the sincerely disturbing Ti Malice, the hate-mongering Reverand Leo Barnett, and the hidden Ace Gregg Hartman, whose powers of manipulation are pulling him further and further towards presidency. The cast of characters are just as solid as ever, and I, for one, was very happy to see the return of the Turtle, my favourite character to date.

Solid stuff, with a nice ending that makes you twinge for the next in the series, which I shall order post haste...