A review by gerrce
Aces Abroad by Leanne C. Harper, Michael Cassutt, Victor Milán, Gail Gerstner-Miller, Edward Bryant, Melinda M. Snodgrass, John J. Miller, Walton Simons, George R.R. Martin, Richard Kriegler, Stephen Leigh

4.0

This book went back to the style of formatting used in books 1 and 2, with each author writing distinct chapters. After the crazy events of Wild Card Day covered in book 3, the public's opinion of wild cards (aces and jokers both) drops and they're all seen as more trouble than they are worth. To help with the ace PR problem, an international tour is proposed for some of the American aces and jokers to see how their fellows fare in other countries. The official reason is to improve the lives of jokers internationally, but the tour's real purpose is to improve the regards of American nats for their homegrown aces and jokers. It was a cool change of pace because the other three books definitely focus mostly on wild cards and conflicts in New York City. I was especially happy to learn more about Chrysalis. There was a lot of conflict surrounding Gregg Hartman and a reporter who seems to suspect his true nature, and it was intense. I never found Peregrine interesting in previous books but she was pretty great in this one. Fortunato appeared but his involvement in the story was kept to a minimum (which I approved of). There were also of course a variety of new aces and jokers to meet, new villains, future conflicts hinted at for future books, etc.

This book was about as emotionally upsetting/rivetting as #1 was. This series tends to flip flop between really disgusting or scary horrors to terribly sad plot twists--readers will not be bored.