G.R.R.M.'s shared universe series Wild Cards is in development, and I couldn’t be happier.
Cool. I hope at least some of it occurs in the 50’s I loved the stories on McCarthyism, and the Aces that cooperated vs those that didn’t.
That syfy is involved is a bit troubling, however.
I read the first few books of the anthology back in the early 90s, and enjoyed them, though there were some fairly grisly bits that turned me off (one particular scene involving the villain The Astronomer still sticks in my mind).
I can’t wait to see the cast of characters that will play Captain Trips, and if they take this to Siffy Fortunato will have to be toned down a bit.
Yeah, that story (“Witness” by Walter Jon Williams) is really good.
I enjoyed the first handful of books, but was overwhelmingly turned off by some of the later books with Blaise and Tachyon and body-switching rapes, and I stopped reading. Uggh.
I would expect them to drop Fortunato completely and maybe Angel-Face also.
There’s some really good stuff that could be used for a drama series. There’s fun stuff also, of course, but, the story** Andy L** referenced, Witness is relevant in today’s political climate.
And what happened with Brain Trust could be used to shine a light on mental health issues.
Not really. It depends on who is directly behind it. I thought The Expanse was really good in it’s first season on syfy.
The fact that Melinda Snodgrass will be heavily involved is a good sign. She was involved in the books from the beginning.
Cool, this time I get to be one of the Unsullied and demand no spoilers whatsoever in show threads…
I don’t think it will be as big a deal. It is a shared world series. Tons of different authors had their hand in it. There wasn’t exactly a central plot running through the books. I’m sure they will borrow big chunks from the books but they will have to make up a more coherent story arc. That will be a surprise to the readers as much as the non-readers. And it was a couple of decades ago so I might as well have not read them at all.
I just wish they weren’t so hit and miss, and so quick to go lowest-common.
That might cause some problems, given copyright and royalties and all that. I used to game with Steve Perrin, who provided a couple characters (Cyclone, Mistral and Digger Downs). I don’t know that Martin would want to deal with bringing in another dozen or so authors just to get the rights to use their characters, let alone their plots. Then again, he could be willing to delegate. I just hope he’s not so burned out on GoT that he gets a year into this and says “Screw this, I’m out.”
I’m currently reading the first one. So far, my favorite character is The Great and Mighty Turtle. He’s got a neat trick, but he doesn’t have what it takes to be a hero… so he thinks about it intelligently, and figures out how to become a hero anyway.
Yeah, I wonder if they’ll just start with the basic setting and the characters that belong to that setting, and invent new characters rather than use ones that belong to other authors.
…I’ve just read the list of Wild Card characters on wiki, and it is very “old school sci fi” isn’t it? There are very few female characters, and the ones that they have aren’t treated very well. For example:
Peregrine
“She is the host of the popular and long running talk show “Peregrines Perch” as well as an important television personality and sex symbol who appeared in Playboy magazine.”
Wraith
“However, the limitations of her powers—that she could only “ghost” items of low mass and density—determined not only that her “work clothes” would consist only of a mask and a bikini, it also limited what she could steal to small, mostly paper goods.”
And some of what has been written in this thread doesn’t make it sound very appealing at all and not a series I would like to see unless they do some substantial modernization. But hey, I haven’t read the books. So thoughts on my thoughts?
You haven’t read the books.
They’re really quite good, with a lot of good female characters.
Ten years ago, I could have said exactly the same thing about Game of Thrones. It seems to have worked out pretty well, from what I’ve heard.
There must have been some sort of contract before the books were published. Martin didn’t have any rights to the characters? I don’t know how those shared world novels worked legally.
According to the article Martin won’t be hands on at all. Melinda Snorgrass who was his partner on the books will be the executive producer.
Wild Cards was one of the first major projects that took the concept of superheroes and asked what if they were in the real world? I guess Watchmen did the same about a year earlier but I wasn’t exposed to that. The heroes had powers but there was no Superman. All were flawed. None made the right decisions all the time. Basically they took the cliches of comic books and tried to make them more realistic. To a certain extent the more recent MCU movies have been doing that too but Wild Cards did it 20 years earlier.
I want to see Demise as a background character who is constantly finding himself in some everyday annoying situation, sighing visibly, taking his sunglasses off, locking eyes with the person causing the problem, and walking away shaking his head as the body falls. No lines, no plot development, just a little instant karma every couple of episodes.
Also, Croyd scoring a bag of blue meth from Badger and Skinny Pete.
Yes, I know there is a reason I don’t get to be in charge of things.
I’ve read the Wild Cards books from the beginning, and I’m skeptical about a TV series. The best and most tv friendly parts of the books are a kind of superhero noir, set in Jokertown (for the uninitiated, the bowery turned into a ghetto for those no longer human enough to pass after the virus). The special effects budget could get blown on a single street scene.
Also, one of the best aspects of the books is the fact the world depicted is wildly divergent from our own. Not only are the celebrities and politicians different, the middle east and parts of South America are ruled by powerful Aces, The US had an evangelical president, New York never gentrified, and so on.
I also like the fact that powers are depicted realistically- most super fights are ugly and short. The Turtle, who others have been talking about, for instance- in the books widely regarded as one of the most powerful beings on earth. Once lifted a battleship to demonstrate his power Protected by six inches of armor plate, airbags, fire suppression system, emergency oxygen supply, etc. Who takes him out? A woman who can manipulate blood sugar levels remotely.