High Stakes: A Wild Cards Novel (Book Three of the Mean Street...

Perfect for old fans and new readers alike, High Stakes (Wild Cards) 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 bu George R. R. Martin and Melinda M. Snodgrass. 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, Kazakhstan. 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. Edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin, High Stakes features the writing talents of Melinda M. Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, David Anthony Durham, Caroline Spector, Stephen Leigh, and Ian Tregillis.The Wild Cards UniverseThe Original Triad#1 Wild Cards#2 Aces High#3 Jokers WildThe Puppetman Quartet#4: Aces Abroad#5: Down and Dirty#6: Ace in the Hole#7: Dead Man’s HandThe Rox Triad#8: One-Eyed Jacks#9: Jokertown Shuffle#10: Dealer’s Choice#11: Double Solitaire#12: Turn of the CardsThe Card Sharks Triad#13: Card Sharks#14: Marked Cards#15: Black Trump#16: Deuces Down#17: Death Draws FiveThe Committee Triad#18: Inside Straight#19: Busted Flush#20: Suicide KingsThe Fort Freak Triad#21: Fort Freak#22: Lowball#23: High StakesThe American Triad#24: Mississippi Roll#25: Low Chicago#26: Texas Hold 'Em At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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“This is a wild ride of good, blood-pumping fun that packs a surprisingly emotional punch for a book that looks on the surface like just another superhero adventure.” ―Publishers Weekly Praise for the Wild Cards series

Austin Grossman, author of Soon I Will be Invincible on Inside Straight

"Delicious...Everything I hoped for in a new Wild Cards book. The character interactions and plot twists have exactly the complexity, surprise, and unsentimental realism I'd expect out of a George R. R. Martin project."

Locus

"Martin has assembled an impressive array of writers. . . . Progressing through the decades, Wild Cards keeps its momentum to the end."

SciFi.com

"The shared-world series known as Wild Cards has had a long and illustrious history of contributors and achievements."

Shelf Awareness on Lowball

"New readers and fans of the long-running series will both love the fast-paced plotting and the ever-expanding history of the Wild Card virus on this alternate Earth, where even the superheroes are human."

SFRevu on Lowball

"Highly recommended."

About the Author

Melinda Snodgrass was a story editor and executive script consultant on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Her acclaimed episode, "The Measure of a Man," was nominated for the Writer's Guild Award for outstanding writing in a drama series. With George R. R. Martin, she cocreated the popular Wild Cards series of shared-world novels and anthologies. She lives in New Mexico.George R. R. Martin has been a full-time writer for over 25 years. He is the author of the acclaimed, internationally bestselling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, which is the basis of HBO's popular Game of Thrones television series. Martin has won multiple science fiction awards, including 4 Hugos, 2 Nebulas, the Bram Stoker, the Locus Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Daedelus, the Balrog, and the Daikon (Japanese Hugo).The Wild Cards Trust is the creator of the Wild Cards series.

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