Deuces Down (novel)

Wild Cards Volume XVI — Deuces Down
Published By	iBooks
First Published	2002 (hardcover)
Previous Novel	Black Trump
Following Novel	Death Draws Five

Deuces Down is the sixteenth volume in the Wild Cards shared universe fiction series edited by George R.R. Martin.

Plot

This is an anthology of unrelated stories spanning four decades. The focus is on 'Deuces' - the 'almost-aces' with negligible powers that are often more trouble than they're worth.

Book Cover

This cover is a departure from the rest of the covers in the series. No characters from the stories appear on the cover, and the title of the book is not immediately apparent. The title is, in fact, printed upside-down in a gloss ink over the words "Wild Cards". The art here was done by comic book artist Jim Steranko.

Trivia

This is the first book of the series to have no unifying plot. Although all the stories contain the central theme of Deuces being the main protagonists, the stories are otherwise unrelated.

Stories

Deuces Down contains the following stories:

Story	Author	Description
"Storming Space"	Michael Cassutt	Follows a clandestine effort to travel to the moon before Apollo.
"Four Days In October"	John Jos. Miller	Digger Downs and the discovery of his powers.
"Walking the Floor Over You"	Walton Simons	Carlotta Desoto, Bob and Croyd get into an adventure. Also includes appearances by Jube the Walrus, and Great Ape.
"A Face for the Cutting Room Floor"	Melinda Snodgrass	Deals with Bradley Finn as a young man in Hollywood and a secret ace he uncovers.
"Father Henry’s Little Miracle"	Daniel Abraham	Follows the adventures of a Jokertown priest who can turn water into alcohol.
"Promises"	Stephen Leigh	A deuce from the U.S. lands on the Irish island of Rathlin, where jokers have been banished since the 1960s.
"With a Flourish and a Flair"	Kevin Andrew Murphy	Topper loses her magic hat and must try to track it down with the help of a joker artist named Swash and an all-joker boy band .