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Wild Cards Volume V — Down and Dirty
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Published By
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Bantam Books
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First Published
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1988 (softcover)
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Previous Novel
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Wild Cards Volume IV: Aces Abroad
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Following Novel
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Wild Cards Volume VI: Ace in the Hole
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Down and Dirty is the fifth volume in the Wild Cards shared universe fiction series edited by George R.R. Martin.
Plot[]
The stories in this volume tell of the events in New York City involving two outbreaks; the outbreak of a gang war between the Mafia and the Shadow Fists gangs controlled by Kien Phuc, a war which soon spills out of control into the streets of New York. Against this backdrop, the second outbreak occurs; the outbreak of a new, mutant strain of wild card virus, courtesy of the ever-shifting powers of the Sleeper, Croyd Crenson in his "Typhoid Croyd" phase.
Trivia[]
- The stories "Only the Dead Know Jokertown", "All the King's Horses", "Concerto for Siren and Serotonin", and "Blood Ties" are told in recurring chapters which alternate with the other stories throughout the book.
- An afterword George R.R. Martin penned in 2002, offers an insight into a very troubled production for this Wild Cards volume. Originally the gang war between the Shadow Fists and the Gambiones was to have been the backbone of the plot, but this idea was rejected by Bantam's editor on the basis of overuse elsewhere. The question of whether the plot would take place concurrently with the WHO Tour of the previous book, or after the Stacked Deck returned to New York also sparked disagreement among the writers. The compromise ideas of introducing a new wild card strain and having a chronology overlap satisfied both the publisher and the writers, but this proved to be problematic when the various manuscripts were compiled, and needed to be extensively reworked in order to build a story.
Stories[]
Down and Dirty contains the following stories:
| Story | Author(s) | Description |
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| Only the Dead Know Jokertown | John J. Miller | Yeoman infiltrates Kien's gang as things heat up in New York's underworld. |
| All the King's Horses | George R.R. Martin | The Great and Powerful Turtle must find a way to get back into his shell. |
| Concerto for Siren and Serotonin | Roger Zelazny | The Sleeper is hired by the Mob to do a few "special" hits, but is unaware of his contagion. |
| Breakdown | Leanne C. Harper | Mafia princess turned district attorney Rosemary Muldoon gets Bagabond and Sewer Jack unwillingly involved in the growing gang war. |
| Jesus Was an Ace | Arthur Byron Cover | Reverend Leo Barnett saves Quasiman's life. |
| Blood Ties | Melinda M. Snodgrass | Dr. Tachyon helps Jokertown prepare to defend itself during the gang war. |
| The Second Coming of Buddy Holly | Edward Bryant | An Aids-Wild Card awareness concert may bring rocker Buddy Holley -- who is still alive in this universe -- out of retirement, and will change his life more than he knows. |
| The Hue of a Mind | Stephen Leigh | An Arab woman with precognition sees the secrets of Puppetman. |
| Addicted to Love | Pat Cadigan | The parasitic Ti Malice has come to New York, looking for new "mounts" to live through. |
| Takedown | Leanne C. Harper | The Mob turns against Rosemary as the war goes against them. |
| Mortality | Walter Jon Williams | Being killed once has given Modular Man a fear of Death that propels his efforts to hunt down The Sleeper. |
Cover Gallery[]
SF Book Club HC ed.
Bantam PB (1st ed.)
Bantam PB (2nd ed.)
iBooks PB reprint ed.
Titan (UK) PB
Heyne (German) PB (pt.1)
Heyne (German) PB (Pt. 2)
Brazilian front cover 2016