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Wild Cards Volume XVI — Deuces Down
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Published By
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iBooks
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First Published
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2002 (hardcover)
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Previous Novel
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Following Novel
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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[]
As originally published, 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.
The 2021 reprint adds three new stories, one of them an interstitial story forming an overall narrative for the book. To suit this, the original stories have been reordered.
Quotes[]
Stories[]
Deuces Down contains the following stories:
| Story | Author | Description |
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| "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 . |
Reprint[]
The 2021 expanded edition contains the following additional stories:
| Story | Author | Description |
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| "Age of Wonders" | Carrie Vaughn | A Frame Story in which Raleigh Jackson starts a new job at Aces! Magazine and discovers the stories of the other characters presented in the book. |
| "Tasty" | Mary Anne Mohanraj | Retazos and his crew of Joker handymen try to eke out a living in Jokertown's barrio. |
| "Dry to the Touch" | Caroline Spector | Joe Belenky tries to survive as a janitor for a casino and a cleaner for the mob. |