Over 16,539,498 people are on fubar.
What are you waiting for?
Wild Cards is a series of shared-universe novels (a work that several writers share telling stories in.) set in a world where people have superhuman abilities. The world was exposed to a virus designed by an alien race called the Taksians which became known as the Wild Card virus.
The virus, once infecting a person (only people are affected) usually kills 90% of those infected, The 10% left are either Jokers (people with deformities like scaly skin, one goat leg, etc...), Aces (people with abilities like flight, telepathy, telekinesis, force fields, etc...) or carriers that can get exposed to it at a later date or pass the virus onto their children.
The world first started having Wild Cards (a name that groups together all those affected by the virus) since 1945. The books were put out with the tagline "the Secret History of Our Times" with the first book going from 1945 up to the 1970's. Each book thereafter took place a year or so behind to give it a feel of history that we didn't know about.
For me, these books were a form of entertainment for when I didn't have a lot of money to go to movies, festivals, or any other thing that people with stable incomes enjoy. I remember scrounging up the money to buy the newest book when it came out. Anyone who seen me back then would see me reading the Wild Card books whenever I could. Bus rides, rides up north to a friend's cabin, lunch breaks at temp jobs, all of these were times I would sit and read these books.
The series had been restarted recently with WILD CARDS: INSIDE STRAIGHT a place to catch up or jump on. I would suggest finding the first series and trying to read them. An escape worthy of the word...
