Wild Cards: Suicide Kings ed. by George R.R. Martin – review

“Good guys, bad guys – it doesn’t matter. Everybody thinks they’re righteous.” – attributed to Willem Dafoe

Suicide Kings, as the third book of the Committee triad, follows the tradition established by Jokers Wild, the third book of the original Wild Cards triad. While the two preceding books were always composed of alternating chapters penned by the different contributing authors, Suicide Kings is a true mosaic novel in which all of the contributions are edited together into a single continuous story. The chapters are organized into days, starting with the events of November 26th, Thanksgiving Day, and ending with New Year’s Day. Following the events of Busted Flush, in which the People’s Paradise of Africa established itself as the dominant power in Africa, Suicide Kings opens with the PPA spreading its influence onto the world stage through a successful war against The Caliphate of Arabia. Busted Flush also reintroduced the character of Tom “The Radical” Weathers, one of the oldest surviving characters of the Wild Cards continuum, a Marxist fanatic, and the world’s most powerful ace. He also tried to kill the entire Committee and a sizable percentage of New Orleans, so, needless to say, he’s the bad guy.

As if he was not enough of a problem, both the Committee and the Caliphate discover that the PPA has an increasingly large number of aces working with their army against the Caliphate. President Saraj of the Caliphate, having no aces of his own to counter the PPA, enlists the aid of Noel Matthews through blackmail. Noel, seeing no way to defeat the PPA through either direct confrontation or assassination, sets in motion plans to bring down the PPA from within.

Back in America we find Wally “Rustbelt” Gunderson, probably the best character introduced in Inside Straight, growing increasingly disillusioned with both the Committee and his place in it. Unable to find satisfaction in his work for the UN, Rusty has been sponsoring a number of children in Africa. Unfortunately he lost contact with one of these pen-pals, a boy living in the Congo named Lucien, after his last letter told of soldiers coming into his village to collect children for a “special school.” When the Committee turns down Rusty’s request to be posted to the Congo so he can check on Lucien, he decides to go without their support. He realizes however, that he doesn’t have the slightest idea on how he’s going to do that by himself, so he solicits help from Jerusha “Gardener” Carter, and together they attempt to infiltrate the heart of the PPA in search of his little friend.

In the previous two books, one of the contributors would provide a core narrative, a kind of skeleton to which the other contributors would attach their parts of the story. The structure for Suicide Kings is very different. The perspective is constantly rotating between the six point-of-view characters, one for each author, and none of them dominate the others. The result is a book with a much smoother narrative flow and a more even pace than its predecessors.

Suicide Kings is the most realistic book of the triad, and consequently it is the most depressing. George R. R. Martin makes it very clear in the afterward that one of the aims of this novel is to remind us that the problem of child soldiers in Africa is very real and very much a problem of today. In that vein, something I found very interesting was the different ways the various characters handled the children. Alicia Nshombo treated the children of the PPA like her own personal property. Tom Weathers loved and fiercely protected his own daughter, but thought nothing of what had been done to the PPA children or of using them as soldiers in his cause. Noel Matthews ignored the problem until he is confronted with the children’s plight directly, and it is only then that he feels compelled to help. Josephine Hebert identifies with them as victims, and considers her own anger and pain to be one and the same as their own. Michelle Pond becomes obsessed with rescuing one little girl she has connected with, and along the way barely hesitates to kill another little girl to protect herself. Jerusha Carter and Wally Gunderson both decide that they owe the children no less than to put their own lives at stake to protect them, and Wally never gives up on any child no matter what they have done or had done to them. What is so bizarre and yet disturbingly insightful is what makes them all the same. They all see themselves as doing what is right and necessary. Nshombo and Weathers saw themselves as every bit as moral and heroic as we see Rusty and Gardner, and that is what makes them truly frightening figures.

Suicide Kings was exactly what I was hoping for as the conclusion of the triad. It is a rip-roaring story which is also capable of making you think and feel. It is also an interesting counterpart to Inside Straight, each book representing the opposing extremes of power and heroism. If you enjoyed the books in the triad so far, Suicide Kings has a lot to offer you. Check it out.

About Aaron Teiser

Aaron is not an ace fighter pilot, international man of mystery, masked crime fighter, leader of the free world, or intergalactic bounty hunter... yet.