Reality television has come to the world of George R.R. Martin’s Wild Card series.  Inside Straight, the first of the “new” releases from Tor, uses the Big Brother-esque reality show “American Hero” as a vehicle for introducing the next generation of aces, jokers, and characters, and it works superbly.  There are certainly some familiar faces from the previous books, but the storyline is dominated by the new faces and a new set of struggles that makes the series feel both updated and fresh.  No small achievement in a shared world series that is already over ten books long and has been published, in one form or another, for more than twenty years.

This addition focuses on a group of aces that are out for fame, fortune, and a chance to prove themselves a real “American Hero”.  The book begins with the blog of Jonathan Hive, an ace whose particular power involves a swarm of biting, stinging insects, and Jonathan remains a constant voice in the chapters that follow: a little cynical, a little naive, and a window into both the competition and the various motives and responses of the aces themselves.

The format of  “American Hero” will be familiar to anyone who has ever heard, even vaguely, of a reality television show. An assortment of aces with varying powers are divided into teams and then set up to compete through a series of trials.  They are competing both as a team against other teams and individually against each other – all under the watchful eyes of the cameras, producers, and a large television audience. The set up is nearly perfect as an introduction to a new set of aces and their respective abilities. We, and their television audience, watch them as they experiment with the limits of what they can do, learn to combine abilities and work together, form alliances and make enemies.  Again, the setting of the reality show is useful because it allows the characters to become familiar as a group  without requiring too many shifts in location or viewpoint – letting the story stay tightly plotted and written while having over a dozen characters mature and explore their abilities. Of course, this section has the added benefit that it is interesting, and often hilarious, to watch people thrown together and forced to deal with each other in a competitive environment.

The reality show takes up most of the book, and, while the character interactions are fascinating and watching them flex their muscles and abilities is fun, the real story begins only after one of the characters acquires some new powers, and a destiny that takes him to Egypt and drags his friends along for the ride. There, they need to make choices that are far away from the Hollywood-reality that they inhabited before.  This section of the story contains more violence and less humour with the characters placing their lives on the line for others and facing real danger.  It stands in stark contrast to the posturing that happened on the reality show and highlights the very real difference between crowning a “hero” on television and being a hero in real life.

Inside Straight fits right into the Wild Card universe and delivers an entertaining story while managing to introduce an entire group of new characters.  The separate authors’ styles meld together well, and the book is a fun read and introduction to the newest generation of aces, jokers, and wild cards.

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