![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Pat's Fantasy Hotlist is giving away five sets of the first two volumes of the latest Wild Cards trilogy, in advance of the release of SUICIDE KINGS, the third volume, on the 22nd of this month.
The first volume, INSIDE STRAIGHT, starts up the triad with a set of stories about "American Hero" -- a reality show featuring a new crew of aces, though things rapidly go awry in the real world outside the show, and Our Heroes must deal with true sacrifice and death.
In BUSTED FLUSH, the second volume, Our Heroes have created a Committee sanctioned by U.N. to deal with crises around the world -- and they do, in three separate locations, and they must deal with their own internal conflicts as well.
Both INSIDE STRAIGHT and BUSTED FLUSH are 'threaded novels' -- individual stories held together by the 'mortar' of an interstitial story that contains the main narrative and thematic thread. SUICIDE KINGS will be -- as all the final books of the various WIld Cards triads have been -- a "full mosaic novel", with each writer writing scenes from the viewpoint of their character, and the entire narrative presented as one piece. Full mosaic novels require an incredible amount of work and cooperation between the writers (and lots of drafting and rewriting), and an incredible amount of work on the part of the editors (George RR Martin, with the able assistance of Melinda Snodgrass) to make certain that everything is consistent and flows naturally from one scene to the next.
But it's all worth it... as you'll see when SUICIDE KINGS comes out. In the meantime, here's a chance to get FREE copies of the first two volumes, so you're all prepared. Go enter Pat's contest, and I hope you win!
The first volume, INSIDE STRAIGHT, starts up the triad with a set of stories about "American Hero" -- a reality show featuring a new crew of aces, though things rapidly go awry in the real world outside the show, and Our Heroes must deal with true sacrifice and death.
In BUSTED FLUSH, the second volume, Our Heroes have created a Committee sanctioned by U.N. to deal with crises around the world -- and they do, in three separate locations, and they must deal with their own internal conflicts as well.
Both INSIDE STRAIGHT and BUSTED FLUSH are 'threaded novels' -- individual stories held together by the 'mortar' of an interstitial story that contains the main narrative and thematic thread. SUICIDE KINGS will be -- as all the final books of the various WIld Cards triads have been -- a "full mosaic novel", with each writer writing scenes from the viewpoint of their character, and the entire narrative presented as one piece. Full mosaic novels require an incredible amount of work and cooperation between the writers (and lots of drafting and rewriting), and an incredible amount of work on the part of the editors (George RR Martin, with the able assistance of Melinda Snodgrass) to make certain that everything is consistent and flows naturally from one scene to the next.
But it's all worth it... as you'll see when SUICIDE KINGS comes out. In the meantime, here's a chance to get FREE copies of the first two volumes, so you're all prepared. Go enter Pat's contest, and I hope you win!