Detailed view for the Book: Card Sharks (Anthology)

Blurb: 
With a new trilogy comes a new publisher, with Baen replacing the familiar Bantam Spectra logo of the previous dozen volumes, and Barclay Shaw taking over from Tim Truman as cover artist. Released a mere month after Turn of the Cards, Card Sharks is subtitled 'Book 1 of a New Cycle', but for this site's purposes will hereafter be referred to as volume 13.

One thing that does return, however, is the old format of individual stories connected by a linking narrative. In this case, The Ashes of Memory (by Stephen Leigh) has 'nat' arson investigator, Hannah Davies, assigned to what seems to be a deliberate attack on Father Squid's church that has left hundreds of jokers dead or severely injured.

After some gentle persuasion from Father Squid himself, and with occasional help from Quasiman, she delves deeper into the reasons behind the fire, only to discover a hidden agenda against the Wild Cards that goes as far back as the virus itself. " 'Til I Kissed You" (by William F. Wu) has Japanese joker Chop-Chop revealing to her his connection with Jack Nicholson, his close encounter with a little rich girl on the wrong side of the tracks, and of the first signs of something rotten in Jokertown.

Hannah makes a hospital visit and meets Dr Finn in The Ashes of Memory Part 2, and in The Crooked Man (by Melinda M. Snodgrass) he tells of the dark period he spent in Kenya as a volunteer for the Peace Corps, and of the part Dr Faneuil played in dealing with the country's AIDS crisis. In The Ashes of Memory Part 3, Hannah turns down a bribe and discovers the right stuff when she reads about A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes (by Michael Cassutt), a memoir chronicling the Wild Cards' involvement in the space race of the fifties.

Hannah faces some personal problems in The Ashes of Memory Part 4, before meeting the Mechanic in A Wind from Khorasan: The Narrative of J. Robert Belew (by Victor Milan), in which he recounts the role he and other aces played in Jimmy Carter's disasterous attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages. Hannah makes a stand in The Ashes of Memory Part 5, before jetting off to Vietnam where she is met by Croyd Crenson who, in The Long Sleep (by Roger Zelazny) remembers his early days, with his introduction to Pan Rudo and their attempts, through hypnosis, to make Croyd master of his own destiny.

Quasiman plays a joke on Hannah in The Ashes of Memory Part 6, before introducing her to a dead man in "Cursum Perficio" (by Kevin Andrew Murphy), as ace Hollywood gumshoe, Nick Williams recounts his experiences with Marilyn Monroe and Orson Welles in the sixties, and a protection job that went badly.

Hannah discovers the enemy hiding in plain site in The Ashes of Memory Part 7, before she hears The Lamia's Tale (by Laura J. Nixon), and learns money doesn't buy happiness in high society, but the Wild Card sometimes can improve the situation, while the final part of The Ashes of Memory has Hannah finding the answers she's been seeking, but looking for help in all the wrong places.