The island of Keun lies off the coast of Cornwall, connected to the mainland only by an ancient, tidal causeway. It is a magical place, where anything can happen. The mansion crowning the island is owned by Lord Branok, a mysterious billionaire who is also a wild card of some sort—but whether he is an ace, a joker or a knave, no one is quite sure.
Parties at Loveday House are legendary—for adventure, for intrigue, for love, for danger—and guests may take on whatever personae and masks they choose when they attend. Parts of the house seem to exist out of time, and the Wild Hunt is reputed to ride the island. And haunting the house is its original owner: a woman determined to regain control over her domain—by any means necessary.
Wild Cards: House Rules is the thirty-fourth book in the Wild Cards series. Edited by George R.R. Martin and featuring several authors, it was published on February 25, 2025, from Bantam Books.
The whole framing concept of this collection of tales has a very gothic vibe to it. It immediately made me think of The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. The first tale in the book, Stephen Leigh's "Promises Redux", plays well into that.
Caroline Spector serves up a holiday whodunit with "Bah, Humbug, Murder", bringing in various characters from previous books. It is always fun to see different personalities colliding in a crossover mini-mystery like this one.
Peter Newmans "Two Lovedays", another of the longer tales (novellas really), focuses Stuart "Hero McHeroface" and his sister Kelly. The trade-off narrative between the two actually works rather well. It certainly kept the story moving along.
As often happens with anthologies, some stories I connect with better than others. That certainly happened once again here. Also, with stories by various authors all tied to a particular setting (this time, Loveday House), there is a bit of overlap in repeating certain facts and details. While it is good that the stories are not contradicting one another, it sometimes get repetitive for the reader to be reminded of the various details in each tale.
No comments:
Post a Comment