The Best Original Superhero Prose Fiction I Have Read
Discover the best original superhero prose fiction books I've read! Explore thrilling, action-packed novels with unique heroes, epic battles, and gripping storytelling for comic fans and readers alike.
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Wild Cards
by George R. R. Martin
Eleven visionary authors tackle a single provocative theme: after the alien virus struck humanity in the wake of World War II, a handful of the survivors found they possessed superhuman powers. The Wild Cards shared-world volumes tell their story.
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Aces High
by Lewis Shiner
"After the alien virus struck humanity in the wake of World War II, a handful of the survivors found they possessed superhuman powers. The Wild Cards shared-world volumes tell their story. Here in book two, we trace these heroes and villains through the tumultuous 1980s, in stories from SF and fantasy giants such as George R.R. Martin, Roger Zelazny, Pat Cadigan, Lewis Shiner, Walter Jon Williams, and others"--Amazon.com.
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Jokers Wild
by George R. R. Martin
The streets of New York have erupted in celebration of Wild Card Day -- the annual event held every September 15th to remember the dead and cherish the living. It is a day for fireworks and street fairs and parades, for political rallies and memorial banquets, for drinking and fighting in the alleys. With each passing year, the festivities become larger and more fevered. And this year -- 1986, the fortieth anniversary -- promises to be the biggest and best Wild Card Day ever. The media and tourists have discovered the celebration, and taverns and restaurants expect record-setting business. But lurking in the background is a twisted genius who cares nothing for fun and festivity. The Astronomer has only one concern: destruction...
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Aces Abroad
by George R. R. Martin
What would our world be like if superhuman heroes and villains had been real flesh-and-blood men and women who lived through the 20th century's most turbulent history? In Wild Cards 4: Aces Abroad, a fact-finding mission seeks the truth about how Wild Cards are treated in other nations. From the jungles of Haiti to the Great Wall of China and behind the Iron Curtain, the Wild Cards team investigates the fate of their fellow Aces and Jokers everywhere.
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Down and Dirty
by George R. R. Martin
WILD CARDS V: DOWN AND DIRTY George R.R. Martin, ed. The fifth volume in the Wild Cards alternate universe saga is set in the New York City of 1986. The simmering streets of Jokertown have erupted, as gang war breaks out between ruthless rivals: the Shadow Fists and the Mafia. As the violence rages out of control, even the metahuman Aces and Jokers alike are forced to go underground and wage their own war against the powers of the netherworld! The fifth volume of the reissued "shared world" superhero series created by current "New York Times" bestselling author George R.R. Martin. First trade paperback edition! Features stories by ROGER ZELAZNY, MELINDA M. SNODGRASS, GEORGE R.R. MARTIN, and ARTHUR BYRON COVER. Cover art by internationally acclaimed artist BRIAN BOLLAND.
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Dead Man's Hand
by George R. R. Martin
The brutal murder of Chrysalis, the glass-skinned queen of the Joker underworld, leads Ace private investigator Jay Ackroyd and the Yeoman, who has been framed for the crime, to search for the killer
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Deuces Down
by George R. R. Martin
As with the other books in the series, 'Deuces Down' is set in an alternate, shared-world universe. It's here that you'll find the never-before-told tales of the exciting 1969 World series and the first moon landing, when nobody was watching.
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Inside Straight
by Wild Cards Trust
Now in development for TV: Rights to develop Wild Cards for TV have been acquired by Universal Cable Productions, the team that brought you The Magicians and Mr. Robot, with the co-editor of Wild Cards, Melinda Snodgrass as executive producer. In 1946, an alien virus that rewrites human DNA was accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It killed ninety percent of those it infected. Nine percent of those who survived mutated into tragically deformed creatures. And one percent gained superpowers. The Wild Cards shared-universe series, created and edited since 1987 by New York Times #1 bestseller George R. R. Martin along with Melinda Snodgrass, is the tale of the history of the world since then—and of the heroes among that one percent. Originally begun in 1987, long before George R. R. Martin became a household name among fantasy readers ("The American Tolkien" --Time magazine), the Wild Cards series earned a reputation among connoisseurs for its smart reimagining of the superhero idea. Now, with Inside Straight, the Wild Cards continuity jumps forward to a new generation of major characters, entirely accessible to Martin's hundreds of thousands of new readers, with all-original stories by Martin himself, along with Daniel Abraham, Michael Cassutt, and Stephen Leigh, among others.
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Busted Flush
by Stephen Leigh
From the #1 New York Times bestseller, the second of a new generation of Wild Cards tales
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The Scent of Shadows
by Vicki Pettersson
When she was sixteen, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert. By rights, she should be dead. Now a photographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset—a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow—seeking answers to whom or what she really is . . . and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure. But the nightmare is just beginning—for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful shadows want her for their own . . .
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The Taste of Night
by Vicki Pettersson
Equal parts Light and Shadow, Joanna Archer must fulfill a destiny she never wanted. Once a photographer and heiress to a casino fortune, she is now dedicated to the cause of good . . . but susceptible to the seductions of evil. A deadly virus is descending on Las Vegas—a terrifying plague unleashed by the powerful overlord of Zodiac's dark side: Joanna's father. Chaos and panic grip Sin City as agents of Light fall prey to the terrifying epidemic. Death reigns supreme—and Joanna stands at dead center of an epic and terrible war long foretold, the last hope of a damned world. But first she must somehow conquer the malevolence that grows all around her . . . and within.
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Those Who Walk in Darkness
by John Ridley
Soledad "Bullet" O'Roark writes her own rules. Usually it gets her in trouble. On her first day with the L.A.P.D.'s elite Mtac squad, Soledad takes down an outlawed super-powered freak with a weapon she designed herself-a definite violation. Her love life is no less chaotic. It's hard to find a decent guy with nothing to hide. But there's not much room in Soledad's life for romance when a cop-killer is on the loose. The "baddest" freak of all, this one can control people's minds and make them commit anything he wants... including murder.
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Devil's Cape
by Rob Rogers
A city where corruption and heroism walk hand-in-hand, and justice and mercy are bought and paid for in blood. Then a new band of vigalantes rises from the ashes of one of the city's most horrific murders
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Gladiator
by Philip Wylie
First published in 1930, Gladiator is the tale of Hugo Danner, a man endowed from birth with extraodinary strength and speed. But Danner is no altruist. He spends his life trying to cope with his abilities, becoming a sports hero in college, later a sideshow act, a war hero, never truly finding peace with himself. The character of Danner inspired both Superman's creators, and Lester Dent's Doc Savage. But Wylie, an editor with the New Yorker, sought to develop more than a pulp hero. His Gladiator provides surprising insights into the difficulties suffered by the truly gifted when born in our midst.