George R. R. Martin Presents Wild Cards: Sleeper Straddle: A Novel in Stories --

<b>An original collection of interwoven short stories set in the Wild Cards universe, where an alien virus mutates some and grants superpowers to others, created by the #1 <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>A Game of Thrones</i></b> <p/>An alien virus ravages the world, with effects as random as a hand of cards. Those infected either draw the black queen and die, draw an ace and receive superpowers, or draw the joker and are bizarrely mutated. <p/>Croyd Crenson is the Wild Card's greatest failure--and its greatest success. Dubbed "The Sleeper," he randomly undergoes hibernations that can span days, weeks, or even months. After each hibernation, he awakens with a new appearance and set of powers--sometimes a joker, sometimes an ace, and sometimes a combination of both--until exhaustion claims him and his next inevitable sleep shuffles the cards anew. Ever since his initial infection in 1946, he's awoken in a singular body--until now. His latest awakening has left him split into six different incarnations, each of them a self-contained piece of the original and each with a unique look and ability. <p/>One of them, at least, recognizes this for the disaster that it is, and tasks the clever and elusive Tesla--a joker with ace powers--to locate and gather the remaining five versions of himself before sleep claims them again and leaves Croyd permanently fractured. <p/>What follows is a journey through Croyd's long and colorful life, through the lens of some who have en