George R. R. Martin presents wild cards, sleeper straddle : a novel of stores / Christopher Rowe, Carrie Vaughn, Cherie Priest, William F Wu, Walter John Williams, Stephen Leigh, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Max Gladstone, George R R Martin, Melinda M Snodgrass.

"A collection of interwoven short stories set in the Wild Cards universe, where an alien virus mutates some and grants superpowers to others. Those infected either draw the black queen and die, draw an ace and receive superpowers, or draw the joker and are bizarrely mutated. 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 until exhausted he inevitable sleeps and 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.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. What follows is a journey through Croyd's long and colorful life, through the lens of some who have encountered the world's most unusual wild carder. And as Tesla delves deeper into the investigation, he'll have to work fast, because not every Croyd is as amiable as the first-and they'll do whatever it takes to survive. "--