Discards (Wild Cards) by David D. Levine

Discards (Wild Cards) Reviews

• 
  Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽

  Review first posted at
  www.FantasyLiterature.com:
  
  Discards is a SF novelette set in the WILD CARDS shared universe, an alternative history in which an airborne alien virus was released in New York City after WWII and from there spread worldwide. The virus kills 90% of the humans who come into contact with it and mutates the rest, with 9% (the “Jokers”) developing useless, often repulsive, deformities and just 1% (the “Aces”) gaining superpowers.
  
  Discards takes place in Rio de Janeiro, among the outcasts of society. Tiago, a fifteen-year-old homeless boy who gets by collecting and reselling recyclable materials, wakes up one morning from a feverish sleep to find that he’s contracted the Wild Card virus. It has disfigured Tiago, giving him a patchwork of different skin colors and mismatched features. Rejected by everyone around him, Tiago loses even the small amount of security he had in life, and heads off to try to make a new life with other Jokers, or curinga. It’s a desperate life of poverty, in a world of drugs and violence, but when Tiago discovers that the Wild Card virus has also gifted him with a new ability, new possibilities begin to open up for him.
  
  Levine’s description of the grim life of a street kid in the slums of Rio hits home, with the desperation and the lawlessness underscored by the careless, wealthy tourists who flit in and out of the area. Tiago tries to live an honorable life as best he can, driven to theft but avoiding the greater evil of drug running. His superpower, as he begins to more fully develop it, has a poignant connection to his life as a catadore, a collector of recycled materials, as well as to his status as a person discarded by society, but Tiago learns to make the most of the hand he’s been dealt.
  
  Free online at
  Tor.com.
• 
  Andrew

  Have you ever read a story where you are not sure if the author is trying to make a point or if you are reading (no pun intended) too much in to a story.
  
  Here you have a street child literally having to make a living off other peoples rubbish - when his card turns and he joins the gifted/cursed few that survive the Wild Card virus.
  
  What follows is a whistle stop tour of how he has to find a new life after the old one rejects him and in so doing finds what the cards have dealt him.
  
  Now the initial comment relates to the fact that I am not sure if we are being shown what "gift" this really is or if that even when things look so bleak there is always (with a price) a way out. Am not sure but I felt this story was a little too well constructed and maybe a little contrived but still another interesting story of when the virus visited someone outside of the US
• 
  Anthony

  This is a short story, not a novel, obviously. It is part of the shared universe series created by George R. R. Martin and others many years ago, and still have a devoted though under the radar following.
  This might change soon, with Martin's new minted massive fame, there is series talk of a TV series based on the books and stories.
  
  In this small and unassuming story we meet an orphaned young teenager named Tiago, living in the extreme poverty of the slums Brazil, with the armies of drug gangs vying for control among themselves, while a corrupt government holds back any advance while taking sides in the ongoing turf wars.
  
  When Tiago wakes up in his squat one evening he finds himself changed. The Wild Card Virus has infected him, and though it didn't kill him, it has turned him into a Joker, the feared percentage of the infected that find themselves mutated. Some infected are transformed into monstrosities, while others are so inconspicuously changed that they can almost"pass," for a "Nat" a person uninfected. This isn't the case for Tiago, his skin has been transformed into a patchwork of skin tones and textures. He seems like someone put together from the discarded trash he scavenges for through the dumps around the slums, finding things to sell or create art with.
  
  We follow his effort to make it in the world of the Jokers and drug lords. He slowly becomes aware that like some of those changed into Jokers, he is a Joker-Ace, a Joker with a special ability. He will find a new life looming ahead of him as this short tale ends, as he remakes himself into The Recycler.
  
  This short story does what the shorter stand alone tales of the Wild Card universe do: introduce new protagonists or antagonists; Aces, Jokers and Joker-Aces.
  
  It gets the job done, and is worth a quick read, whether you are new to the shared world, or an old fan like myself.
• 
  Peyton Banks

  I wish I would have read this before High Stakes. I really enjoyed getting to know Tiago from this perspective rather than the one offered by the triad he appears in. I love joker-aces so I enjoyed learning about his power. i also appreciated the unique worldview this story offered and the underlying environmentalism inherent in this story. Wild Cards is one of the best series for dealing with the marginalization of real people in my opinion, and this story is a good example of why i think that.
• 
  Roger

  Discards takes place in the miserable economic conditions of Brazil. David Levine manages to pack a little social consciousness into an interesting Wild Cards story.
• 
  Katherine

  One of the better Wild Cards stories I've read. I kinda wish this was one of the earlier ones I'd run across, as this one does a good job of explaining what the universe is all about.
• 
  Matt Mitrovich

  Originally posted at:
  http://amazingstoriesmag.com/2016/08/...
  
  I didn’t have a review copy of a book that was coming out this week, so I needed to find something to read and review. That being said, Wild Cards is (hopefully) coming to television, the Olympics are currently happening in Brazil and David D. Levine’s novel, Arabella of Mars, came out last month. So I asked myself: why not review the Tor original: “Discards“?
  
  For those who don’t know, Wild Cards is a shared universe edited primarily by George RR Martin of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones fame. In 1946, an alien virus is unleashed over New York City, killing many, turning some into hideous freaks (known as “Jokers”) and giving just a lucky few useful superpowers (who are known as “Aces”). Its a realistic take on the superhero genre, like Watchmen, told through anthologies and mosaic novels.
  
  “Discards” is the story of Tiago Gonçalves, a poor Brazilian teen who lives in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and picks through the landfill to find recyclables to sell. After recovering from an intense fever, he discovers he has caught the Wild Cards virus and his skin is now a patchwork of different skin colors, making him a joker. Thrown out of his home, he heads to the ghetto in Rio where the Jokers live, but finds himself on the street again when he refuses to work for the drug lords who dominate the city. While trying to survive, he learns that he has the power to draw organic material to himself. He quickly becomes one of the most efficient thieves in Rio, but when he decides to steal a rare strain of cocaine, he touches off a gang war that could get himself and many others killed.
  
  I won’t give too much of the plot away because this is a short story, but I enjoyed “Discards”. Most of the Wild Cards stories I have read so far are set no later than the 1980s and the story had some modern references that I liked, such as a reality TV show for Aces. I also appreciated how Levine played with my expectations and took the story in different directions than those I expected. Plus, given a lot of the news that has come out ahead of the Olympics about the corruption, poverty and pollution in Brazil, I thought Levine did a good job capturing the less pleasant side of this year’s host country.
  
  Admittedly this reminded me of a lot of the Wild Cards origin stories I have read so far. Tiago didn’t go out immediately and start saving lives with his powers (and will probably never entirely be committed to doing so). In fact, his first actions upon learning of his powers, even in our timeline, are completely criminal, which is par for a lot of Wild Cards origin stories. Admittedly, this does not make the story bad per se, but it was certainly a familiar formula. Granted it’s a formula I like, so why fix something that isn’t broken?
  
  If you know nothing about the Wild Cards universe, “Discards” by David D. Levine is a good place to start (for one thing, it’s free). Check it out and then pick up a copy Wild Cards’ first volume. There is plenty of time before the adaptation gets made (if it ever does).
• 
  Theresa

  Discards (ebook)
  by David D. Levine
  Looking around the world for the stories of Wild Card victims. In Rio the world of Wild Cards is divided between the affluent tourism business, and the crime-filled slums. A young boy who survives by hand to mouth living in the edges of Rio's trash dumps is totally changed by his affliction of the Wild Card virus. Not only does he have a Joker card appearance, a mishmash of physical features, but he is rejected by those unaffected by the Virus. He is forced to change his life, and living, moving to the slums of Rio's Joker town, and having to run the gambit of the crime-infested town life. He finds power and gifts in his affliction that may help him if he is willing to compete on a global scale with his new abilities. This is an informed look into the world of the mosaic Wild Cards stories, and a look into the real life hazards of the poor and destitute.
• 
  Marco

  WildCards is the name of a book series edited by George R.R. Martin, written over the years by many different writers. In the wildcard world a new virus appeared, leaving the majority of the survivors, disparagingly called jokers, very deformed. Few lucky ones, the aces, are left with super human powers.
  While I am not fond of super hero stories, I liked this novella, that is the origin story of one of this lucky survivors, the Brazilian ace "Recycler". It is the story of a young kid, living in poverty until he is abandoned by his mother. He end up living in a shack in the middle of a favela, earning few dimes each day foraging for recyclables in a landfill. And when he starts to think he has reached the bottom, he gets sick, and he lose even the little he previously had...
• 
  Maggie Gordon

  I have never read any of the Wildcards stories, but now I am thinking that I should! This short deals with an orphaned teenage boy from Brazil that gets infected with the Wildcard virus. He has to survive in a world that hates him, but this suddenly becomes easier when he gains certain super powers.
  
  The story flows extremely well. While not comic, it has moments of levity despite its dark premise. It makes very good use of its setting, and it's certainly lured another reader in to the overarching series.
• 
  Alex Sarll

  If nothing else, this Wild Cards story is a good way to get genre readers to pay attention to the lives of street kids in Rio's favelas. Spoilers: they don't have a great time of it. Still, it never quite feels like the worthy aim and the novel-enough power of the joker-ace lead add up to anything more than the sum of their parts. Perhaps if he recurs in later tales it'll feel retroactively more substantial.
• 
  Sarah

  I really like dipping in and out of the Wild Cards series - I've only read one of the collections so far, but I've read a couple other short stories since then. I really want to read the whole series - it's such an interesting universe. I mostly liked this one, though parts of it were a bit silly to me.
• 
  Katie

  This is the first of the Wild Cards that I have read. A simple short story for it, but I definitely enjoyed it. Was just long enough for you to connect with the character and see the beginnings of a good heroic storyline. The story was not too dark, but dreary enough to sympathize with his plight. Now I just need to read the rest of the series!
• 
  Soorya

  Set in GRRM's Wild Cards universe, this story is about Tiago, a poor teenager in Rio de Janeiro who gets infected with the Wild Card virus and transforms overnight. I loved the main character, the Brazilian setting, and how well the writing flowed. I'd definitely read more stories in this world.
  
  
  http://www.tor.com/2016/03/30/discards/
• 
  Francesca

  2.5/5
• 
  Helena

  Good story but the words in portuguese in the middle of the text kinda put me off...
• 
  Fantasy Literature

  Featured in our Short Fiction Monday column:
  
  
  http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...
• 
  Luci

  This was a very good and very quick read. A nice fit in the Wild cards universe.
• 
  Laura

  I enjoyed the theme of discarded things getting repurposed, including people. I'm not really a fan of the superhero genre, but I do want to read more Wild Cards.