HarperCollins Three Kings: Edited by George R. R. Martin

I've been reading Wild Card books for 30 years, and this is the absolute nadir of the series. I thought the previous book, "Texas Hold 'Em" was poor, but that's a masterpiece next to this. Different characters are written by different authors in this pastiche novel, but the variation in quality is great, especially the part of Alan Turing, who is supposed to be a 100 year old Ace, but reads more like a lovesick 15 year old homosexual. His parts read like an especially bad Mills & Boom novel. I skipped over most of his parts - in fact in the end I just skipped the rest of the book. The writing is also very PC.The story revolves around the death of the queen (Margaret in this altered history) and the coming to the throne of her successor, the bigoted Henry. But there is vying to get him replaced by his homosexual brother Richard, or the secret joker son of the late Princess Elizabeth. Quite frankly, who cares?Few of the authors are British, if any, and the whole book reads like a stereotype of perceived British attitudes to royalty.This may be my last wild card book. If they do end up making a TV series I hope they use the characters from the original books - The Great and Powerful Turtle; Jumpin' Jack Flash; Fortunato; Croyd 'The Sleeper' Crenson. Those were the days

A great addition to the Wild Cards Universe! Its nice to see the wider world outside of the U.S.