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Shell Games
George R. R. Martin's first full "Wild Cards" story.
Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 1987
32 people want to read
About the author
George R.R. Martin
1,506 books118k followersGeorge Raymond Richard "R.R." Martin was born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey. His father was Raymond Collins Martin, a longshoreman, and his mother was Margaret Brady Martin. He has two sisters, Darleen Martin Lapinski and Janet Martin Patten.
Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.
In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.
As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.
In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.
Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.
Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...
Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and Marist High School. He began writing very young, selling monster stories to other neighborhood children for pennies, dramatic readings included. Later he became a comic book fan and collector in high school, and began to write fiction for comic fanzines (amateur fan magazines). Martin's first professional sale was made in 1970 at age 21: The Hero, sold to Galaxy, published in February, 1971 issue. Other sales followed.
In 1970 Martin received a B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to complete a M.S. in Journalism in 1971, also from Northwestern.
As a conscientious objector, Martin did alternative service 1972-1974 with VISTA, attached to Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation. He also directed chess tournaments for the Continental Chess Association from 1973-1976, and was a Journalism instructor at Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa, from 1976-1978. He wrote part-time throughout the 1970s while working as a VISTA Volunteer, chess director, and teacher.
In 1975 he married Gale Burnick. They divorced in 1979, with no children. Martin became a full-time writer in 1979. He was writer-in-residence at Clarke College from 1978-79.
Moving on to Hollywood, Martin signed on as a story editor for Twilight Zone at CBS Television in 1986. In 1987 Martin became an Executive Story Consultant for Beauty and the Beast at CBS. In 1988 he became a Producer for Beauty and the Beast, then in 1989 moved up to Co-Supervising Producer. He was Executive Producer for Doorways, a pilot which he wrote for Columbia Pictures Television, which was filmed during 1992-93.
Martin's present home is Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (he was South-Central Regional Director 1977-1979, and Vice President 1996-1998), and of Writers' Guild of America, West.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/george...
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 19, 2025
Read as part of Dreamsongs, and included in the collection to represent Martin’s work on Wild Cards. Wild Cards is a shared super hero universe overseen by George Martin. This is a short story taken from the first Wild Cards book, and is the origin story of one of Martin’s characters. Despite being a fan of superhero comics for more or less my entire life I’ve never gotten in to Wild Cards. I just feel that on a very fundamental level superhero stuff only really works well if there’s a visual component to it, whether that’s a comic book page or a movie screen or whatever. Superhero novels, even the well written ones, always seem to be missing something essential to me.
Shell Games isn’t good enough to make me rethink that position, but it is good enough to at least make me curious about reading the first Wild Cards book someday so we can call that a success. It starts off rough, and the ending is a little too pat for a story that is as dark as Martin desperately wants this one to be, but the middle is a fun ride and that’s good enough for me to feel like I enjoyed myself.
I listened to the audio version read by Adrian Paul. If, like me, you think a guy yelling “ay I’m walkin here! Gabagool!” in an absurdly terrible New York accent is the absolute height of comedy then you will enjoy Adrian Paul’s work on Shell Games because that’s like 75% of what he’s doing here.
Three stars for Shell Games. But in my heart of hearts I’ll give five stars to Adrian Paul. One star for each of the five boroughs.
Shell Games isn’t good enough to make me rethink that position, but it is good enough to at least make me curious about reading the first Wild Cards book someday so we can call that a success. It starts off rough, and the ending is a little too pat for a story that is as dark as Martin desperately wants this one to be, but the middle is a fun ride and that’s good enough for me to feel like I enjoyed myself.
I listened to the audio version read by Adrian Paul. If, like me, you think a guy yelling “ay I’m walkin here! Gabagool!” in an absurdly terrible New York accent is the absolute height of comedy then you will enjoy Adrian Paul’s work on Shell Games because that’s like 75% of what he’s doing here.
Three stars for Shell Games. But in my heart of hearts I’ll give five stars to Adrian Paul. One star for each of the five boroughs.
April 2, 2022
Shell Games was my introduction to the Wild Cards world, and it was not the best place to start. I’m sure for fans of the series this works well as an original story for one character and a redemption style story for another, yet as an introduction to the world it was not enough. I felt like I was missing pieces (to the point where I’m unsure if I’ve correctly labelled the redemption part of the story correctly) and didn’t quite fall for it in the way I had hoped. It certainly picked up as the story progressed, yet it was never enough to win me over.
All in all, I’m still curious about Wild Cards, yet this was not enough to have me running to dive into the world.
All in all, I’m still curious about Wild Cards, yet this was not enough to have me running to dive into the world.
July 31, 2017
A boring redemption story. Set in a universe where a virus gave either superpowers or deformities to some people there is a kid who can move large bodies with his mind. We also find an alcoholic alien who belongs to the race who brought the virus. Both characters redeem their lame lives, one willingly, the other by force.
This is just one of the many stories of the Wild Card book. Judging by this story, I cannot find any reason to read the rest of the book.
This is just one of the many stories of the Wild Card book. Judging by this story, I cannot find any reason to read the rest of the book.
August 28, 2022
It took me a long time to really get into this story. For a large chunk of it I just didn't care and fully understand the world of Wild Cards. Maybe this is not the best story to read if you're now only beginning Wild Cards. I didn't know or fully understand Tachyon's funk and I didn't care for the other characters either. I think that it's the origin story for The Great and Powerful Turtle and also "When Tachyon Got his Groove Back".
It wasn't too bad once the plot picked up and things started happening. However, I wasn't interested until that happened.
Perhaps once I am familiar with more stories set in this universe I will be able to appreciate this more. Until then it's just ok.
This is the second time that I am reading this story and it's a good thing too. My first read was also my introduction to Wild Cards so obviously, I knew absolutely nothing and had to feel my way through the story. I did not understand why Dr Tachyon was emotionally crippled and I did not really know how the virus worked well enough nor some of the references like Jack Braun and the Four Aces.
The second time around, this story is a lot better, easier to follow and read, especially since I read the previous stories in Wild Cards. I felt for Dr Tachyon on my first read but here I felt a lot more for him. He feels a lot of guilt because of his failure to stop the virus but he also feels guilty about the part he played in Blythe's demise, to the extent that it dampened his telepathic abilities.
This story also functions as the origins for The Great and Powerful Turtle, the most gifted telekinetic Ace around, according to Dr Tachyon.
It wasn't too bad once the plot picked up and things started happening. However, I wasn't interested until that happened.
Perhaps once I am familiar with more stories set in this universe I will be able to appreciate this more. Until then it's just ok.
This is the second time that I am reading this story and it's a good thing too. My first read was also my introduction to Wild Cards so obviously, I knew absolutely nothing and had to feel my way through the story. I did not understand why Dr Tachyon was emotionally crippled and I did not really know how the virus worked well enough nor some of the references like Jack Braun and the Four Aces.
The second time around, this story is a lot better, easier to follow and read, especially since I read the previous stories in Wild Cards. I felt for Dr Tachyon on my first read but here I felt a lot more for him. He feels a lot of guilt because of his failure to stop the virus but he also feels guilty about the part he played in Blythe's demise, to the extent that it dampened his telepathic abilities.
This story also functions as the origins for The Great and Powerful Turtle, the most gifted telekinetic Ace around, according to Dr Tachyon.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews