CD Giveaway - 33Miles, "One Life"
Ends Aug 4, 2010
The country-pop sound established in their eponymous debut is a mainstay for this album as well, and even adds a little more southern flavor.
CD Giveaway - Phil Wickham, "Cannons"
Ends Aug 3, 2010
With an opening shot that hits the sonic pinnacle, this collection of spiritual Brit pop/rock is heavily influenced by Keane, Travis, Coldplay, and U2.
Publication Date: October 30, 2007 Publisher: Tor Author: · Warren Murphy · James Mullaney Grade: A
In a world that desperately needed a savior, there rose a man who didn't want the job. Executed for a crime he didn't commit, he found he hadn't died at all, but had instead been recruited by a miniscule yet powerful organization that had been created by a past President to protect the Constitution -- by breaking it. He was forced to undergo intense training, taking his mind and body to and beyond the limits of human perfection, until he became the reigning master of a martial art shrouded in history and mystery.
His name was Remo, and a whole new generation of readers were just finding out about him.
The creation of Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, the latest chronicles of Remo Williams, The Destroyer, are now being released from Tor under the watchful eye of Murphy and co-writer James Mullaney, and the fan reaction has been a mix of gratitude and exultation.
Remo Williams, the reigning Master of Sinanju, and his "teacher cum adoptive father" Chiun are an unstoppable army of two who serve at the beck and call of Harold Smith, the beleaguered head of the organization called CURE. In Choke Hold Smith's computer flags a story of a mass murder bearing clues of Sinanju involvement, and he immediately calls Remo and Chiun to investigate.
Remo had already slid open the next drawer. When he saw the condition of the corpse, he frowned.
"Here's something you don't see every day."
There was a raised welt dead center in the dead man's forehead. The blow was perfectly placed. More perfect, in fact, than Remo had ever seen delivered by someone trained in the lesser martial arts.
"That is, of course," Remo added, "unless you're us."
Wearing a puzzled expression, Chiun joined his pupil beside the slab. When he noted the fatal injury, the only visible wound on the otherwise pale and perfect flesh, the old Korean's eyes squeezed to slits of vellum concern.
"It's pretty good," Remo said. "Sloppier than you'd do it, and you'd kill me if I was that bad, so that rules both of us out. And the last other guy on the planet trained this far in Sinanju was chopped to fish bait and tossed in the sea five years ago. So what's the deal, Little Father? You have any half-cousins or uncles on your mother's side who you've been ashamed to tell me about all these years?"
"This is not Sinanju," Chiun said firmly.
"It looks like a pretty good knockoff to me."
The bodies are all those of executives at big tobacco companies, indicating the work of a rabid anti-smoking group -- or someone trying to make it appear that way. Only one of the bodies was killed in a different manner -- a Dr. John Feathers of Cheyenne Tobacco, who was sent to his final reward courtesy of a nail gun.
The trail leads Remo and Chiun to the Chowok Indian tribe and a breed of tobacco thought extinguished by a former ancient Master of Sinanju, To-un. The weed is so virulent and addictive that exposure to the second hand smoke creates an instant addiction. Cheyenne tobacco -- led by the aging and cantankerous sufferer of capit in recto, Edgar Rawly -- is cultivating the plant, expecting to reap huge financial rewards from a hooked populace. The plant is so bad, it even brought down To-un!
Mix into all of this a band of Chinese assassins, a chain-smoking anti-smoking vigilante, an amoral killing machine, a senile old lady, and Murphy and Mullaney's own brand of political and social satire, and you've got an edge of your seat action thriller with biting satire. The author's continue the tradition of lampooning celebrities, goring sacred oxen, and delivering up a grand old hoot of a time.
Choke Hold is another chapter of The New Destroyer series that is sure to make longtime fans happy. And if you're new to the characters, be warned: one hit of The New Destroyer, and you're hooked. But, hot damn, it sure is a fun habit!
