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: April 1, 2008 Publisher: Tor Author: · Warren Murphy · James Mullaney Grade: B+
More skillful than Batman, deadlier than Wolverine, and less concerned about killing the bad guys than the Punisher, Remo Williams is a superhero for the modern everyman. Paired with his adoptive father, Chiun, these two Masters of Sinanju plow forward, undeterred, to get done those things your average red-stater can only fantasize about. Terrorists, cop killers -- any threat to America is casually handed death by these two mercenaries for CURE, a super-secret agency that subverts the Constitution to protect it.
In Dead Reckoning, the newest installment of The New Destroyer series, Remo and Chiun are sent out to find Mustafa Mohammed -- the so-called "twentieth hijacker" -- who has just escaped from a federal prison in Colorado. Mustafa was to have hijacked a plane on September 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House. However, he overslept and missed his flight. But he has an ace up his sleeve -- a super weapon, smuggled into the prison with him, capable of killing millions within minutes. All he has to do is get to a major city and set things in motion.
However, there's more at work than simply Mustafa. The weapon was provided to him by someone he calls the Prophet -- a mysterious gentleman who surrounds himself with death. And when Remo and Chiun encounter Mustafa's guide and benefactor, Chiun does something heretofore unseen.
He flees in fear.
No, I'm not going to tell you why. Those four words should be enough to scare you, if you're any kind of Destroyer fan at all.
Readers familiar with Warren Murphy and James Mullaney's work won't be surprised by the ultra-conservative slant the authors inject into their narrative. Depending on your politics, it'll either make you laugh or piss you off. However, in Dead Reckoning, the writers find a new high-water mark when it comes to going over the top. They pull no punches when it comes to things like racial profiling (specifically, the measures police must take to avoid being accused of it), media bias against law enforcement -- and an important character who can be none other than Murphy and Mullaney's parody of Cindy Sheehan. The authors don't hesitate to point out what they think is stupid (because the police can't racial profile at a dragnet stop, required instead to check only every fourth person, they intentionally miss the terrorist and strip-search an eight-year-old), killing flies with sledgehammers and painting stereotypes with strokes as broad as a barn door, as evidenced in a scene where Remo is hunting down Mustafa Mohammed's brother in order to get a lead:
The door was not wired to explode because there were five men inside guarding it. Remo used the door to crush two against the wall of the basement hallway before they could even finger their triggers. The remaining three, seeing their comrades turned to mushy central masses possessed of human arms and legs, and seeing the figure of legend who had killed them, tossed down their guns and threw up their hands.
"We surrender!"
Remo cast a cold eye over the three cowering figures, men who would gleefully murder innocents in the name of their cause, now quivering before him.
"Which one of you is Mohammed?" Remo asked.
Three shaking hands were raised. "Him too," one of the terrorists said, pointing toward a mangled corpse.
"Okay, now we're getting somewhere," Remo said. "Now which one of you is Mustafa's brother?"
Two hands lowered.
"Mustafa who was busted before he could fly a plane into the White House in 2001?" Remo asked.
The terrorist had to think for a moment. "Did you say 2001?" he asked. Remo nodded. "Oh." The terrorist lowered his hand and shook his head.
None of these was the man he was after.
"I will let all of you live if just one of you knows the meaning of the word mercy," Remo said coldly.
The three startled terrorists huddled like game show contestants. When they had decided on an answer, their spokesman turned hopefully to Remo.
"It means 'thank you' in French."
Remo left the bodies near the alley door and headed for the basement stairs.
Okay, it's wrong, but this was just one of many laugh-out-loud moments for me as I read through Dead Reckoning. If you have a healthy sense of humor, a love of balls-to-the-wall action, and a passing awareness of current events and media figures, any New Destroyer novel will fit the bill. Dead Reckoning just does it more than most.
