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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too many ingredients, August 8, 2008
This review is from: The Seven Sins: The Tyrant Ascending (Hardcover)
More is not necessarily better, and this book is proof of that.
Land has mixed together a hodge podge that includes Julius Caesar, the Mafia, Great White Sharks, ancient pirates, the historical King Midas and a mythic Islamic terrorist sect, and yet the end result is a strangely linear, predictable action story which really lacks any suspense, an amazing feat considering an apocalypse is threatening Las Vegas from almost the first page to the last.
The characters are pretty much cartoonlike, with no real depth. The main character suffers a horrible tragedy as a boy which the author rehashes every few pages or so in an attempt to give psychological underpinning to his actions, and yet by the middle of the book I found myself thinking enough already, we get it.
And while the author does try to create some shocking "revelations" as to the true identities of several of the characters, every one of these was so obvious that "ho-hum" seems to be the operative word in regard to them.
So why did I give this book 3 stars? I could say it was to reward it for its grasp, even if that did exceed it's reach (by a lot!), but the truth is that sometimes all you want is a pretty much mindless diversion that allows you to escape reality for a little while, like a "B" movie. The Seven Sins is just such a harmless excursion.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Another Failed Casino Book, October 4, 2008
This review is from: The Seven Sins: The Tyrant Ascending (Hardcover)
Like most books on the casino business, The Seven Sins falls far short of reality. Michael Tirrano, the CEO of King Midas Resorts, has somehow hidden his connections to a Sicilian Cosa Nostra family (which would never be possible in real life) and built one of the most elaborate casinos in Las Vegas, which he acquired by blowing up a competitor's ready-to-open casino. If the gaming commission weren't blind, deaf and dumb, and the FBI so totally incompetent, Tirrano would be a hero. But his shallow characterization and his totally unbelievable rise to power are dead giveaways of a lazy plotline.
No, The Seven Sins isn't even good drama. The fast-paced action is, well, too fast. His miraculous escapes from death, the jarring trips back and forth through time, and a nebulous connection to someone who has the audacity to believe he actually IS Tirrano, someone named Fabrizio Boccardi, make The Seven Sins a real joke. It's good for a few laughs, but that's about it.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Jon Land sells out?, September 3, 2009
The history of Jon Land's The Seven Sins may be more interesting in the book itself. According to the acknowledgements, the novel is inspired by Fabrizio Boccardi, one of those self-promoting tycoons along the lines of Donald Trump. My guess, however, is that Boccardi, to boost his own image, recruited an author to create a fictional version of himself, with a movie version to follow. Of course, that is only speculation on my part: the truth may remain a mystery.
The book itself is standard Jon Land fare, with a little bit of a twist. The story's protagonist, Michael Tiranno (the character based on Boccardi) is more of a businessman than a typical Land action hero. Nonetheless, the other elements of a Land story are present: international conspiracies, the tough guy sidekick and the monstrously huge super-killer.
Tiranno is the owner of The Seven Sins, the ultra-lavish new casino/hotel along the Las Vegas Strip. Tiranno is also Michael Nunziato, the ward of an Italian crime lord. Under his former name, he was able to expand his guardian's empire and legitimize it at the same time before breaking off to run his own business. When a terrorist attack in Vegas threatens the financial existence of the Seven Sins, Tiranno takes the fight to the terrorists, using his financial and criminal contacts to unearth a conspiracy that threatens an even greater attack.
This is not Land at his best. Did he sell out somehow to write this story for Boccardi? I don't know. In actuality, the joke may be on Boccardi: Michael Tiranno, for all his superficial virtues, is not a very likeable character. He's arrogant and even a bit of a sociopath, willing to crush anyone who gets in his way. At least when the terrorists kill, it's at least nominally to better the world; Tiranno, however, is just interested in personal wealth.
The plot itself is okay, although the story concludes too quickly, leaves open some loose ends (for a sequel, no doubt) and has some rather obvious plot twists. It's overall a disappointment, especially for a long time Jon Land fan like myself. The only good news is that book seems to be an aberration, probably because he had to give up some creative control (his next book, Strong Enough to Die, is much better). For all its flaws, The Seven Sins is not a truly bad book (even off his game, Land can write reasonably well), but it merits at most a low three stars.
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