Featuring stories from Eric Shanower, Troy Riser, Michael Tierney, and seventeen other masters of the form, FANTASTIC VOYAGES is all about doors --
Legacy, Book 3: Overload
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Submitted by RJ Carter on Thu, 05/29/2014 - 02:00
Legacy, the next generation of The Destroyer franchise, has had a slow start over its first two books, but the characters are starting to settle into their roles and the styles of Destroyer creator and veteran writer Warren Murphy and that of The Last Witness author and creator Gerald Welch are starting to hum like a well-oiled machine. And speaking of well-oiled machines... No, it's too soon to let that cat out of the bag yet.
Stone and Freya, the children of Remo Williams (aka The Destroyer) continue their training to become Sinanju masters, but find themselves sidetracked when they accompany their grandfather, Sunny Joe Roam, to a Hollywood funeral. Roam, a former stuntman, is there to pay his respects and runs across a grudge-holding former stuntman who became an action movie star for a while before declining into disrepair. Stevie Sturgeon (going with a fish name because "Seagull" probably would have been too on-the-nose) has never forgotten being humiliated by Sunny Joe back in the day, but sees a path to revenge by offering Freya a job to model in a martial arts video game he's been licensed into.
Freya, needing the break from her training, takes the position, with Stone posing as her bodyguard. Sturgeon, out of shape and still imagining himself the master of a martial art he invented himself, plans to strike at Sunny Joe by breaking Freya's heart, and his impotent rage only increases the more he is put in his place. But that's not the real meat of the story, which is only hinted at. The computers are monitoring Freya's movements, storing them ostensibly for animated reproduction in the game. But who is actually financing the game -- and what do they have to do with The Gordons Initiative?
As the characters have developed, readers will recognize some of the characteristics of Remo and Master Chiun in Stone and Freya. Freya is the natural Sinanju, and often chides Stone for his lack of discipline and commitment to training. Stone, on the other hand, has a protective outlook on his little sister while keeping up his tough-guy persona and careless attitude. In this sense, we see Freya as 90% Chiun and Stone as 90% Remo -- and together as something familiar yet different. The chemistry of the original run of The Destroyer is becoming more and more evident in Legacy, and the books are getting longer, although still falling short of the full-novel length. Fans of those classic Remo Williams stories would be well-served in checking out the next generation of Sinanju.
Grade:
4.0 / 5.0
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