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The Seven Sins: The Tyrant Ascending | 
 enlarge | Author: Jon Land
Publisher: Forge Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $5.59
You Save: $19.36 (78%)
New (47) Used (19) Collectible (3) from $2.66
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 53535
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0765315343
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780765315342
ASIN: 0765315343
Publication Date: June 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Perfect condition...pristine inside and out. Gift Quality First Edition from one of America's top authors..first in a series as well... Ships from Northern California.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
To Dream...To Dare..To Win...
The ancient motto, inscribed in Latin on a mysterious golden medallion, recovered from the ruins of the Roman Empire, has guided Michael Tiranno to heights few men have achieved. Once an orphaned farm boy in his native Sicily, Michael made millions by mastering the intricate world of high finance, and is now the fabulously wealthy owner of Las Vegas' The Seven Sins, the grandest and most extravagant casino in the world. The lavish resort embodies the personal philosophy fueled by his lust for power: the greater the risk, the greater the reward.
But he also has secrets, secrets that he and Naomi Burns, his driven corporate attorney and confidante, have gone to great lengths to bury. When an enemy from the past threatens to undermine everything he has built, his dark history must now be uncovered. Together, they must tear open painful scars in Michael’s heart and soul to discover the true identity of their unknown foe—before all of Las Vegas pays the price for Michael Tiranno’s realized dreams.
The Seven Sins is a globe-spanning saga of one man's spectacular rise from rags to riches, the sins that brought him there, and the insidious vendetta that may cost him everything.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
Orphaned boy makes good August 16, 2008
Orphaned boy makes good
Jon Land's The Seven Sins is an entertaining read that appears to set the stage for a series involving Michael "The Tyrant" Tiranno, an extremely brilliant and wealthy business entrepreneur. During his family's grisly murder, Michael escaped with his father's prized possession-an ancient gold medallion that supposedly has magical powers. Orphaned at a young age, Michael is all but adopted by the local Mafia Don and raised as a son. Michael soon shows a strong proclivity for business and high finance and eventually builds his surrogate father's illegal Mafia holdings into a legal world of high finance, trade and commodity speculation. Unfortunately, a split in the "family" forces Michael out on his own where he builds an entrepreneurial empire in the gaming world of Las Vegas, eventually building the world's grandest casino: The Seven Sins. But all is not right in the town that never sleeps, as a several different factions try and destroy various casinos of which The Seven Sins is one. The Plot then takes off as Michael hunts down the perpetrators only to find out that not all is what it seems.
All in all a fun read with many twists and turns. Numerous plots and sub-plots demand the reader pay attention to keep things straight. Flash backs contribute to the complexity of the story and help tie up loose ends. There are many characters which at times is confusing.
Character development was OK for the protagonist Michael but was rather shallow for most of the supporting characters. Again, it appears that this book is a setup for future Michael Tiranno adventures.
No gratuitous sex, violence, or language.
Entertaining story. Recommended, especially when trapped in the airport or visiting relatives.
 Too many ingredients August 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
 Another Winner From Land! July 11, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
The star of this story is Michael Tiranno(Nunziato). As a child living on a farm in Sicily his parents are murdered as well as his sister. The
local Mafia kingpin Don Luciano Scaglione takes him to raise.The don pays
for Michael to go to the top business school in Monte Carlo. Here he makes
the acquaintenance of Amir Pharon a billionaire arms. With the help of
Pharon and Don Luciano Michael founds World Trade Agricola. He first gains the market for coffee in Kenya. He then gains the market for sugar cane futures in Cuba and Honduras. By reaping tremendous profits from this
company he moves to America. In America he founds King Midas World with the lavish casino the Seven Sins. Four suicide bombers explode car bombs
at the Seven Sins,Mirage,Treasure Island, and the Venetian. A terrorist
named Jafir Sari Bayrak and his group Al Altar take credit. The group is wiped out in a Tiranno sponsored raid. To his horror Michael Tiranno
discovers that an ancient clan of assassins called Hashishin is the real
culprit. The actual culprit behind the plot is a person from his past.
This book is a page turner that will keep you guessing. Be sure to read it.
A rollercoaster-ride thriller with a flawed but fascinating protagonist June 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"To Dream...To Dare...To Win...." are the words inscribed in Latin on the gold medallion that Vito Nunziato finds as a teenager. Vito nearly drowns the day he discovers the medallion while snorkeling at the bottom of the sea off the Isola di Levanzo, across the Mediterranean Sea from Marsala. According to legend, the medallion was once owned by King Midas, and later by Julius Caesar.
Since the day of Vito's discovery, the mysterious medallion and the chain holding it have been his most prized possession. And each time he tells his young son Michele the story of how he found the medallion, Vito makes Michele promise that no matter what happens, he will never part with it until Michele can pass it on to his own son.
One sunny Sicilian day in 1975, Michele sneaks the medallion from his father's hiding place and plays with it in the barn while waiting for his mother to prepare lunch. But his childhood innocence comes crashing down that afternoon. In a hail of gunfire, he huddles in the barn in horror as his family and their farmhands are murdered. Cowering in a haystack, Michele clutches his father's prized medallion and prays that his own life will be spared.
Orphaned and afraid, Michele is raised by Don Luciano Scaglione, a powerful and rich Mafia boss. Growing up, Michele's most cherished possession is the medallion, which he wears around his neck as a reminder of his past --- and protection against harm. The words on the medallion propel him to excel academically and achieve great financial success, while dreaming of moving to America --- a country where he believes anything is possible.
After a bitter parting of ways with Don Scaglione as a result of a sour business deal, Michele arrives in America, determined to escape his painful past. With the assistance of corporate attorney Naomi Burns, he reinvents himself, changes his name to Michael Tiranno (the Tyrant) and settles in Las Vegas, Nevada. In Sin City, his grand vision of financing and constructing the elegant and luxurious Seven Sins Casino and Resort eclipses the glitz and glamour of other casinos on the Strip.
But all is not well in Sin City. Like Julius Caesar, Michael is an ambitious man --- and ambition is a grievous fault. In his rise to wealth, power and fame, he has made many ruthless and determined enemies. He also has endeared himself to loyal friends, most notably his strong-arm, killing-machine bodyguard, Alexander.
When simultaneous terrorist attacks explode across the desert landscape --- destroying several Las Vegas casinos and damaging The Seven Sins --- tourists, gamblers and high-rollers flee for safety. With the city's future in danger and his personal fortune at risk of ruin, Michael is convinced that the attack on the casino is personal.
Determined to discover the identity of the mastermind planning and bankrolling the attacks, Michael circles the globe --- and he returns to his humble beginnings in Sicily. In his quest for the truth, he uncovers secrets, conspiracies and vendettas.
In THE SEVEN SINS, acclaimed author Jon Land has created a rollercoaster-ride thriller with a flawed yet fascinating protagonist in Michael Tiranno, whose daredevil personality and single-minded ambition thrust him into a high-stakes world of greed, betrayal, revenge and murder. Hell-bent terrorists, cut-throat pirates, murderous vendettas, ancient medallions and blood-thirsty sharks --- in water and on land --- THE SEVEN SINS has it all. Land's gripping novel is a sizzling summer page-turner to devour while sunning on the beach. But while you're reading it, you might not want to think too much about the sharks.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt
THE SEVEN SINS is Pure Gold! June 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Not only is Jon Land a gem of a person, he's a brilliant author as well. Michael Tiranno is a fabulous character who had me hooked from the beginning, and when it comes to scene and setting, nobody does it better than Jon Land. Tiranno's office is amazing. Truly unique. Once you start THE SEVEN SINS, you'll be hard pressed to put it down. Kudos, Mr. Land!
by Andrew Peterson
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