Created, the Destroyer by Warren Murphy and Richard Ben Sapir, The Destroyer #1Sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit, ex-cop Remo Williams is rescued from the electric chair at the eleventh hour and recruited by a secret government organisation named CURE. From this moment, he ceases to officially exist.
From now on, he will be an assassin, targeting criminals who are beyond the law. Remo's trainer is a grouchy old Korean named Chiun, whose mastery of the terrifyingly powerful martial art of Sinanju makes him the deadliest man alive.
Together Remo and Chiun set forth on their epic, impossible mission to vanquish every enemy of democracy - every bad guy who thinks they can escape justice.
This is a new era in man's fight against the forces of evil.
This is the time of the Destroyer.
Last month I send out a media alert with an upcoming blog tour featuring this book, Created, The Destroyer. The Destroyer series was originally published back in 1971, and this year
Little Brown & Co has decided to reissuing all the books published so far in The Destroyer series in ebook format. The series is written by Warren Murphy, who also wrote the screenplay of several movies likes Lethal Weapon 2, and Richard Ben Sapir who wrote besides this series also several non-destroyer related books. I am a big fan of these kind of assassin - secret agent kind of books: think Mission Impossible, James Bond or The Bourne Trilogy.
Created, The Destroyer picked up in a most interesting kind of way, normally agents are recruited because their excel in what they do, top of the class or have shown other remarkable skills. The protagonist of this story is recruited in a quite different kind of way. Remo Williams has faced early retirement in terms of facing the electric chair, all for a crime that he didn't commit...Everything is being prepped to deliver Remo one final jolt, but what Remo doesn't know is that several people from higher up have different plans in store for him this leads in eventuality to that his encounter with the electric chair is being rigged. Remo from this point on is presumed dead. But this is only the start of his new career as what better assassin could you wish then someone who has died and doesn't have anything that ties him to his past, a completely free man able to do what ever he is asked to do. Since Remo was a normal street cop he does have to be schooled in the ways of assassination. The schooling he receives is in many different types of martial arts by the old Korean Master Chiun, by this he becomes the most valuable asset to CURE.
The story of Created, The Destroyer has everything that you want to see in a first book in a series. As the name of the book already implies, the created aspect mean that Remo is being created as the agent of CURE. And with becoming an agent, also come missions and his first mission that features in Created the Destroyer is to hunt and take down Maxwell but whether this is a person or a much larger something like a shadowing organization remains to be seen. With Remo being completely new on the job and with few leads to follow, he must do everything to remain the last person standing. Or truly be presumed dead.
I have to say that I highly enjoyed the story of Created, The Destroyer and when I come to think of it, this book was first publised back in 1971 so basically this book didn't have that much to steal from and comparing it to some of the current crimer - thriller books, this was a quite unqiue concept back than. Also Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir did a nice job in letting the main protagonist Remo stand out. What I normally like to see is that when you have these sudden career changes is that you see them occur gradually and this is preceisely what is done to Remo, from the beginning of the book right down to the end of it you see him grow and develop into the perfect "cure". (no pun intended). I also liked to read about the Korean Martial Arts master he is a bit like the Mr. Miyagi of Karate Kid really cool but not one you want to have on the wrong side of you.
The action of Created, The Destroyer is very cool and intense and exactly something that you want to see featured in a crime book. There are several shoot outs and fighting scenes that will linger in the back of your mind for quite sometime. What makes them enjoyable to read is that all the action scenes are bolstered by the characters and their emotions making them come out that much better.
My only objection to Created, The Destroyer, is the writing style. When I read the first few pages I was hooked, the scene with the electric chairs was pretty cool, but as soon as Remo was concripted into CURE it felt like the writing style suffered a bit in a sluggish way that tended to put a drag on several dialogues. Not really making the story easy to get into and continue reading it. It could also be the fact that the writing style isn't something that features in the current fiction books that are being published.
Created, The Destroyer, is an action packed crime book that has one of the best opening chapters that I have come across, highly inventive and just very cool. The main protagonist that is introduced by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, Remo Williams, is an unlikely of heroes and is defeinitely not used to being the only solution left standing for problems. His personal conviction of that he was to die in the chair and the emotional side that was offered to you as a reader was very nicely put that that directly made you feel for him. And as the story continues you learn that life as a CURE agent is far from easy, as Remo is put to the test again and again. Despite the writing style that made it a bit hard to really dig into the story, Created, The Destroyer is still a very good read and with only a pagecount of 200ish makes it the perfect afternoon read!
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