The series of books known as The Destroyer, featuring the adventures of Remo Williams and Chiun, the Master of Sinanju, has been as dear to me as Batman, TMNT, and Robotech as I grew up in the 80s and 90s. For some reason, my parents thought it was okay for me to start reading them when I was about 8 and never stopped.
The Destroyer is a series of books (well over a hundred) that began in 1971 and was published over the next 40 years. It was part of the “Men’s Adventure” genre that brought us Mack Bolan, The Executioner and Able Team, among others. Written by Warren Murphy and Richard Ben Sapir, these books were how I learned about “The ‘F’ Word” and dozens of other adult things I had no business knowing.
They’ve always held a special place in my heart. I often go back and re-read some of them since they’re such light, fast, fun reads. If you’ve seen the film “Remo Williams” starring Fred Ward you have half a taste of what the books are. They’re funny, they’re smart, they’re action packed. They’re a more modern version of the pulp mysteries of the 20s, 30s, and 40s.
The Destroyer is about Remo Williams. An honest cop from New Jersey who’s framed for a crime he didn’t commit by CURE, a super-secret government organization whose job it is to take out threats to the United States, however they have to. Remo is sentenced to death and is dead to the world when his training begins. In an effort to create the most lethal assassin the United States has ever employed, they hire Chiun, the master of a secret martial art known as Sinanju to train Remo into the killing machine that only he is capable of becoming. The books follow Remo’s missions and training and are just fun, all the way around.
There’s plenty of mystery, sex, killing, action, revenge, martial arts, everything a young boy could ask for.
For fans of the series, it’s been a long time since we’ve been given any new Destroyer material, but a brand new novella has come out today called Savage Song. It’s a novella written by Murphy starring Remo and Chiun that I’ll be reading as soon as I get my Kindle charged back up.
But there’s so much more than that available, too. If you’re even half interested in this series, Warren Murphy and his sons have begun to put the backlist of Destroyer books up on Amazon on their own, wholly embracing the self-publishing paradigm I’ve been espousing over this past year. You can check out the first book in the series for less than the price of a mixed drink at Starbucks… and really, you don’t want to be buying anything from a Starbucks anyway.
Here’s a link to the first book. Give it a try. Or let your kid read it. You know, whatever.
The books are so short, fun, and readable, my guess is you’ll be back for more. One of my personal favorites is #5, Dr. Quake. It’s about a man who develops a method of causing earthquakes. He’s threatening the whole world and CURE dispatches Remo and Chiun to stop him.
For those interested, you can follow the series on Facebook and Twitter.