Admin Note: New Books!

Hi, Remo freaks:

I just received via parcel post a box full of new — well, actually, incredibly old — Destroyer novels for future review, including the notorious #30, “Mugger Blood”! Judging from the redolent odor, they came from a home occupied by an aged man who chain-smoked Lucky Strikes, which is very appropriate.

In the meantime, I’m about halfway through #27, “The Last Temple”, and it’s a corker. I should have a new review up for y’all by the end of the week.

 

A Short History of Sinanju

In case you’re unfamiliar with the background of the Destroyer universe, here’s a precis:

In 1962, President Kennedy, sensing unprecedented challenges in his New Frontier, commissioned a secret organization known as CURE. Its job was to work outside the Constitution in order to defend it — to avoid the twin evils of anarchy and totalitarianism. To that end, he recruited two men: computer genius and brilliant intelligence analyst Dr. Harold Smith, and ex-soldier/enforcer Conn MacCleary. As time passed, Smith realized that he’d need a nearly unstoppable assassin to help him fight America’s enemies; in order to build one, he bought the services of an ancient martial arts master named Chiun.

Chiun, an irascible and intolerant master killer from the tiny North Korean coastal village of Sinanju, was the latest of a long line of deadly assassins. In the mists of time lost, the people of Sinanju, reduced to poverty and desperation, hired themselves out as killers, utilizing a mysterious martial art they named for themselves — a martial art so invincible, all others were but weak shadows of it; a martial art so sophisticated that its users seemed possessed of supernatural power. The seemingly amoral Chiun didn’t care who hired him, as long as they paid him in gold and showed the proper deference to his greatness; but he likewise had no loyalty to America. That’s where Remo Williams came in.

Dr. Smith needed the perfect, untraceable assassin, and who better than a dead man? In order to get one, Smith & MacCleary arranged for the frame-up of a New Jersey cop for a murder he didn’t commit. He was sent to the electric chair, but he only seemed to die; the policeman, who had no friends or family, emerged from a false death and was assigned as Chiun’s student. MacCleary didn’t live past their first mission, but the newly dubbed Remo Williams proved extraordinarily adept at the martial art of Sinanju, and, with the aid of Chiun, who began to think of him as his adopted son despite his unfortunate lack of Korean ancestry, he became CURE’s unstoppable super-assassin. Remo didn’t exactly have the most patriotic attitude towards his homeland — if anything, he proved to be even more cynical than his Korean master — but he always fought against any threat to its safety.

And there were always threats…

 

The Destroyer Project: An Introduction

The Destroyer series, first published in 1971 and created by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy, is an odd duck in the so-called “men’s adventure” genre. Despite robust sales figures in the first two decades of its existence, the Destroyer series — which told the adventures of covert government assassin Remo Williams and his troublesome Korean mentor, Chiun — set itself apart with unconventional thematic elements (including frequent use of sci-fi, espionage, and even superhero trappings), better-than-expected prose, and, above all, a sense of humor.

Where its rivals, like the humorless Killmaster and Executioner series, were characterized by grim violence and grimmer sex, the Destroyer books (of which there were 149 at last count, by a dozen authors over almost four decades) never lost a sly sense of satire, mocking current events, pop culture, and even itself. It wasn’t always great, but it was always better than it needed to be. It represented a curious modern transition of old pulp traditions, and it brought us a handful of memorable characters and occasionally hilarious dialogue that transcended its origins.

When this blog was started (May 12, 2008), I happened across a massive cache of Destroyer novels from my younger days that I’d stored away and forgotten about. The purpose of this blog may eventually grow to a more ambitious Remo Williams fansite/archive, but for now, my intentions are simple: I will read and review, in inchoate order, the Destroyer books in my possession. I welcome your thoughts, and hope you enjoy the Destroyer Project.