Review: Created, The Destroyer by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir (3/5)

One legendary hero. One epic series.

Sentenced 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.

Breathlessly action-packed and boasting a winning combination of thrills, humour and mysticism, the Destroyer is one of the bestselling series of all time. 

Given that the book was published so long ago I did have reservations about whether it had aged well. The new covers and repackages look fantastic but does the content match? Well yes and no. There are elements of a modern story here but it does feel dated at times, in terms of the writing and indeed the attitudes of some of the characters. That isn't a wholly negative thing though nor is it preventable. 

I did like the premise of the novel and how it was brought about, I enjoyed reading about Remo on death row up until he was recruited and his life changed. I especially liked how his character changed over the course of the novel and found myself wondering how I would act in this situation. The books opening hooks you in from the off, the idea is very exciting and I found myself really wanting to know how the book would progress. It is of course a somewhat unrealistic situation that Remo finds himself in but sometimes I like a book which doesn't take itself too seriously and in fiction especially the opportunity is there to write whatever you like basically, the author can create their own world and have pretty much anything happen. The only budget is their time.

His trainer, Chiun, reminded me almost a little bit of Master Splinter from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the original cartoon not any terrible remakes or films that came after). I very much enjoyed their relationship and would definitely be interested in seeing how it develops over the course of the series. It's crazy thinking how many of them there are but they aren't ridiculously long books so it would be possible to read a couple in a short space of time. 

Before reading I had never heard of this series or indeed the film version of it but I'm very glad to have discovered it and would be interested in reading more of the books in the series in the near future.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.