Lords of the Earth

The Destroyer #61

by Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir

Remo and Chium risk their lives to stop an insane millionaire's plot to unleash an army of killer insects

Genres: Fiction, Adventure, Action

254 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 7, 1985

About the author

Warren Murphy was an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.

Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.

His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.

He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.

He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.

Reviews

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Satire" for these books at this point needs to be placed in quotes, as nearly all of the "humor" is making fun of strawmen (e.g., right-wing projections as to what the UN might be like rather than any actual basis in fact to ground the satire).

I feel for Murphy, trapped into writing a 61st adventure for indestructible, impossibly skilled super-assassins; a further problem is that he, Murphy, has run out of funny lines for Chiun to say. There is some entertainment in how extremely weird these stories have become, not just in terms of a villain who identifies with bugs (awfully early for that right-wing chestnut of identity politics), but also suggesting that Remo and Chiun's super-powers come from "cosmic light-wave radiation".

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.5

i liked this entry in the series quite a bit. the writing style felt different compared to the last few titles (or that could just be me). previous entries in the series felt quicker reads, more insubstantial some how that altered the sinanju concept and pushed the stories too much towards sci-fi almost and didn't understand the remo/chiun relationship that well. this overall felt like a return to the better novels in the series.
the plot was a straightforward one as far as this series goes. there was more story time given to Smith this time around which i think elevated the novel as a whole.
overall a definite recommendation

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

#61 in the Destroyer series. Inept radical environmentalists go on a killing spree. Much chaos ensues.

[Christian · Rating 2 out of 5]

A new low when it comes to sexism and racial prejudice in this series. The plot was complete rubbish.
The action took far too long to kick in.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel starts out pretty wobbly but slowly gains its balance as it approaches the middle of the book. The villain is a rich lunatic who is horrified by all the ways in which insects are killed on this planet and has scientists working on the perfect housefly—one that can’t be killed by any poison and whose bite transforms people into unthinking monsters with heightened strength. (It reminded me a little of a potential zombie apocalypse, but people weren’t writing about the zombie apocalypse in 1985 so the novel never actually goes in that direction.) The villain’s plan is to unleash these flies on the world so that humans and other animals can be reduced in numbers and the insects rule as they were intended to. So yes, he’s pretty crazy, and he’s not really a particularly good villain. He’s just too far off the deep end.

There’s also a pretty bad parody of a UN office and of some environmental terrorists—not uncommon occurrences in the Destroyer series. The UN office is more interested in fine lifestyles for their diplomats than in their environmental mission of their agency and the terrorists are two adult children of wealthy Americans who spend a good portion of the book trying to get credit for terrorists acts they committed that Remo and Chiun foil. So once again, there’s nothing here to write home about.

However, there was one part of the story that rescued the book. Harold Smith, the cold and analytical head of CURE, accidentally makes a friend and while the reader knows that no good can come of this, it was nice to see a little emotion in Smith. The friend is emotionally damaged, but not in a nasty way, and he’s really, really, smart—smart enough to figure out a little bit of what Sinanju is all about and even Remo and Chiun gain a little respect for him. It’s just enough to save the novel.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Bakers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Read!

I love interaction between Chinn and Remo. Once I start reading a Destroyer book, it is very hard to put it down. It never fails to entertain !

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the big men's adventure series from the 70's than ran an impressive 145 books. The series while an adventure/action story is also full of satire toward much of the mainstream fads and icons of the time. An interesting main character and the sarcastic mentor makes this a funny action/adventure read. The deaths of several prominent entomologists leads CURE to believe a danger of the country exists. Someone is angry at those who were searching ways to control pests and make crops stronger, needed for feeding the people of the world, and that someone is taking the ultimate vengeance. Recommended

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

The destroyer series is always consistently pretty good but some are better than others. I really enjoyed this one.

[Arlene Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to love Remo Williams!!