You may remember (or not, if you are part of the Blog Tour crowd *waves hello*) that in July I gave you all the lowdown of what I had been reading this summer and also to let you in on the fact that I was taking part in a Blog Tour. Today is the day that I join the tour!
Created, The Destroyer by Warren Murphy is a title that would appeal to me if browsing in a book store. I’d head straight to the action-thriller section and look for the new Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne hero-esque figure that I could follow the adventures over several (or more) releases. However, the Destroyer came BEFORE all of these guys (There are 130 books in the series which will all be released as e-books) AND last month it was announced that there will be a movie based on this series!
Here’s the PR blurb to whet your appetite – it did mine!
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.
Tense I think you’ll agree? The opening chapters introduce us to the main players of this first title in the series. The tension leading up to the “death” is written so well that I breezed through, enjoying Remo’s subsequent confusion as he awakes from his ‘death’, then secret briefing and training from Chiun.
The part where I really found the excitement cranking up though was in the second half of the title when a cat and mouse play occurs between Remo and a character called Felton, all in the hunt for the mysterious Maxwell. What I found interesting about Remo’s character was, unlike other comparable characters (Bourne, Jack Reacher) was that he seems ruthless to the end – even using Felton’s unsuspecting daughter to get closer to him. With other such characters I have found the relationships with potential love interests to have had some personal connection, but in this case I found this not to be the case, and this put me off Remo’s character a touch. But I guess he is called the ‘Destroyer’ so I suppose it’s realistic to expect this!
What I found most interesting about this series is that the titles were originally written over 40 years ago, yet this first title seemed very current and timeless – down to the political setting which could be at any point or location.
Overall, I think the series is different enough from other big-hitters in the market as the political setting is significantly, and I would definitely read more in the series – my appetite has been well and truly whet, which is a good job with the amount of titles in the series that I can work my way through!
I received a free e-book copy of ‘Created: The Destroyer’ from Little, Brown Book Group for the purposes of taking part in the Blog Tour and in exchange for a review blog post.
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