Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Destroyer
There's a paperback series with a large number of volumes called The Destroyer. It was started in the 70s and has to do (to make a long story short) with a cop framed for murder, put through a fake execution and then trained as a secret assassin for the U.S. government. His trainer is Chiun, who is the current Master of Sinanju, the first martial art that was started in Korean a couple of thousand years ago.
It's actually a pretty good series full of humor and cutting remarks about the U.S. and many of its foibles. I just finished episode #30, Mugger's Blood. This was an interesting tale in its take on black America. I googled the title and was a little surprised there wasn't more feedback about it. The story skewers quite directly street and ghetto blacks and New York city.
I think there's something like 115+ volumes. There was a movie sometime ago about this bunch. It was pretty universally panned, but I enjoyed it. Joel Grey actually plays North Korean Chiun and as far as I'm concerned, hits the character spot on. It's not a great movie, but clearly follows the books in spirit. This is one of the few movies where I think having read the books enables you to enjoy the movie more.
Anyway, I'm working my way through the series, up to volume 31 right now and just thought I'd mention it. And there's a faint memory of having written about it before on this blog.
