As the school year progresses and the email piles up, the stories become more and more entertaining and funny. This book shines a bright, multi-colored light into the deep, dark recesses (no pun) of the classroom and the emperor and serfs thereof. From the drop-in eye care lady (“I think glasses are SEXY!”) to the drill-down preparation for the dreaded TAKS tests, Pearson carrys the reader through a school year of fun and mayhem. And don’t think there isn’t a climactic finish. I practically blew out an O-ring waiting to see if the students passed the math part of the TAKS test. I won’t give it away here, but the results were quite surprising.

So, if you’re looking for a book that will stick to your fingers and keep you awake until you can finally learn the academic fate of these kids who are so (and some not so) eager to learn from their well-meaning and sometimes misplaced teacher, this is the book for you.

Pick up a copy

I was first introduced to Remo Williams and the Destroyer Series through Marvel Comics. I bought a large-format comic book that said “Destroyer” on the front and featured a wonderful drawing of a man in his mid 30s being crushed against a wall by a large, blue, human-like creature. Immediately I thought that the blue creature-thing was the Destroyer, and I was anxious to start reading a new comic book that wasn’t the mainstay of all other comic fans. Once I got a few pages into the book, I realized that the Destroyer was in fact Remo Williams. A faint, flickering light bulb went on inside my brain. I’d heard the name before. Remo Williams. Oh yeah, there was a cheesy movie made about him in 1985. More of an A-Team sort of story, it showed how Remo was turned into the world’s ultimate assassin.

There have been hundreds of books written about Remo Williams. The story was created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir. Here is the basis:

The United States of America was corrupt. Politicians were buying their way out of scandal and criminal punishment. Law breakers were getting a slap on the wrist for even the most heinous of crimes. Taxpayer dollars were going unaccounted for. The more the President of the United States looked into the corruption, the more he realized that the corruption was all around him, even in his own people. He decided to take action. Known only to him, the President created a super-secret organization known as CURE. There were to be only three members (although the movie had four): Smith, the head of the organization and caretaker of the supercomputers that gathered worldwide information; Chiun, the Korean master assassin; Remo, the strong arm of CURE, student of Chiun.

Remo was then given an ultimatum: Work for CURE or die. He accepted the offer, and Chiun was appointed to train him in the deadliest of martial arts: Sinanju (named after Chiun’s Korean village). The training was to take 15 years, but CURE needed Remo immediately. He was sent on various “jobs” to kill corrupt people and try to bring a small amount of civility back to the great US of A.

The books are actually a fun read. Chiun’s character is priceless in his quips and bigotry — to Chiun, anyone who is not Korean is deemed nothing more than a lower life form. He reluctantly trains Remo, only doing so because his “Emperor” — Smith — is sending huge crates of gold to the poor people of Sinanju. Remo learns quickly and soon becomes the world’s greatest and most deadly martial artist. His senses are keenly developed. His technique is perfect. It is quite an adventure to read.

The books don’t necessarily need to be read in a given order. I started with #64 and didn’t feel lost. Each book gives a short history of Remo and how he came to be; and each book also reveals a little more about Remo’s history than the other books.

On this site, I will give reviews for the Destroyer books I’ve read. Some are better than others; some are just plain horrendous. But together, they are epic adventures that espionage fans will long enjoy.