The Sky Is Falling

The Destroyer #63

by Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir

One spine line. A few brown spots at the bottom of pages 5-6-7. Printing 1986. Some page tanning. We ship first class mail immediately. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Genres: Fiction, Adventure

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 1981

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

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just when you think Murphy has figured out how to write Destroyer novels again, he gives you a book like The Sky Is Falling. Aside from being tediously long, it just doesn’t catch any of the magic that the regular books in the series do. The main plot is that a corporation has figured out a way to put a short-term hole in the ozone layer and the resulting unfiltered sunlight wrecks just about everything it hits. The Soviets naturally think that this is a weapon the U.S. is preparing to deploy against them while the U.S. is trying to figure out who is messing with the ozone and threatening the planet.

Perhaps the reason this book is so weak is because Remo and Chiun are separated for most of it. Remo is on the trail of the ozone holes—ludicrous because Remo is showing even fewer functioning brain cells than normal—and Chiun is looking for stolen Sinanju treasure. This last storyline should have made this a great book. It’s an idea that is used very well later in the series. But this time, it just falls flat. As for Remo, sometimes Murphy makes it look like he couldn’t find his own two hands.

The single best part of the novel comes after the Soviets manage to get film of Remo killing a bunch of people. They are trying to figure out how he does it and after all of their unarmed combat experts come up blank, they turn to a bunch of their Olympic coaches. After overcoming their horror at seeing people killed right and left, all the coaches become fascinated with Remo’s speed, grace, strength, and timing. It’s just a couple of pages, but it was nice to have Murphy find a new way to show us how capable Remo is.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.5

This one has a different style to it I thought. The story about an ozone destroying day created by a US company was more detailed (and more ‘serious’) in tone than is usually the case in these books.
The overall tone was also less jokey with Chiun and Remo being split up for the main part of the plot and both following their own maguffins.
Not a b as book though and a definite recommendation

[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. Holes are appearing in the ozone and they appear to be man made. The Soviets begin to make claims that it is the U.S. that is at fault. Upon investigation, it turns out to be true. Chemical Concepts has found a way to tap the energy of the sun and 'damn the consequences'. Recommended

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthor particularly good one.