Remo Williams, the human superweapon, is hired by the White House to smash an oriental conspiracy that might lead to a US-Red China confrontation!

I don’t know why it took two guys to write this book, but I can imagine their brainstorming process: 1) Richard Sapir offers a handful of characters and Murphy selects the least appealing; 2) Murphy suggests some action sequences, and Sapir chooses the most ridiculous; 3) the co-authors continue feeding off each other like this throughout the writing process, and in the end, out comes this book, Episode #3 in a garbage series I’ll never read again.

First some plot points before I briefly explain why I only made it to Chapter 11. While the backstory for this third installment was a bit muddied, I gathered that CURE is a cut-throat agency secretly contracted by the US President to work outside the Constitutional laws in order to protect the American government from corruption, dictatorship, and implosion. On call at all hours, this agency is ready to send its personnel into the most dangerous situations and to quell any threats to our democracy. Remo Williams is their most deadly weapon, an assassin without morals, antsy to do anything to accomplish his task.

Honestly, it’s a thought-proving concept, the backstory being not dissimilar to Robert Ludlum’s Bourne Identity series. Williams is a Vietnam vet falsely accused of a crime, and (while he retains his memory, unlike Jason Bourne), his death is faked, his identity is wiped, and he’s trained in the most lethal arts—including ninja warfare from an old Korean guy. I’ll get to him.

In this story, a Chinese general goes missing just prior to the Chinese Premier’s visit to the US, and his young, Communist-youth wife comes to the States in search of him. With a 1972 publication date, I can only imagine that the Premier is Mao himself and the President is supposed to be Richard Nixon. Those were interesting times indeed, though much more expertly handled as fiction by John Ehrlichman in The China Card (1986).

So what irked me about this book? A number of things, though two vie for top prize: the Korean Ninja Master and the outrageously uncalled for “sex” scene.

First the Ninja. So here’s an older Korean guy with wispy white beard and mountaintop wisdom whose ninja skills defy gravity (and other natural laws) who’s both master and father-figure to Remo Williams. Like a spiritual guru, he says things like this:

One always retains the last few foolishnesses of childhood. To retain all of them is sickness. To understand them is wisdom. To abandon all of them is death. They are our first seeds of joy, and one must always have plants to water. (19)

He’s like Mr. Miagi and Yoda all rolled into one ancient Korean wrap…but then he meets this 22-year-old Chinese girl and suddenly turns into the whiniest infant whose inconceivably racist tirades made me want to throw the book across the room. I held on, though…at least for a few more chapters. At least until the…

Rape?! By the “hero” of the story? Because he wants to save America from Chinese influence? I couldn’t believe it. This crime wasn’t implied or glossed over or anything. The authors enjoyed writing this scene, and that’s about when I finally tossed it. Another one bites the dustbin.

I had to rack my brain to recall which other book from the 60s had a similar element in it, and I think it Ian Fleming’s The Spy Who Loved Me (1962), in which the female character says that famously ridiculous line, “Every woman loves semi-rape.” Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (1985) also included it, and I just can’t fathom why.

It’s not just my faith—I know Romans 1 and the depths of human depravity. Sin is to be expected. But heroic rape? Pulling pages from Russian/Japanese war-crime history and monopolizing off it in print? As a human being, I cannot wrap my head around it (and hopefully this will be the last time I ever try). Was that type of dominance seriously such an attractant for male readers of the 70s? Is it still that way today? Is living vicariously through a violent, sex-criminal anti-hero really how people want to wile away their hours?

I guess this is one big reason why Clive Cussler‘s heroes appealed to me so much back in the day (though admittedly I’ve outgrown them). These brawny spy-type men might have had loose morals occasionally, but never were they guilty of rape or outright murder (unless it was the villain at the end of the book following a life-or-death battle). Their exploits were honorable. They rescued and protected women. They fought corruption yet without turning to corruption themselves. They were true heroes of fiction, so why would anyone waste their time on a character like this?

This book was pure trash and I’m sorry to have wasted my time. Hopefully I’ve helped someone else from wasting theirs. If you’re looking for real adventure, check out any of the spy-thriller series by Joel C. Rosenburg. Definitely worth your time…and as a bonus, you needn’t worry that you’re corrupting your soul by reading it!

©2022 E.T.