Review: Oil Slick by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

Destroyer 16 Oil Slick by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

The thing that stood out most strongly to me in this novel was that I liked the nominal villain. He’s a colonel who has managed a successful coup in his fictional country, driving out a hereditary monarch, and is now trying to make life better for his people. Unfortunately, the oil companies, the industrialized nations, and even his own subordinates and people appear determined to frustrate him at every point. So nothing is changing despite his honest efforts to provide good government. As if that isn’t bad enough, he has also unintentionally run afoul of Sinanju. It seems that there is an ancient legend that Sinanju would protect the latest descendent of the ousted monarchy, and Chiun, is determined to uphold Sinanju’s end of the bargain. But even that is not the real problem, because Chiun’s original student, Nuihc, also knows the legend and is determined to use it to destroy Remo and Chiun.

 

This novel has all the usual satirical fun of the Destroyer series, plus plenty of action, and a very interesting conflict over who will be reigning master of Sinanju. I liked it a lot.