Book Review: CASCA
The soldier who couldn’t die… no matter how much he wanted to
You may remember Barry Sadler, the famous soldier and author of the popular song; “Ballad of the Green Berets”. I was not aware that he also wrote a fictional novel, and then he wrote 24 more novels before his untimely and mysterious death in 1989. In each of these novels, Casca is Barry Sadler’s observer in a different part of military history - a nifty literary device. My boss was kind enough to loan me the first in the series over Christmas break.
Here’s the setup: Casca Rufio Longinus was the soldier who pierced Jesus’ side with a spear at Golgotha. Jesus cursed him to wander the Earth forever as a soldier, and this first novel is the story of how he became the eternal mercenary. It has some truly horrifying twists, such as when Casca realizes that 1) he cannot die, and 2) as a slave in the copper mines, if he were buried alive as slaves often were, it would be for all eternity. After more than a decade he escapes the mine, but he must forever move on. If anyone learned his secret, they might burn him at the stake for witchcraft, or impale him, or visit any number of other kinds of execution. And while he could not die, he could certainly feel pain.
He makes some very interesting friends, among them Shiu Tze, a Confucian philosopher far from home. There’s a a number of gory battle scenes and one climactic battle with his nemesis in the gladiatorial arena before the emperor Nero. After one especially pointless and bloody battle against the Parthians, he curses the Christian god as a sadist for placing him on the road from which he cannot escape. But when he tries to kill himself by falling on his sword…
Alas, they’re out of print but I’ll be watching the book sales.
Oh, Lordy, I remember reading some of these once upon a time—I recall a samurai Japan installment, among others.
Cool concept, but I found it too hokey to enjoy. But they were good used book store fodder for quite some time.
Posted by *** Dave on 01/10/08 at 09:22 AMI do like the “official Casca website” (http://www.casca.net/), which sports a very trendy 1993 style ...
Posted by *** Dave on 01/10/08 at 09:28 AMOne of these books crossed my path once upon a time. I didn’t spark to it enough to seek out others. (Do people still use that expression?) Weirdly though, my life is full of odd little coincidences that I label “thin reality”. The theory is, that reality is stretched so thin, that it must recycle. In my third bedroom is a folk-art yarn painting, circa 1919. It came from a lake cottage in upstate NY that was bought furnished by my Great Aunt. It shows a masted steamer by the name of “Parthian”. I’ll have to research the Parthians now that I know from whence this came. Thanks, I think?
Posted by breakerslion on 01/10/08 at 09:44 PM
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