Customer Reviews

Soldier of Fortune (Casca, No. 8)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was set in the 1970s shortly after Pol Pot and his charming Khmer Rouge cohorts took over Cambodia. Casca is recruited by a Chinese family to rescue trapped members of their family deep in Cambodia's jungle. Hot on his heels is a Colonel intent on securing prestige by capturing the Americans and the story involves the rescuers being one step ahead of the chasers through much of the latter part.
A one-off adventure story, I found some of the dialogue heavy going and the characters close to Casca too predictable and one-dimensional. The pace of the action was familiar Sadler and he felt much more at ease with the description of the environment, and you could clearly see he'd been there.

I found Casca: Soldier of Fortune to be missing the usual suspense and mystery of previous (chronologically) episodes of the immortal character. In large part, the more contemporary setting of the Vietnam era/Indochinese region was too recent in history to provide an adequately romantic vision of life and war. Casca (a.k.a. Casey Romain) plays a less pivotal role with narator time being more equally split among his cohorts in the jungle. It took me over half of the book to really sink into the plot. I couldn't identify with the supporting cast. A short book, such as Barry Sadler composes, does not lend itself to this kind of schism. If you really like modern war stories, this might still be your cup of tea...or coffee. But I much prefer the medieval or ancient adventures of our eternally cursed legionnaire that delve more deeply into his psyche. This work is too divergent from the original feel of Sadler's authorship.

I found Casca: Soldier of Fortune to be missing the usual suspense and mystery of previous (chronologically) episodes of the immortal character. In large part, the more contemporary setting of the Vietnam era/Indochinese region was too recent in history to provide an adequately romantic vision of life and war. Casca (a.k.a. Casey Romain) plays a less pivotal role with narator time being more equally split among his cohorts in the jungle. It took me over half of the book to really sink into the plot. I couldn't identify with the supporting cast. A short book, such as Barry Sadler composes, does not lend itself to this kind of schism. If you really like modern war stories, this might still be your cup of tea...or coffee. But I much prefer the medieval or ancient adventures of our eternally cursed legionnaire that delve more deeply into his psyche. This work is too divergent from the original feel of Sadler's authorship.

I found Casca: Soldier of Fortune to be missing the usual suspense and mystery of previous (chronologically) episodes of the immortal character. In large part, the more contemporary setting of the Vietnam era/Indochinese region was too recent in history to provide an adequately romantic vision of life and war. Casca (a.k.a. Casey Romain) plays a less pivotal role with narator time being more equally split among his cohorts in the jungle. It took me over half of the book to really sink into the plot. I couldn't identify with the supporting cast. A short book, such as Barry Sadler composes, does not lend itself to this kind of schism. If you really like modern war stories, this might still be your cup of tea...or coffee. But I much prefer the medieval or ancient adventures of our eternally cursed legionnaire that delve more deeply into his psyche. This work is too divergent from the original feel of Sadler's authorship.