Customer Reviews

The Warrior (Casca, No. 17)

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Casca is portrayed in this novel seeking the Second Coming and, hearing of new gods being worshipped in the Pacific Islands, leaves the railroad gangs of post-Civil War America and ends up on one island seeking Jesus. Of course he doesn't find him and instead becomes embroiled in the politics of the community, bedding a series of nubile girls and ascending the social ladder until he ends up as one of the most important persons in the village.

There are cannibal feasts and a couple of skirmishes but overall this is not a particularly gripping book. One problem is that the subject matter isn't eye-catching. Books written about Rome or World War II or the Mongol Hordes of Genghis Khan, for example, immediately grab the reader's attention, but a book on Polynesian island life? Not really. There is an interesting mention towards the beginning that Casca fought on the Confederate side in the US Civil War and this prompted the writing of Casca 26: Johnny Reb which came out in October 2007, but generally speaking this novel was flat, tepid and weak.

Here is where the cover artwork started making Casca looking like Fabio in romance novels. Great artwork, but bad rendition when others were so spot-on.

Anyway, this was a interesting, albeit sometimes dull, novel. Casca is shipwrecked on an island of cannibals. Fighting and surviving like a savage, (I love this kind've stuff!), was the good part of the story. But it just didn't have that ebb and flow that it should've. Like Barry was running out of time and/or gas.

The most memorable part is when Casca has to eat a fried penis of his slain enemy. It is an insult to the cannibal chieftan if not done, believed to instill the slain warrior's strength into one's soul if consumed. The details still stick to me this very day, 14 years later.

Not the best of Sadler's books. OK but slow starting and never really picks up.