The Mongol

Casca #22

by Barry Sadler

A slave of the savage Tatars, Casca is a champion in the blood-sports that make his masters rich…a rare prize for those who wager for his skills…and a nightmare for those who face him in a fight where only one survives. Then Casca is stolen by a Mongol rebel – a young outcast among his own people. Only blood and power can quench the burning thirst of his ambition. With Casca at his side, the rebel unites a people and cuts a bloody swath across Asia into Europe. Nations fall beneath an army horde that knows no mercy…

And an empire rises from the slaughter.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adventure

216 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

American author, musician and former green beret.

To the general public he is most known for the hit single "Ballad of the green berets"

After his musical career he decided to write a series of novels centered around the character "Casca Rufio Longinius" Who is cursed for piercing Jesus on the crucifix with a spear and is forced to forever remain a soldier until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

In the mid 1980s Sadler moved to Guatemala City where he was shot in the head one night in a taxi. He spent 7 months in a coma and died more than a year later.

Reviews

[Daniel Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

And so ends the Casca series by the original author Barry Sadler (known best as the composer for the Balled of the Green Beret's song).

This was an incredible journey I began in 2014 when a friend sung the praises of this series and I know I had to delve in.

I cracked open book #1 in June 2017 while working for Kelly Services near Longmont, Colorado at a temp job. I continued with books 11-20 on my kindle while working long hours in the darkness and snow as a construction flagger. Now, married working abroad and with a baby on the way, I have completed (though I will continue reading further books in the series by the new authors) the work that Barry Sadler finished before his untimely death in 1989.

The Eternal Mercenary: Casca Longinus. The toughest, meanest, most skilled bastard to ever wield a blade or a gun. In addition to all that he is under the worst curse imaginable.

Born into the Roman Empire at the dawn of the 1st Century AD, Casca was the Roman soldier who drove his lance into the side of Jesus Christ on Golgotha. With this act, Christ condemns Casca to walk the Earth until His second coming at the end of human history. "Soldier, you are content with what you are, that you shall remain until we meet again."

As if forced immortality were not enough for the world-weary man, Casca must also fight in every single major military conflict across the world stage and in every century of history, witnessing warfare progress in its various stages of evolution from the Roman empire to modern times.

Condemned by living in a physical body that cannot age or die, Casca first tries unsuccessfully to find every way possible of throwing himself into danger and dying in war. When this fails he even attempts to kill himself repeatedly. Yet, every time he tries to commit suicide or sustain wounds that would kill any other man, his body miraculously and rapidly heals itself every single time throughout multiple Millenia. In addition to these horrible trials, Casca is also unable to bear children as his blood somehow becomes impossibly acidic and as a result, he cannot reproduce. He can only have women for a time and then leave them....since he can't bear the emotional pain of seeing them grow old before his eyes.

What I also love about the Casca series is that the setting isn't done in a linear fashion. We don't follow a long story chronologically but instead we are leap-frogging across hundreds and sometimes thousands of years to different moments in Casca's damned eternal life. We see him as a prisoner of Rome, then as a deity of the Aztecs around 250 AD. Then as a soldier of the third Reich in the Russian Campaign of the 1940's and then we are leaping back centuries to Chinese emperors and the fall of Rome...so you get the idea. The fun part is fitting in characters that Casca fought beside previously in one book and then leaping forward 6 or 10 books later to another adventure with the same characters when they are somewhat older.

All lived and experienced by a man who cannot die.

In this final book in the series written by the original author, Casca finds himself recused from slavery by a skilled and intelligent young Mongoloid who is none other than the future emperor Genghis Khan. Casca then tutors the young Temüjin Borjigin in the arts of deception and war on the steps of late-12 century Mongolia. Casca has had encounters with famous historical characters before from Emperor Nero to Niccolò Machiavelli and from Shapur II to Adolf Hitler. Yet never has he encountered a friendship of such intimacy and trust as he shares with this famous figure. Over some 20 years, Casca stays with the young Temüjin as he becomes the most powerful Khan emperor of the largest contiguous empire in all of history.

It's a fitting conclusion to a series when the final moments of the book describe Casca's parting moments from Genghis Khan as friends and the reader can sense the deep respect and emotion felt between these two characters who have enjoyed so many years together but must part ways.

A remarkable ride! Thank you Sgt. Barry. Thank you also for your service to our country.

[John Cheeseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the end of an era for me as I've read all the Casca books and this is the last one he wrote. Luckily it was better than a lot of the previous ones as taught me some history about Ghenkis Khan and the Mongols, as well as their fighting tactics and customs. The action was pretty exciting although it was the tactical and strategic side of Casca that mostly came into play as he was an advisor instead of a fighter for most of it. The Casca series would always be unfinished as it's waiting for Jesus to return which is never going to happen but this was an odd place for the series to end especially as the Ghengis Khan story only stopped half way through his reign and there was a lot of unfinished business.
Tragically Barry Sadler was murdered so we will never know if this was to be concluded or what else Casca had in store for him but I think I'll remember him favourably.

[Phillip Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casca in this mix of historical fiction and fantasy meets a Mongol named Temujin will become Genghis Khan under his tutelage. Temujin advised by a seer seeks out Casca as a source of knowledge and under his advisement reshapes his army and governance using the Roman model. Temujin organizes his army on the Roman ten soldier per unit. creates a book of laws, and adapts early Rome's religious tolerance. I found this hard to believe since a mere Roman soldier would not be concerned with politics. The author painted a vivid picture of the Steppes which drew me into the story to the end.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting tone throughout the book. It almost appears as if Sadler knew this was to be his final entry in the Casca series. Casca meets the man the world will know as Gengis Khan. He refers to Casca as the old young one and unlike most of Casca's other encounters, Gengis knows from the start Casca is special and is able to teach him so he can conquer the steppes.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was somewhat predictable and after reading 21 of the previous books really added nothing to the Casca character.

I'm glad to be finally done with this series.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So you just a soldier doing your job. You shove a spear tip into the side of this supposed messiah, except he is the real thing. He curses you to wander the earth till his return. Not bad right, immortality and all. Oh but he also curses you to be a soldier forever at war, never to know peace. This is the story of Casca the Roman legionnaire that stabbed Christ. Forever wandering the earth fighting one war after another. Great adventure series. Very recommended

[Mark C. Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely the hardest book of the series to read.