Soldier of Gideon

Casca #20

by Barry Sadler

Casca returns to the Middle East in the 20th century, signed on to fight a religious war. He expects a slaughter, but how could he know that he has joined a devastatingly efficient army? For what begins as a massacre ends six days later in victory! Original.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Military Fiction, Adventure

Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

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

[John Cheeseman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this Casca book a lot more than some of the recent ones as it was based on a real war that I didnt know a lot about.
The Isreali 6 day war is something I've heard of but didnt really know the details of who was involved, who participated and what it was about. Obviously not everything in the book is based on reality but I think the main forces, equiptment, protaganists, battles and tactics used were genuine as I looked them up on Wikipedia afterwards and Barry Sadler made them into an enjoyable story.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slightly more entertaining entry in a mediocre series.

I've pretty much checked out on this series after the last few books, even though the Samurai book was a slight improvement. But, I'm committed to finishing the original series of 22 books. That said, this book was a bigger improvement on the last and is one of the better ones of this series.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a pretty good story. The details of the war astound me. I take issue with one cover, though. It shows a sensual woman with a jeweled headdress of some sort. I suppose the woman is probably Salome, whose name comes up once or twice. Otherwise, there is pretty much no reason to have a woman on the cover. There is one woman with lines in this entire book, and she's the one who signs up Casca.

[Mark C. Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Loved the action, the great descriptions of battle, and horrors of war. Plus, it shed more insight on Casca's plight. Wish they were all like this one!

[Phillip Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casca returns to the holy land as a mercenary in the service of Israel in the Yom Kippur war to find that his curse is not yet ended. There was action in this book and the characters fought bravely to defend Israel and seize the West Bank from Jordan. Casca as usual makes observations as an outsider who just fights for his pay only. Men die and move up the chain of command like Casca with tank battles and the opposition Arabs having no will to fight back. It surprises me that the Arab world had not the courage or leadership to be an effective opposition. Another thing is how mercenaries were employed in this war when Israeli soldiers were more than capable of winning.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casca involves himself in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

[Paul Capuano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good stuff

Good stuff excellent reading love the series. Wish there were more in the aeries. Very easy to read well done

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must have listened to the abridged version, other than one element of a type of clue of Casca past and possible future, it was all fighting and battle description.

[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

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, quick, entertaining read.