Casca #26: Johnny Reb

Tony Roberts second Casca novel is an improvement on his first one, and so far better than Paul Denglegi’s The Liberator. I read that one immediately before this novel and it was a relief to get back to something that resembled the original writings of Barry Sadler instead of a tenth-grader’s scribblings. Its like being pulled from the sea near death, and you realize life’s going to carry on. So it is with the series. It will carry on after the near death Denglegi gave it.

The story was smooth and characters great to get into. They had depth, more than the unsympathetic shadows of Liberator. I would criticize the over emphasis on historic detail and for that I’m deducting one star. We don’t want to be lectured to on history, we want to lose ourselves in a story. But apart from that, I enjoyed the story and the way the years had moved on from Halls of Montezuma.

How will the threads of this tale end in the Confederate? I don’t know yet but I’m looking forward to reading about them. This writer is getting the feel for the series and that’s good for the old fans like me.
Rating: 4 / 5

I have read all three books in Tony’s trilogy and am completely at a loss. I can not believe any true Casca fan can give any of these books more than one star. If it were possible “Halls Of Montezuma” and “The Confederate” would receive only a half of a star from me. After trudging through” Halls Of Montezuma” and actually throwing it across the room on many occasions was I finally able to finish it. The grammatical errors and double spacing that occurred on nearly every page was bad enough. But when this author took the liberties with the character of Casca that would make Barry Sadler turn over in his grave I had had enough. Casca is suppose to be the baddest man on earth. At over eighteen hundred years old and fighting in wars that stretched across continents for millenniums he should be able to do more than just punch and knee his opponents in the groin. And there has been very few times when Casca has let his opponents live when given the opportunity to dispatch them, especially when it comes to protecting a woman or a child. But this author continues time and time again to let this happen. I was extremely disappointed in this book but still gave Tony another chance by reading “Johnny Reb” and “The Confederate”. “Johnny Reb” was by far the best of the three which gave me hope that The Confederate” would be even better. It was not to be. Tony reverted back to all of the same mistakes he made with the character of Casca as well as the secondary characters that surrounded him. These insufficiencies are to numerous to list and would take me all night to write this review. The two glaring mistakes that this author made with these books started in ” Johnny Reb” Casca was reunited with General Robert E Lee. The general hired Casca to fight for the Confederacy, Casca would be assigned to a secret unit “J company” that would be attached to the Confederates First Virginia. ” It won’t appear on any muster roll or official record as what I’m doing isn’t strictly permitted. As chief military advisor of the Confederacy I’m not to show favoritism. But I can populate one regiment with the best soldiers I can find, and you’re a soldier I was impressed with in Mexico”. Not only was this unit not populated with the best soldiers he could find, but it was filled with civilians who worked as farmers, carpenters, printers and a law student most of which had to be trained how to fire a weapon properly. Hardly what I would call a unit of the best Soldiers that could be found. But what disturbed me most was the opportunity that completely escaped the author. He lead readers to believe that “the special unit” would be doing special things like a guerilla unit. Hit and run, rob Union supply trains of gold, weapons, food and other supplies. But he didn’t. This unit did no more or less than any other unit did. They fought at nearly every famous engagement of the Civil War. Hardly what would be expected from a secret unit. I am hoping all other authors of this series have a better grasp of what Barry Sadler had in mind when he created the character of Casca.
Rating: 1 / 5

The story of Johnny Reb, set during the formative years of the American Civil War, isn’t the run of the mill tale you’d expect or have even read from this period. Instead it concentrates, to my mind at least, the internal struggle of the man who is immortal having to deal with many different struggles. He’s a man born to war but tired of it. He’s a man who is used to killing but really wants to protect and save people, particularly the family he knows and the runaway teenage boy who worships him.

This is I think a tale of an internal psychological conflict. Perhaps the author is trying to portray this in parallel with the physical conflict going on outside his head as the two sides descend into war. The other issue which is dealt with sensitively is the one as to why a man who is not a supporter of slavery would fight for the confederacy. Too much these days we’re force-fed the propaganda of how the South was merely a slave possessing nation who fought to preserve this. There is a lesson here exposing this as a lie.

This then, is my take on this story. Yes, there is action, and plenty of it. It pulls no punches where men from one nation are thrown at each other. Killing and maiming are described here, but what is clear is the human story, of men fighting for their own nation, not concerned with slavery, but trying to stay alive. Casca naturally cannot die but he has to try to protect the boy, Billy. He also has to deal with a killer in his own unit who hates him standing up to his bullying ways, and also Casca’s woman is stalked by a vicious and mad religious cult.

This story goes deeper than what would appear on the surface and held my interest to the last page. The story does not end there, as it’s clearly set up for part two which I am led to believe is Casca 27, so I shall review that one after reading it over Christmas.
Rating: 5 / 5