If you're not familiar with the series, it follows Casca, the legionnaire who killed Christ as he was dying on the cross. Christ cursed Casca to be as he was until they met again. Sadler wrote a couple of dozen books with Casca fighting as a soldier, usually some sort of grunt, in different time periods. He gets killed occasionally, but always comes back to fight another day, so provides a lot of adventure.I've read all the Casca books written by Sadler when they first came out in published order (Listed here: https://www.goodreads.com/series/5120...)& have re-read some over the years, although it's been a long time. While this was the 4th published, it is the 16th chronologically according to this list:http://www.amazon.com/Barry-Sadler-Ca...Since Sadler died, another dozen have been published. I read one & decided it wasn't for me, but 3 different authors have tried their hand at them, so one of the others might be better. I didn't care too much for many of the later ones that Sadler did, though. I prefer it when the book concentrates more on the history than on how tough/cool Casca is. Sadler did that best with the first & the 20th century ones from WWI up through Vietnam, as I recall. This is possibly the best, IMO.The vast majority of what I know about the German conflict in WWII is from the Allies' side, in Europe, or north Africa. This book has Casca as a Panzer tank commander at the Russian front which made for a very interesting perspective. The sheer amount of material & men involved was staggering, the hardships the men of both sides endured was awful. The view of the common German soldier & people as opposed to the SS fanatics was also interesting. Sadler manages to pack a lot of facts & attitudes in, but keeps the writing lean & quick.Sadler did a good job describing a lot of the horrors of the war, but the editing could have been better. The writing was uneven at times. Sadler's characters are memorable, but sometimes he takes them a bit too far off the reservation & his terse phrases could make timing confusing. For instance, Casca stops for a rest break at noon, there is a descriptive sentence & then it is getting dark at 5pm, all in one paragraph. Generally though, I appreciated his quick style of writing.Pet Peeve Alert: Sadler uses 'decimate' to mean 'halved' at one point. I know the popular definition has changed, but that's no excuse. I HATE it when it is used to mean wipe out, crush, demolish, eradicate, exterminate, extinguish, liquidate, obliterate, abolish, erase, expunge, extirpate, massacre, ruin, &/or slaughter. The root 'deci' means '1/10th of'. English is rich enough in words that there is no need to mangle a perfectly good one that actually defines itself. Overall, I liked it a lot. It's a quick read, fun, & just what I needed since my mind is burned from too many details at work. I think I'll read another.
