Hehe. I've got a suggestion for YOU, Arch. About a decade and a half ago, Barry Sadler (
The Ballad Of The Green Berets) wrote a series of novels before his death, called
The Eternal Mercenary. They dealt with Casca Rufio Longinus, the Roman Legionary who pierced the side of Christ on the cross. For his sin, he was cursed to wander the Earth forever, unable to die, and taking part in wars and battles throughout history.
He fought in the Wermacht in WWII, in the Special Forces in Viet Nam, with the French Foreign Legion at Dien Bien Phu, with the British in the trenches of WWI, shipped as a pirate with Blackbeard, and rode by the side of Genghis Kahn, just to name a few of his adventures. In all of them, we see the events of history unfold through Casca's eyes as he travels the world, waiting for the day of Christ's return, when he can finally know peace again.
He is not shown as some super-powered being, just as a normal Soldier of Fortune, albiet one with a GREAT DEAL of experience.
Check it out sometime. I'm sure a few copies are floating around. I've got the entire series, and I ain't partin'with it!
Hehe. I've got a suggestion for YOU, Arch. About a decade and a half ago, Barry Sadler (The Ballad Of The Green Berets) wrote a series of novels before his death, called The Eternal Mercenary. They dealt with Casca Rufio Longinus, the Roman Legionary who pierced the side of Christ on the cross. For his sin, he was cursed to wander the Earth forever, unable to die, and taking part in wars and battles throughout history. ... Check it out sometime. I'm sure a few copies are floating around. I've got the entire series, and I ain't partin'with it!
Indeed he did. In addition to the 22 Casca/Eternal Mercenary yarns, Barry also wrote 9 other non-Casca novels, one of which I was a fact-checker of for him. He once made the gripe in print regarding the album release of his music [*Now pay attention to this medley of my greatest hit....*] that he didn't even own a copy of his own album. I tracked him down and sent him a copy, we traded mail back-and-forth [I was a newspaper columnist at the time, in those pre-spam days when the internet was for non-comercial use only]as well as Christmas cards up till his death in 1989. He really, REALLY armtwisted me into writing a couple of novels, and I ran a couple of ideas past him. He thought they were great, so maybe one of these days I'll crank 'em out, and decicate one to him.
The Casca series originally had 22 books written by Barry Sadler until he got his head blown off in 1988 in Guatemala - and then it took 18 months for the guy to die. After about 10 years of wranglings a new author - Paul Dengelegi - took up the mantle and wrote 2 sub-standard books.
Now after another brief gap, there are things a-moving in the Casca world and another writer has been set the task of reviving the series. Any Casca trivia and stuff can be found on www.casca.net