The Mongol

Rating:
Summary: Casca#22: the Mongol
Review: After spending 10 years in collecting the entire series of Casca books I was very eager to read about The Mongol which was the last but one I collected. Being something of a history nut I knew a fair bit about the history of Genghis Khan and found little in Barry Sadler's story that didn't sound true. I was however a little disappointed in the way the story seemed to tail off and die. It was as though Sadler got a point in the story and thought 'gee, better finish this quick as its getting a bit long'. That aside the story told well the formative part of Genghis' rise to power - I particularly liked Casca's "Conan the Barbarian" role as the chained beast at the beginning. I was a bit puzzled at the character of Qubilai - surely he was Genghis' grandson and never saw Genghis alive? No matter, the story was well written and was typical Sadler, action, adventure and mayhem. Sadler will be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Good historical/action fiction
Review: In this story Casca wanders to the Mongolian plains in the late 1100's to meet up with a young tribesman who will someday be known as Ghengis Kahn, leader of all Mongols. He takes this young kid and teaches him the skills that only someone with over a thousand years of experience could, how to fight, lead men, and wage war.

The Khan character was well developed. I actually did some research on Ghengis Kahn after I got done reading this book and found Sadlers research pretty sound. He did change some of the names of the key historical figures though, but I couldn't figure out what the reason for that was.

It is too bad we can't ask him. I'm sure he'd have a good reason behind it.