This is another rabbit hole that I attribute to McThag: the Casca book series.
I remember the Casca books from when I was a teenager: I never bought any, but I remember seeing them around.
I actually saw a bunch of them (if memory serves, it was eight or nine out of the first dozen) at Half-Price Books a month or so ago. I thought about buying them, but there were a little expensive, and this was during the “not buying anything for myself” time period.
Things I did not know until I read McThag’s post and looked up the books:
- The series is still going on, even though Barry Sadler died in 1989.
- Yes, yes, I know it isn’t uncommon for a series to continue after the death of the author. But this isn’t a “V.C. Andrews®” or “Tom Clancy” situation.
- There are, sort of, 56 books in the series. The first 22 are credited to Barry Sadler, though there’s a suggestion that some of them were ghostwritten. The post-Sadler books are credited to Paul Dengelegi (two after Sadler’s death) and Tony Roberts (up through #56, the most recent book), with two exceptions.
- I said “sort of” above because two of the later books, Immortal Dragon (#29) and The Outlaw (#33) were removed from the series…
- …because they were allegedly plagiarized. Those were both written by someone who is not Paul Dengelegi or Tony Roberts.
- Immortal Dragon specifically was (allegedly) plagiarized from David Morrell’s novelization of Rambo III, which does not strike me as being a smart strategy. Not just ripping off a popular movie novelization, but ripping off a best-selling author who has lawyers, money, and can get people with guns…
- Paul Dengelegi wrote his final Casa book in 2001. In 2004, he published an unauthorized audiobook, “Casca: The Outcast”, which is considered non-canon. The publisher is defunct and the book is apparently no longer available. (I haven’t looked to see if there’s an MP3 download somewhere on the Internet.)
- The first Casca book was published in 1979. That works out to 56 (or 54) books over 43 years, or a little more than one book a year. Not bad.
- Panzer Warrior may be the best of the Casca books. I can’t say, because I haven’t read any. Also, I spent a lot of time reading the Paperback Warrior site last night. I respect the blogger and his scholarship, but his tastes are considerably different than my own, so I am taking that with a grain of salt.
- Casca #50, The Commissar: “Casca joins the Red Army during the Soviet–Ukrainian War, but soon turns on them after learning of their brutality.” That would be the 1917-1921 Ukrainian–Soviet War, to be clear.
- Casca certainly seems to make some questionable life choices: fighting for the Nazis, participating in Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, the 7th Cavalry Regiment pre-Little Bighorn, the Red Army…
I may have to go back to Half-Price and see if they still have those Casca books.