Review: Asterix and Caesar's Gift

-
Asterix and Caesar's Gift Asterix and Caesar's Gift by René Goscinny
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It is time for the soldiers of Rome, who have served her well, and completed 20 years in service, to be honorably discharged, with plots of land corresponding to their service. On this occasion, Caeser himself decides to grant a special gift to the Legionary Tremensdelirious, who had in a drunk disorderly rank insulted the dictator.

He was given a fertile patch of land, right next to the sea, with lush vegetation and chances of good business prospect. A plot of land, which unfortunately happens to be the same village of superpowered Gaul which Rome has been trying to conquer for a while. A land which Caesar has no stake in, and has no business giving away to someone. That precisely being the point.

Through another night of drinking, Tremensdelirious pawns away the marble plaque with Caesar's edict and the deed of land ownership, to the hapless innkeeper 'Orthopaedix', who unbeknownst to the reality on ground, travels to Armorica to inherit their new plot of land.

One has to wonder what chance a poor innkeeper has when entire roman legions have failed. There is the point, and this leads to a bunch of potion less chaotic shenanigans, as Orthopaedix inadvertently finds himself campaigning for position of chief against Vitalstatistix. The roman soldiers, are also mixed in there somewhere, their ultimate fate to be the poor punching bags to the Gauls.

Not much satirical humor for this iteration, as the jokes are mostly focused on the hijinks that the chief election kicks up. But a fun ride nonetheless, and I give it a cautious 4 out of 5

Lean pickings for puns this chapter around

Tremensdelirious
Egganlettus
Influenza
Orthopaedix



View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Asterix and Obelix All at Sea

-
Image
Asterix and Obelix All at Sea by Albert Uderzo My rating: 3 of 5 stars I've noticed a dip in quality, be it regarding the biting humor, satire or puns in the past few Asterix stories, glaring as it was in Asterix and the Secret Weapon . As before, the story lacks a clear direction, mixing and matching elements such as a slave revolt aboard Caesar's ship with the discovery of the mythical Atlantis. These elements just don't seem to mesh well. Taken separately, 'Asterix & the slave revolt' & 'Asterix in Atlantis' could have been great standalone stories in its own right. Especially when you consider how topically the mythical island is described in the story. It lacked the satirical core, which made the initial Asterix stories entertaining. Anyway, onwards to the plot. There is a slave revolt aboard Caesar's flagship; The Greek Spartakis, has freed a band of multiethnic slaves and are currently fleeing from the
Read more

Review: ഓട്ടോറിക്ഷക്കാരൻ്റെ ഭാര്യ | Autorikshawkkarante Bharya

-
Image
ഓട്ടോറിക്ഷക്കാരൻ്റെ ഭാര്യ | Autorikshawkkarante Bharya by M. Mukundan My rating: 3 of 5 stars In a series of short stories, M. Mukundan, the eminent writer of Mayyazhi, paints for us the day to day, slice of life fictionalized tales of the people in everyday lives. The tales he composed range from OK, to good, to head scratching, to thought inducing, a full cornucopia. But sad to say, there isn’t much meat to these stories, a collected anthology from the stories he’d penned in various news publications. Mukundan himself seems the most soulful and engaging, when delving into the semi fictional tales that he crafts about his beloved Mayyazhi; with its colorful history and ever more colorful coterie of characters. Out of all the collections of stories which are printed here, the one which connected with me the most, is the one titled ‘Malayali Daivangal’ (Malayali Gods). The tale is about a French tourist couple that come to visit Mayyazhi and Kerala
Read more