Asterix the Legionary: Book. 10 (Asterix (Orion Paperback))

click here for more details, find new or used items	René Goscinny Our price £5.24 (£6.99) New from £1.65 Used from £1.68 Pages: 48 (Paperback) Reading Level: Young Adult ISBN: 0752866214 Pub: Orion Pub date: 2004-06-17 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 56574

Reader Reviews:

Hilarious (1/1 people found this helpful)

Asterix the Legionary is another fantastic book in this series. Asterix and Obelix have to find Tragicomix who has been forcibly recruited into the Roman army. The only way to find him is for our boys to become Roman legionaries. The jokes come thick and fast from the training sessions in Condatum to the Roman camp in Africa. We meet a range of characters (Briton, Egyptian, Goth) all with different querks and you really feel for the Roman centurion and training officer after their experience with the Gauls. This story was partly used for one of the Asterix animated films in combination with Asterix the Gladiator. The result was a film that just didn't feel right. Why they never made an animated feature based just on this story in its own right is bizarre.

Paf! (1/1 people found this helpful)

One of the very best Asterix stories, all the way back from 1967, Asterix The Legionary is strong in every department - a purposeful story, superb drawings, marvellous secondary characters and - since the boys have joined the Roman Legion in their attempt to bring back the boyfriend of Panacea, who has been recruited - there are plenty of Romans to both bash and endless frustrate.

The script and names are wittily translated, as ever, into English and there are good running jokes throughout - one at the expense of a hieroglyphic-speaking Egyptian unwittingly conscripted into the army believing the barracks is a hotel, the other around characters constantly breaking down into tears. Needless to say, the journey gives the boys an opportunity to get reacquainted with their old friends the pirates on the way to Rome and again on the return journey.

One of the weakest or just my least favourite (0/3 people found this helpful)

Sorry, but I was always of the opinion that this wasn't nearly as strong as the best of the adventures. They did range from poor to magnificent, and I just remember this one as simply being far too flat a story to compare with most.

Classic adventure as Asterix joins the Roman Legion (8/8 people found this helpful)

'Asterix the Legionary' is the 10th of 31 adventures published between 1961and 2001; This adventure is from 1967.

Asterix and Obelix join the Roman Legion to track down a fellow Gaul who has been conscripted to fight in Caesar's African campaign. The Gauls make life insufferable for their Centurion and Drill Instructor as they go through recruit training and then on to Africa.

The story of the Gauls' army adventures are quite superb and their fellow volunteers are also wonderfully characterised; Accompanying the Gauls are a Goth, A Greek, a Briton, a Belgian with a Tintin-like haircut and an Egyptian who cannot speak the language and thinks he is on a package holiday (His speech represented by hieroglyphics). There is much to enjoy in this story, drawing on many stereotypes of army life, including army bureaucracy and army cooking. Of course the Gauls immediately impose their relaxed sense of order on the troops. This adventure is so successful because the strong story carries through without being forced or contrived, as in a few of the weaker adventures.

This re-inked and re-coloured edition does not improve on the original edition as the colouring is a little washed-out. Nevertheless, an excellent story; a classic. I would rate it in the top 5 adventures.

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