This twenty-first book in the 'Asterix' series has one of my favourite premises, one which could be described as a prank by Julius Caesar himself. Unusually, we start out in Rome and meet him and other key players in the story before we ever get to a certain little Gaulish village. The first is an alcoholic legionary appropriately named Tremensdelirius, who's about to finish his twenty years of service in the Roman army. Apparently, it's tradition for those being honourably discharged to receive a special payment, known as a "missio nummaria", and sometimes a land grant, which was called a "missio agraria". And that's what Caesar does here.

Except he knows that Tremensdelirius is a lifelong drunkard who hasn't contributed much to the army. In fact, he was locked up the night before for getting absolutely hammered and talking bad about Caesar. Bad move, brother! Word travels fast, of course, and so when Caesar awards plots of land in the colonies to each of the retiring soldiers, he gives him "a little village by the seaside in Armorica". Yes, that "little Gaulish village surrounded by fortified Roman camps." You could write much of the rest of the story yourself from there, except that there's another level of remove yet to be applied.

Tremensdelirius hits the road for Armorica but fails to actually get there. He runs out of money at an inn in Orange and can't pay for his wine. Instead, he trades his village for the food and drink he drank already and maybe a little bit more. And so it's Orthopaedix, that landlord who makes it to the little Gaulish village that he believes is now his to claim, along with his wife Angina and their daughter Influenza, little Zaza. They see from afar that it's inhabited, but that's no problem for a rightful owner. "We'll just tell the villagers to leave, and that will be that!"

You will be shocked, I tell you, shocked to discover that that doesn't work. He presents his deed to Vitalstatistix, who almost dies laughing. However, after pointing out that he's been had, he feels sorry for Orthopaedix, who's put down by his in-laws just like he is. Why couldn't Angina have wed someone successful, like her sister who married Dithyrambix? So he gives the poor man an empty house next to Unhygienix's fishmongery so he can run it as an inn. They don't have one otherwise. By the way, Dithyrambix is probably the deepest dive of a pun in the series thus far, a dithyramb being an enthusiastic speech, named for a frenzied Greek hymn and dance in honour of Dionysus.

So the Gauls have an inn, appropriately named the Bracing Breeze, and Orthopaedix invites them all for opening night. Beer on the house. Unfortunately, Angina and Impedimenta, Vitalstatistix's wife, butt heads and, before you know it, there's a brawl and the place is practically wrecked. Now Angina is even more keen to take ownership and she puts her husband up for election as chief. It'll be a vote in fifteen days and whoever wins is the new chief. Of course, it's not really Vitalstatistix vs. Orthopaedix, because they rather get along. It's Impedimenta vs. Angina and hell hath no fury etc. Between Angina and Influenza schmoozing every villager they can, maybe it won't be as easy a win for Vitalstatistix as he thinks.

In the meantime, Tremensdelirius finally makes it to the village, only to be thrown out again. He seeks help at the nearby Roman camp of Laudanum, where he finds his old buddy Egganlettus is the new optio. He got bored growing lettuce in Nice, so re-enlisted. Now he's optio for Tonsillitus, Laudanum's centurion, who has a barrage of new secret weapons: catapults, battering rams, even a mobile assault tower. And, for certain misunderstood reasons, they believe that the Gauls are all out of magic potion, so ripe for the picking. Guess how well that works out?

While this album isn't particularly surprising, at least after Orthopaedix acquires the deed to the village, I rather like how it played out. On one hand, it's a game of politics, as both sides try to win favour from villagers an election but mostly manage to piss them off enough that they convert to the opposition. On the other hand, the Romans can finally wage real war against the Gauls, who are far too busy politicking to even notice. As always, only Asterix sees the real danger but it does turn out all right in the end, as you always knew it would, with Impedimenta and Angina suddenly becoming best friends.

My favourite moments are when Obelix, who's sweet on Influenza, completely fails to notice that she's trying to seduce him, and when Asterix kicks Tremensdelirius out of the village, first carving a Z on his chest. Of course, that's a reference to 'Zorro', which apparently was majorly popular in Europe at the time, but Influenza thinks it's a Z for Zaza and suddenly falls for Asterix. He's "a hit, a very palpable hit!" to quote Angina quoting Osric in 'Hamlet'. I'm rather fond of the moment in which eight Romans hurtle through the village gate with a battering ram only for it to bounce off Obelix's belly and take them right back out again.

The puns are there, but not in proliferation. Tremensdelirius is a perfect name for a drunkard of a soldier, referring to the very same withdrawal syndrome as my favourite pub in York, the House of the Trembling Madness. Tonsillitis, Eggandlettus and everyone in Orthopaedix's family are good enough, but the legionaries who receive plots of land from Caesar along with Tremensdelirius are frustratingly not given names. Maybe René Goscinny thought Caesar's prank of a present was all that sequence needed.

What that boils down to is that this is a fun enough ride, but it ranks somewhere in the middle of the 'Asterix' series, nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about either. Unless we missed the pirates. I guess that could be a complaint. They are mentioned, when Tremensdelirius lists the jobs he's had since trading the village for wine. He signed on as a pirate, but the ship got sunk. We don't even get to see it, though I'm sure by this point we can all imagine what happened easily enough.

After quickly pointing out that 'Asterix and Caesar's Gift' was the first book to be published as an album first, rather than having an initial serialisation in 'Pilote' magazine, next month's story will be 'Asterix and the Great Crossing' when Asterix and Obelix discover the New World. See you then! ~~ Hal C F Astell

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