Against All Enemies

Against All Enemies (2006) is the fourth SF novel in the JAG in Space series, following Rule of Evidence. In the previous volume, Paul Sinclair finally asked the right questions. Commander Alex Carr took a chance and followed up on his observations. All charges against Lieutenant Jen Shen were dismissed and she was returned to active duty. In this novel, the USS Michaelson is deployed against an illegal annexation of an asteroid by a religious group. The Church of One refuses to leave and threatens the use of force against anyone trying to remove them. A large SWAT team has been sent to remove the squatters. Since the rock is big enough to cause an extinction event on Earth, warships from the United States, Britain, Russia, Northern China, and the South Asian Alliance are watching over the asteroid. The Michaelson has orders to make no provocative actions or statements. In fact, their rules of engagement forbid them to arm their weapons until the ship has been fired upon and hit. The SWAT team begins its attack at 0100 GMT and Sinclair is within the Combat Information Center prior to the move. He even arranges to have his senior CPO on hand, although he cannot pass on the contents of his briefings. As the SWAT team launches, both SASAL ships begin firing on the sky-jacked freighter and the temporary buildings on the asteroids. Captain Hayes, the commanding officer of the ship, takes the Michaelson between the SASAL ship Gilgamesh and the asteroid. Although the SASAL ship continues to fire, it seems to be taking care that it does not hit the Michaelson. Eventually, the Gilgamesh and its sister ship, the Saladin, leave the vicinity of the asteroid. There are only seven survivors among the Church of One group, although some of the children were probably killed by the church members themselves. Although the church members are generally considered to be nuts, the crew of the Michaelson is greatly disturbed by their slaughter. Moreover, several ship officers had the impression that the SASAL ships *knew* that their ROE forbade them to return fire under these conditions. In this story, Sinclair is involved in an investigation of espionage by one of the Michaelson officers. The information passed to the SASAL had included the ship's ROE during the asteroid incident. The NCIS use Sinclair to conduct clandestine interviews with the suspects and to gain access to their computer terminals. Aboard the Michaelson, only Captain Hayes is aware of his involvement. Of course, Paul has to tell Jen some of the story, even though it is against orders; it's hard to withhold information from your own fiancee. Sinclair does little more than act normally -- for him -- during this investigation and eventual courtmartial. Naturally, he is considered somewhat of a loose cannon by many fellow officers. Yet the charged officer sees him as a predictable dupe. By some strange coincidence, Sinclair's brother is the civilian defense attorney for the o

"Against All Enemies" is the fourth book about Space navy officer Paul Sinclair. It may or may not be the last book Hemry writes about him but it is definately the last in which he is the legal officer of the space cruiser USS Michaelson as Paul finishes his three year tour of duty on that ship during the course of the book. The four books are: A Just Determination Burden of Proof Rule of Evidence Against All Enemies. All four follow roughly the same pattern: a) they start with some action and adventure in space, b) something goes seriously wrong, c) one of the participants faces a court martial, d) Paul Sinclair's evidence plays a key role in determining who is guilty or innocent. The suggestion of what a far future space navy may be like appears to me to be interesting and probably as realistic as anyone writing now can hope to get. John Hemry was a naval officer and draws on that experience: in this book which is partly about espionage he used experienced gained when working for the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service from whom he learned in real life about catching those engaged in espionage. I personally found all four books to be interesting and entertaining. Each stands on its own and you do not absolutely have to have read the first three to appreciate "Against All Enemies." Some readers who have read the first three Paul Sinclair books may feel that this is too similar to give them anything new. I don't entirely share this view: for one thing each book introduces some new characters and each time Paul Sinclair has a slightly different role. There is also the ongoing story from book to book of Paul's relationship with his girlfriend, Jen. Although the plot outlines are very similar, until the last two chapters I was in some doubt in most of the books - and more in this fourth book than any of the others - whether the person accused would be convicted. If you are interested in the idea of a "Judge Advocate General in space" my recommendation would be to start with "A Just Determination" and, if you enjoy it, read the rest in sequence.

This book follows the same pattern as the other three books in the series: In the course of his normal job as a space officer, Paul Sinclair gets sucked into a legal issue that requires him to balance his personal misgivings against his desire to do what is right. The most interesting part of this novel is, IMO, the inside of Paul's head as he struggles to figure out just what _is_ the right thing to do. If you like courtroom dramas and science fiction, go out and get all four of the books in this series -- there aren't many books out there that successfully combine the two.

John Hemry has taken a different track with this novel than his previous novels. The moral and ethical problems revolve around responding to conflicting information brought forth in this and in previous Hemry novels. Through out the novel I wanted the author to take different approaches to the issues he was developing, but at the end of this book, I still don't know how I would or if I could take the novel to another resolution. Clearly, I rated this novel more for the philosophical issues raised, developend and then followed to the end of the novel, rather than any action that the author might have chosen to describe.