Against All Enemies

Just finished reading the latest book by John G. Hemry, Against All Enemies.

I couldn’t tell you why I occasionally find military sci fi to be interesting. Usually, it just not my sort of thing, and it’s not like I have a particularly military temperament myself. I find my interest in the Honor Harrington books nigh on inexplicable, even.

The Hemry books in the “Sinclair” series, of which this is number four, however, I like — perhaps because they aren’t really about the usual vast ships moving towards each other and firing off volleys. Instead, they’re actually legal thrillers, where the legal guy in question happens to be a fairly wet behind the ears lieutenant in the United States Space Navy. He’s ended up dragged into multiple court-martials because he’s been saddled with the duty of legal officer on board his ship, on the grounds that he took a three-week course on space law while at the Naval Academy.

That means that what we have here isn’t an omnicompetent naval officer adept with a blaster, a blade, and interstellar politics. Instead, we have a guy who’s no longer a kid, but who is still figuring out a lot of stuff about his place in the world and how to behave. And indeed, the first three books in the series were compelling precisely because of the depth of the moral dilemmas that Paul Sinclair found himself in.

Alas, this book has no such dilemma. He’s asked to help find who on his ship is committing espionage; he does so, with some qualms but not many; and finally, he has to decide for himself whether the person who was caught is in fact guilty. This makes the book a real let-down compared to the quality of the earlier books in the series. What we want to see is Paul making mistakes, Paul learning, and Paul making tough choices. Alas, we don’t.

I’m still going to keep buying them though, just on the basis of the earlier books in the series. 🙂 If you’re interested, you should check out the first one, A Just Determination, which is a truly superior military courtroom thriller.