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Against All Enemies
The Special Forces and Navy SEALS are sent by the U.S. to the South American country of San Selva to regain the upper hand in an unexpected war that is raging out of control. Original.
400 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 3, 2016
I would've given 3.25 stars is fractional rating would be an option.
This is a interesting approach of an idea based on a local geopolitical conflict turning into a military conflict and where the US like the world's "police-mam" is making an intervention to correct the local situation in an attempt to put in place a fictional small nation with separatist ambitions from it's bigger mother country Brazil.
Again, everything is fictional as far as the story goes, but it is described with a lot of realism and authenticity, especially from a vantage point related with military operations and developments.
There is a well defined plot, a clear evolution of the plot towards the final resolution, even tho' the grand finale may not be as expected by many, considering that the perceived world's greatest superpower is facing a small primitive nation... this in itself creates a significant twist of the plot in a direction that the author wanted to steer us, so he can prove a point... and I have to give him credit for this, as the author did a great job addressing this issue, as this could very well be a real scenario, happening in real life... similar with other conflicts that in fact happened in real life, not long ago in the recent history of the world...
It is however clear the book is written by a military person at the core, as the reader can find in this book a wealth of information, from military history, to arms and weapons description, to tactics and strategy in war maneuvers and much more.
The only thing that left me with a somewhat sour taste is the fact there are some american victims, as expected in a war, so called "war causalities" and in receiving the news about those american causalities, or those falling POW during the conflict, the american society, the american audience finding the news on TV or other media outlets are not only terrified but also outraged, at the fact the local people in fact made an attempt to defend themselves and retaliate for a war that they didn't stared or wanted from the very begging. In other words, like is OK for the US to make a military move and invade a country, but is not OK for the people on that country to defend themselves and retaliate.
The author depicted quite well this sensitive aspect of the conflict, and once again deserves a lot of credit for his attempt to make it very realistic and authentic.
Yet, I couldn't rate it more, as the book is good, but not great by my standards. It is good, because it is interesting and entertaining and captivating, but is not great because of the long descriptions about all the military details we are exposed to, that sometimes can be overwhelming and maybe too much, in the sense much more than a reader would like to encounter in a book where they expect more action and suspense and less detailed descriptions... but maybe it's just me...
However, don't hesitate and give it a try, if you like this type of books, you will like this one too. I have no regrets I've spent my time with this book, even if is not really a great book.
This is a interesting approach of an idea based on a local geopolitical conflict turning into a military conflict and where the US like the world's "police-mam" is making an intervention to correct the local situation in an attempt to put in place a fictional small nation with separatist ambitions from it's bigger mother country Brazil.
Again, everything is fictional as far as the story goes, but it is described with a lot of realism and authenticity, especially from a vantage point related with military operations and developments.
There is a well defined plot, a clear evolution of the plot towards the final resolution, even tho' the grand finale may not be as expected by many, considering that the perceived world's greatest superpower is facing a small primitive nation... this in itself creates a significant twist of the plot in a direction that the author wanted to steer us, so he can prove a point... and I have to give him credit for this, as the author did a great job addressing this issue, as this could very well be a real scenario, happening in real life... similar with other conflicts that in fact happened in real life, not long ago in the recent history of the world...
It is however clear the book is written by a military person at the core, as the reader can find in this book a wealth of information, from military history, to arms and weapons description, to tactics and strategy in war maneuvers and much more.
The only thing that left me with a somewhat sour taste is the fact there are some american victims, as expected in a war, so called "war causalities" and in receiving the news about those american causalities, or those falling POW during the conflict, the american society, the american audience finding the news on TV or other media outlets are not only terrified but also outraged, at the fact the local people in fact made an attempt to defend themselves and retaliate for a war that they didn't stared or wanted from the very begging. In other words, like is OK for the US to make a military move and invade a country, but is not OK for the people on that country to defend themselves and retaliate.
The author depicted quite well this sensitive aspect of the conflict, and once again deserves a lot of credit for his attempt to make it very realistic and authentic.
Yet, I couldn't rate it more, as the book is good, but not great by my standards. It is good, because it is interesting and entertaining and captivating, but is not great because of the long descriptions about all the military details we are exposed to, that sometimes can be overwhelming and maybe too much, in the sense much more than a reader would like to encounter in a book where they expect more action and suspense and less detailed descriptions... but maybe it's just me...
However, don't hesitate and give it a try, if you like this type of books, you will like this one too. I have no regrets I've spent my time with this book, even if is not really a great book.
April 24, 2012
This book is so bad I'm not even going to finish it. The author bio claims that Major Woulfe wrote this book as a Captain commanding a company in a MEU(SOC). I find it appalling that a professional military officer would be so ignorant as to state that an OH-58 is faster than an AH-1 (especially since the USMC Cobra variant, the AH-1W SuperCobra, has dual engines & is consequently even faster than other Cobra models). Part of the problem here may be due to poor (or nonexistent) editing & proofreading, but I wouldn't want to serve with an officer who didn't know the difference between "diffuse" and "defuse". Also, unfortunately, this book is populated almost entirely by the most ridiculous stereotypes- i.e. all military personnel (excepting, of course, the brass) are self-sacrificing Christ figures and all civilians are disloyal, arrogant drug addicts. Writing this bad has a tendency to piss me off, but fortunately there are plenty of competent writers in the Military Fiction genre (Leonard B. Scott, Daniel Bolger, Mark Berent, etc.). Don't waste your time with "Against All Enemies". I'm damned glad I got this book from the free box...
September 2, 2012
Too bad zero stars isn't an option. This book is poorly written: poor characterization, hokey plot. Much of the book reads like the author was giving a lecture using military/bureaucrat jargon (I've read my share of military instruction manuals - the author here must have used them as his model for writing a novel). Other reviewers have pointed out inaccuracies and I'll add a historical one: Roger's Rangers fought for the Crown during the Revolutionary War (though undoubtedly some members of the regiment did fight on the American side). Robert Rogers' Rangers moved to York after the war and eventually amalgamated with the York Regiment becoming the Queen's York Rangers 1st American (a regiment I served with at one time.)
Overall: skip the book, there are much better reads in the current military fiction genre.
Overall: skip the book, there are much better reads in the current military fiction genre.
July 26, 2014
It was OK.
The prose is a idiotic, the plot incoherent, and the writing turgid.The characters are stock, most of the book is exposition instead of action, the premise isn't believable, and given that the real situation is on TV every day, it's easy to see that this book misses the mark.One minor blip in his research had a woman on a destroyer - accurate because there are women on destroyers, but she had the rating of Seaman First Class, something that went by the wayside on April 1, 1948 when the Navy changed a lot of things in the rating structure.
The prose is a idiotic, the plot incoherent, and the writing turgid.The characters are stock, most of the book is exposition instead of action, the premise isn't believable, and given that the real situation is on TV every day, it's easy to see that this book misses the mark.One minor blip in his research had a woman on a destroyer - accurate because there are women on destroyers, but she had the rating of Seaman First Class, something that went by the wayside on April 1, 1948 when the Navy changed a lot of things in the rating structure.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews