“Against All Enemies” by John Gilstrap – Fearing the People

Even though we can all agree that governments are necessary building pillars for modern society to hold on, there is no denying that some of them seem to cause more harm than good in the end, or at least only serve the personal interests of those in charge.

There must always exist a balance of respect and power between the government and the people, each one keeping the other in check as they co-exist. When that balance is upset forces tend to start shifting, metaphorical volcanoes come to a boil, and in the end, someone always fights back.

In Against All Enemies by John Gilstrap, we are introduced once again to Jonathan Grave and his specialized team of hostage rescuers, serving none other but the president of the United States, sworn to uphold the constitution and protect the country from its enemies.
In this outing, Gilstrap sets off on a rather surprising journey as he tries to track down a combat vet and friend who allegedly went rogue, killing three in his blaze of terror so far.

Gilstrap gets closer and closer, eventually stumbling into a vast and horrifying conspiracy, all while a ragtag group of militiamen calling themselves the Patriots Army plans a coup on the government, run by the recently-elected but vilified president Tony Darmond.

If you're already familiar with Gilstrap and his Jonathan Grave novels, then you'll know exactly what to expect: a simple, straightforward action-packed rollercoaster that will syphon a few hours from your life.

The pace is incredibly fast as Gilstrap takes us around the world and has his characters dealing with one explosive situation after another. There is plenty of blood and violence to be found here, though it isn't exactly gratuitous and unnecessary; it's well-spaced out and feels heavy when it needs to.

As far as the story goes, there isn't really anything deep or complex to talk about. For the grand majority of the book Gilstrap seems to follow the main storyline exclusively, and I have to admit that at times, its simplicity did make it a tad predictable and boring.

However, I never really had the time to immerse myself in those bad mindsets as things just happened to move too quickly for that. While we're on the subject of simple things, the characters did suffer a bit for the sake of making this novel as crammed with action as possible. Little development is conducted and some characters feel less important than they ought to be.

Another point which didn't exactly sit well with me was Gilstrap pushing his right-wing politics onto the reader. Now, far be it from me to decide what political orientations are the best (none seem to have brought us everlasting peace and happiness so far), but I think that most people would agree that an action thriller that aims to entertain is far from being the ideal place for a political discourse one way or the other.

Gilstrap can certainly speak his mind (after all, it's his book, isn't it?), but that's certainly not why we're reading Jon Grave novels. There isn't too much of this though, and if you either happen to completely agree with him or are capable of tuning out of such things, then you won't be bothered too much by it.

On the whole, Against All Enemies succeeds at being a fast and furious action thriller that doesn't let up and, despite its shortcomings, accomplishes its goal of entertaining the reader for a few hours, allowing them to get lost in an alternate reality.

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John Gilstrap Personal site John Gilstrap is an American author who spent most of his years as an editor, and later as an “expert on explosives safety and hazardous waste”. His first published novel was Nathan's Run , and it became a tremendous success which led him to published a second novel, At All Costs . In addition, Gilstrap also wrote a few screenplays and is best-known in literary circles for the Jonathan Grave series.